Local indie rockers The Publics talk influences, community and Splendour Festival

You’re due for a huge slot at this year’s Splendour, playing the main stage on Sunday. How are you all feeling about it?

I think if you’d asked us a year or so ago we’d have said nervous, but now we’re just excited. I mean, we found out forever ago that we’d got the main stage slot, so we’ve just been counting down and now we’re only a month away. It’s the biggest stage in the city, so there’s not much more we can do after this one. It’s been a big bucket list slot, so we’re super excited.

Are there any acts that you are looking forward to seeing there? 

The question we always get at gigs is: “Who do you sound like? Who are your inspirations?” and the Kaiser Chiefs always come up. So, to be on the same bill - never mind the same stage - is just ridiculous. We’re as excited to watch them from the sidelines as we are to play. I’m hoping we can meet them. Kaiser Chiefs, that’s the answer.

You had a pretty big 2024, with the release of your debut EP and a sold-out Rescue Rooms headline show. You’re set up for an even bigger 2025 with two new singles already out and a November headline tour planned. How are you feeling about 2025?

Two years ago when we started, we set out a plan and that ended with Rescue Rooms - so to get there and sell it out after the EP, that was amazing. At the start of the year we had to start again, write a new roadmap, so we’re now in the first year of the next phase. 

We announced the tour and Mansfield sold out in, I think, three days. It’s the first time we’ve ever played in our hometown as a headline show and to have that go so quickly, it gives us confidence. It’s the scariest thing when you play a show, always thinking ‘Is anyone going to actually turn up?’ So, to have one so close to home go so quickly, again we’re confident, we’re excited. Now the nerves are starting to fade and every time we release a song, it’s just, “Right, where’s this going to take us to next?’ I’m hoping Splendour’s the catalyst, and the EP last year has already done quite good things for the Spotify numbers.

Tell us more about the Mansfield headline show, how did it come about?

The reason is we don’t like to do stuff twice. People are saying, “What’s your plan after Rescue Rooms, will you play it again?” To me, that’s a bit boring and from an audience point of view they’ve already seen it. So, the plan this year was instead of doing Nottingham, let's do a hometown show, where there isn’t normally much live music and do something there. Hopefully, all being well, we’ll then come back to Nottingham next year.

How do you write songs? Is it more one person or do you come together as a band? 

More recently it’s been a bit more collaborative. Originally - and this is what everyone finds really weird about us - I’m terrible at singing, but I write the words. Josh (Porter, lead vocalist and guitar) doesn’t write words because he’s terrible at it, but writes all the guitar parts. So, we basically write back to front! But it kind of gives us an approval process, so that nothing bad gets through the cracks. 

A lot of bands say that they write thirty songs and then pick the best five whereas for us, if a song is not going to be good, or it doesn’t go anywhere, we only push stuff together that we are happy with. It’s a weird process but it works for us, so we stick with it.

You also have an interesting band dynamic of two front men. What’s that like?

This is a weird one as well! On paper it is Josh, but we all come from a background of team sports, and we don’t like us having one particular voice when you’ve got the characters that we have (in the band). So, we’ve just decided more recently that instead of trying to do what everyone else does, let’s just do what we do well. 

You mentioned the Kaiser Chiefs - what are some other inspirations for you, as a band?

We find that people always say that the best songs are the ones that are relatable… but we realised very quickly that we are not relatable people! So, if we try to write songs like Catfish and The Bottlemen or The Courteeners, it just wouldn’t work. Then it’s a case of how can we tell stories about other people but make it fun, or so that people can relate to it. 

Songwriting wise, the songs fall into one of those two categories. DB Cooper is just a fun song, about a guy nicking some money and we’ve made it up into this story. Then you’ve got songs like Cutthroat where it’s nothing to do with us, but it comes across as a personal story. So, it’s just how we push it down one of those two lanes and if it doesn’t fit, it doesn’t go anywhere.

You’re a band who have strong community values and want to give back, including a giveaway raising money for Music for Mansfield. Why’s that cause particularly important to you?

Lots of us have worked closely with kids in the past, and some of us still do now, so we’ve seen that it’s hard to get into music. We wanted change and I know we aren’t big enough to do that but we’re going to start. We’ve raised so far about £350, and that's going on new instruments for schools in Mansfield. At the Mansfield headline show, we’re going to do a raffle, put in some favours and sponsors, and get as much money as we possibly can to give people some instruments. 

It’s been fun but hard - we need the money ourselves, but we know it’s going somewhere good. The nice round circle is that we’re playing Splendour and if this is the start of us getting someone else on that journey, even if just one person picks a guitar up and goes “I want to do what they’ve done” - then that's a win to us.

The Publics play the Splendour Main Stage on Sunday 20 July and will be touring the UK this November.

thepublics.co.uk