ShareDan Haggis, drummer with the English indie rock band, The Wombats, chats with Kevin Cooper about working with new producer John Congleton, the last song that made him cry, the release of their latest album Oh! The Ocean and their forthcoming 2025 tour of the UK.
Dan Haggis is the drummer with the English indie rock band, The Wombats, who were formed in Liverpool in 2003.
The Wombats released several EP’s before releasing their debut album A Guide To Love, Loss & Desperation in 2007. This was followed by The Modern Glitch in 2011, Glitterbug in 2015 and Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life three years later. Their fifth album Fix Yourself, Not The World was released in 2022 and was their first number one album, topping the UK Albums Chart within a week of its release.
In 2008 they were nominated for the Best New Band award at the NME Awards. At the same time they won the Best Dance Floor Filler for Let’s Dance To Joy Division. They have been nominated for several other awards including Best Album for A Guide To Love, Loss & Desperation.
Whilst busy rehearsing for their forthcoming tour, Dan Haggis took some time out to have a chat with Kevin Cooper and this is what he had to say.
Dan good afternoon, how are you?
Hi Kevin I’m fine thanks mate but more to the point how are you doing?
All is good thanks for asking, and before we move on let me thank you for taking the time to speak to me today.
Cool, it’s a pleasure.
And just how is life treating you at this moment in time?
At the moment life is pretty hectic (laughter). We recently released out latest album, Oh! The Ocean. It was actually released on Valentine’s Day, but please don’t read anything into that (laughter).
Correct me if I am wrong but hasn’t the album been recorded for a while now?
(Laughter) just who have you been talking to? (laughter). Yes, you are absolutely correct; we actually recorded the album last summer, and then you have this slow burner where you are mixing, mastering, and making music videos. There is all that stuff dotted around then all of a sudden in the last couple of weeks leading up to the release we have been rehearsing loads because we have never actually played most of the songs on the album live. So, as you can imagine it is all systems go (laughter). We have just had a listening party at the Sea Life place down in London so as you can no doubt imagine there is a lot of spinning plates at the moment (laughter).
We must talk about the album so I have to ask you, where does the title come from?
It was just after we had finished recording the album, Murph (Matthew Murphy) went to the beach in Los Angeles and I think that he had had a particularly crazy morning at home so he just sat there and had felt that he was right in the present moment and he could see what was in front of him very clearly. I think that before then, you can often sit on a beach but there is so much chaos going on in your own mind and all around you that you don’t really have a moment to properly look at the thing that is in front of you. Obviously, you suddenly realise ‘wow, that ocean there stretchers on for thousands and thousands of miles’ including the unknown parts of it.
You realise the wonder that nature can give you, and if you are actually there to notice it that felt like a pretty good analogy really for the album together with the mental state that we can find ourselves in whenever we are anxious or depressed or trying to escape from the now, or whatever your vice is. So, it felt like it summed up the album pretty well, Oh! The Ocean like ‘shit, its right there in front of me’ (laughter). It made us realise that we all need to be a little more mindful in life and maybe our existence will be a little easier.
Well I have to tell you that I have been playing the album now for a few days and I think that it is a great piece of work.
You have actually listened to it?
I have, many times now.
That’s great. There aren’t many people who have heard it so it’s great to hear that you like it, thanks for that.
My favourite track at the moment is Swerve (101) I think that it’s brilliant.
Nice one. I was just practicing that one today actually; I was playing along to it on the drums. We all love all of the songs but that one is most definitely a grower.
So I can take it that you are all happy with the album?
Yes we are, we are really happy. It was a case of whittling down which songs to record from fifty or so.
And I understand that you bought a new producer on board?
Yes, we did, that’s right. It was a bit tricky beforehand but once we got into the studio with John (Congleton) who as you correctly point out, was a new producer who we had never worked with as The Wombats before, it was so refreshing and great to work with him to be honest. Me and Tord (Øverland Knudsen) have a side project called Sunship Balloon and it was John who actually mixed our first EP and our first album and ever since then we were like, ‘oh it would be so great to get to work with him again’ and his name popped up for this Wombats album, and obviously because we knew that he was amazing we were like, ‘oh my God that would be so cool’ (laughter).
So it really was great to get back into the studio with him. His whole outlook on recording and his ethos around music in general was really refreshing for us. I personally think that John bought out a totally different side to the band. After this many years of making music it really is great to have that sense of renewal, freshness and new excitement that goes with working with a new person for the first time. We are all super happy with how the album turned out.
Would you say that Oh! The Ocean is your best work to date?
(Laughter) I think that inevitably I would imagine if you looked at interviews around each album that we have ever made we would most probably say “yes, it is” (laughter). Whatever your latest thing that you have created as a musician and as an artist whatever it is that you have made, you kind of get the most excited about that and everything else just disappears in your mind. You get so hyper focused on this one thing so I guess that the easy answer will be yes (laughter). However, the slightly more longwinded answer would be who knows. It feels great at this moment and we are really excited to have captured what we did in Los Angeles during those six weeks in the summer of last year. To be totally honest with you, I always feel that every album that we make which I am involved in is a little sonic photograph of that time and it can only just be a good thing. It always feels like there is something fond to look back on with them and I certainly have lots of fond memories about making this album.
Perhaps I should come back in five years time and ask you the same question again (laughter).
(Laughter) exactly. It does feel like it’s a really good album, and I am really happy with how it turned out. It has got such a lovely feel to it. From the bands perspective it feels as though it floats along in a really lovely way.
Do you have a favourite track on the album?
I actually currently fluctuate between a few; The World’s Not Out To Get Me, I Am, I really love that one. Reality Is A Wild Ride I love the way that grows towards the end of the song. I get goose bumps every time it gets into that second half of the last chorus. I just absolutely love that. Blood On The Hospital Floor is, for me as a drummer, is just so much fun to play. It is proper upbeat like punk; it’s like going to the gym that one for me. It’s the same as that adrenalin rush that you get when you have been on the treadmill for ten minutes; it’s like that sort of feeling. So, in answer to your question, there are too many for me to pick from, sorry.
Are you enjoying being back out on the road?
Yes I am, very much so. We haven’t really played a lot of these songs before so we now have a nice mix of excitement, finally getting to play them in front of people. I love seeing the people’s reactions to the new songs. There is also the trepidation of are we going to manage to get through the song or are we going to totally fuck up (laughter). However, for me, it is mainly excitement to be totally honest with you (laughter). This is our first full arena tour really, and it really does feel like a milestone, which our career has been building towards. And we are really excited to be able to bring the new songs into arenas around the UK.
How many of the new songs have made it onto the current set list?
To be honest with you we are currently playing between six and eight of the new songs but that all depends upon just how long a set we have got. Some of them are 45 minutes whilst others are an hour. But I think that it will stay at between six and eight of the new songs. We obviously want to play a bunch of the songs from the previous albums. So when we get between an hour and 30 to an hour and 45 minutes, we most probably won’t be able to fit anymore than seven into the set. That’s what usually happens but we will see. I personally feel that seven would be a good balance.
On Tuesday 18th March you kickoff the UK leg of the tour here in Nottingham at the Motorpoint Arena.
Yes we do and I have to tell you that we are all so very excited.
What can we expect?
What can you expect (laughter). There is going to be a new stage design that we the band haven’t even seen as yet. Our lighting girl is concocting it as we speak. We keep getting small glimpses of it and we are like, ‘wow that looks cool’ (laughter). So that is going to be fun for us to see because Nottingham will be the very first time that we have ever seen it (laughter). With regards to the songs, there is going to be a chunk of the new album for people to hear, together with a best of from our last five albums. It will just be one big long party and a celebration of life.
You formed the band back in 2003, and here you are some 22 years later. What would you put the bands longevity down to?
I think that us keeping the same three people together for all of this time without any changes really does feel like a family unit, which really does help us get through the great moments together with the difficult moments. Also, all three of us just love making music, getting in a room together and pressing record on what we have written, getting up there on stage and touring the world. I think that we are lucky in that respect because the three of us really do love doing that. Obviously, every time that we put an album out, we cross our fingers and hope that the Gods of music smile down lovingly upon us and so far we have been lucky that they have.
If music hadn’t worked out for you, what do you think that you would have been doing?
Wow, where did that come from (laughter). If making a living from actually being in a band hadn’t worked out then I couldn’t have seen myself not writing and recording and perhaps maybe teaching a bit. I feel that music would have been involved in some way. Apart from that, maybe working for a charity or something.
What was the first record that you bought?
That was Reckless by Bryan Adams. And I have to be honest with you and tell you that it was on cassette (laughter). I bought it second hand back in 1991 from a record shop on Bold Street in Liverpool. I had just seen the movie Robin Hood Prince Of Thieves and it was like, ‘oh I quite like that Bryan Adams song’ and I just saw Bryan Adams so I bought that album.
Who did you first see performing live?
That would have been The Rankin Family and Mary Black, who played Irish folk stuff. The Rankin Family are Canadian but they sing in that Gaelic Irish tradition. They really were absolutely amazing. They played at The Philharmonic Hall here in Liverpool. My mum’s side of the family are from Ireland so that was always playing at home. So, I have very fond memories of that. They were the most amazing musicians, beautiful harmonies, and I ended up standing up and dancing in the aisles and stuff (laughter). It really was such a lovely occasion. It definitely got me thinking, ‘I want to be involved in this in some way’ (laughter).
What was the last song or piece of music that made you cry?
I would have to go back to when my Grandma died. I drank a lot of whiskey, on my own, and I listened to a bunch of songs that she loved, and I eventually found myself listening to Rufus Wainwright. There is a song Dinner At Eight and that song always gets me. Plus the fact that my Grandma had just died, that song is all about Rufus and his dad; it’s about a family moment. It was great because that song combined with the whiskey really did help to unleash the tears which had stubbornly refused to come out of my eyes. So, thanks for that Rufus.
On that note Dan, let me once again thank you for taking the time, it’s been great. Good luck with the tour and I will see you here in Nottingham.
Thank you Kevin, I will see you when we get to Nottingham. Thanks a lot mate.
