For over a decade, Band of Skulls’ blend of blues and garage rock has pervaded venues near and far. The Southampton trio has not only toured the world, but its music has also been featured across numerous mediums, including TV shows, video games, and film soundtracks.

 Last year, the band found itself somewhere new—holed up in a local Baptist church. After workshopping new material and revamping their sound, a solid dozen tracks emerged. Produced and mixed by Gil Norton (Pixies, Foo Fighters, Twin Atlantic), Band of Skulls’ fourth album, By Default, has enough energy to power a locomotive. The group’s new tunes may very well be their best and are undoubtedly their most accessible to date. Highlights include “So Good,” “Little Mama,” and “Killer.” The tracks are brimming with grainy riffs, pounding drums, and ever-sultry vocals. We spoke with drummer Matt Hayward to learn more about how exactly the trio’s new record came to fruition.

Given that you’ve been a band for a little while now, and you know each other’s strengths and weaknesses, has your songwriting process changed at all?

It was a little different this time. Since releasing our first record, we’ve been working pretty non-stop. We toured the first record, finished the tour, and then went right back into the studio to make the next one and then did the same for the second and then again for the third record. 

This time we took a breather and stopped for a second and then wrote this new one. It was good and it was familiar, but it felt like a fresh start in a way, almost like a new band putting together its first record. It was exciting. We wrote the record back in our hometown of Southampton and it was like it was before we started touring around and doing this as a full-time thing.

In a press statement, you described the band’s first three records as a trilogy. Do you consider By Default to be something separate?

Yeah, a little bit. I’m not trying to make it sound like a Star Wars type thing, but I felt like there was a certain era those three records were in. Normally, we’d start a new record with everything left over from the previous record. This time it was a completely clean slate. We went away and didn’t see each other for a while, came back, and everybody threw in the ideas they had. It feels like a fresh start for us.

Years ago, I remember you saying that you don’t like to listen to new music when you’re writing because you don’t want it to accidentally influence you. Do you still feel that way?

It’s not a rule, but it definitely seems like there’s a bit of a lockdown for us once you get into a headspace. You don’t want to be too heavily influenced by something even subconsciously. It has to be quite a pure thing that you throw into the writing process that has nothing to do with what you’re hearing today or what’s around you at the moment. It needs to come from a pretty personal spot, so I guess it might be a little different for the rest of the members, but I don’t want to hear much else—just what we’re working on.

That makes sense. What was it like working with producer Gil Norton on the new album? Was it anything like working with producers Ian Davenport and Nick Launay in the past or was it completely different?

Completely different. It’s amazing to work with someone like Gil. All the people we’ve worked with we’ve been massive fans of and have respected. We met Gil in London and we hit it off immediately. We’d talk about the songs and he seemed to understand what we were doing, so within a week or two of meeting Gil we were in the studio making the record. It was a very seamless, quick process. And it’s funny with Gil because in the back of your mind you remember these records you’ve grown up listening to that he did. He’s fantastic to work with. It was a completely different way than we’ve worked before. And he is a bit of a taskmaster—he runs you through it. He’s a wonderful man and an incredible artist himself and we were definitely incredibly privileged to have worked with him.

That’s awesome. I really enjoyed your drumming on the new record, especially on the song “Little Mama.” Do you ever find yourself tired of certain fills or playing certain patterns that you’ve played so many times before?

Yeah. I wouldn’t call myself the most avid record collector or music fan but drumming is something that I’ve always loved. As a kid, I’d watch drummers and study them and let that influence what comes out. Especially for this record, it’s almost like you quietly kind of take on this persona of your favorite drummer of the time and something obscure from what we normally do and watch what the other people do and you take a little bit from them and try to apply that to your makeup as a drummer. I think something like “Little Mama” is a groove thing, you know, you’re there to sort of move the song along. Funny enough, that song was never considered a single or anything, but from playing it live—which we just started to do—it’s the most fluid and pleasing song to play at the moment.

There’s definitely something to it. So when it came time to record the new album, did you record it in a church or just rehearse there?

We wrote the songs in the church in our hometown. We always look to try and find different places to surround ourselves in. We found this church and they were willing to rent us out the main hall. It was perfect. No one knew we were doing it there and it really dictated the sound of the record because churches are designed to project voices, so the sound in the room was pretty magical. We put a drum kit in there and it sounded amazing. The room dictated the way we came up with ideas. It was really great. Then we went to record it in Rockfield [Studios] in Wales. Half of the battle was to recreate some of the sounds that we had in the church. It’s a personal record, to be honest. It sounds like our home.

That’s really nice. Speaking of the church, it’s used as the cover art. In the past, you’ve used artsy, mirrored, and manipulated album covers. This is the first time the cover isn’t a painting, glass blown sculpture, or inkblot waveform. What was the reason behind that?

We felt for this record it was very much a new process and it was quite a nice feeling to take a snapshot of the place where all of it was dreamt up. It felt like the right thing to do. I think we could’ve carried on that earlier theme but it felt like those three records are a gang and this was a new beginning in many ways.