Not every band gets to enjoy instant success, and for English rockers Sports Team, not only did they receive that explosive success, but they’re enjoying it better than any band has before. After they leaped into the modern rock pantheon with their 2020 debut album, Deep Down Happy, which garnered critical acclaim across the board and was nominated for the prestigious Mercury Prize that same year. They followed it up with stellar, guitar-driven Gulp! In 2022, it skyrocketed to the number three on the U.K. charts.
With heaps of potential, an ever-growing fanbase, and the rock world watching them, Sports Team sets their sights on their third record, and the pressure seems to be rolling off their shoulders. Boys These Days arrives on May 23, and the ten-track outing is brimming with the type of experimentation that separated Sports Team from their peers since their debut. This isn’t an album of forced lofty visions brought on by tireless touring and outside pressures. It’s a deep dive into the band’s perception of the noise they’re causing in the scene and the world at large. Lyrically, the band toils over the modern world and aims at the technology we rely heavily on. Boys These Days finds the band at their freest with loose guitar riffs and danceable melodies colliding for a groovy, unforgettable testament to Sports Team’s growth.
Glide had the pleasure of speaking with drummer Al Greenwood about Boys These Days, how the band has grown since their debut, and what to expect from Sports Team’s live shows. You can read our whole conversation below as we anxiously await the official release of Sports Team’s most ambitious and daring album yet.
Since your debut, you guys have garnered critical and commercial acclaim. What has it been like navigating all the public noise while creating Boys These Days?
Obviously, a lot changed from album one to two. We navigated a lot in that period of time. It brought in more trust and the ability to explore what we wanted to do sonically. We got in the studio, this time with a new producer (Matias Tellez), and his approach is a lot more studio-level. We didn’t have to start with just guitars and drums; we could be more exploratory and ambitious. Matias Tellez is super ambitious and brilliant. He did a lot of the Girl in Red stuff. Working with him enabled us to approach it from a far more expansive place.
Has the band always worked in big studios like the one you recorded Boys These Days in?
We’ve always recorded in studios, but this was the first time with Tellez, so it was slightly different. We recorded the whole thing in a one-month period in Norway, which was helpful and really enabled us to immerse ourselves in the project. We spent time writing before we got in the studio. Rob Knaggs writes all the stuff. He wrote over an extended period, and the band will get together and work those ideas up a bit; that’s the usual process.
Lyrically, the album beautifully follows the concept you guys laid out. Was there a moment that sparked the concept of Boys These Days?
I wish that were a car we owned. We got to sit in it for the video shoot, but no one in the band owns it. The car felt symbolic of that aspiration. There’s this car game called Colin McRae Rally that was knocking around when we were younger, and it always felt dream-like—that ultimate level of excitement around this Subaru Impreza.
We’re only a few days away from the release of Boys These Days. Since this is the band’s third release, what emotions are being stirred up now that people are finally hearing it?
It’s always slightly odd. We finished the album a year ago, last January, actually, and in many ways, you already feel like you’ve gone through all the motions. You’ve spent so long agonizing over different mixes and everything else, and then you come back to it. It’s almost surreal to be doing it now, but it’s all really exciting. Just hearing the reaction from fans already since we’ve been touring with the music, that’s when it starts to hit home and feel real.
How many songs were recorded for Boys These Days? Was there a whittling down process to land on the tracklist?
I think there are a bunch of songs created for the albums, and everyone has their baby that gets butchered in the recording process. There are songs we recorded for the album that I hope get put on a future project, but that’s just always the creative process. “Condensation,” for example, we actually tried to get that song done for years. We went into the studio on two separate occasions and tried to get it in a way that we were all happy with, but just couldn’t wrestle it into place. That’s just always the way with these albums.
Do you guys try to foster a particular environment in the studio?
I think it’s a delicate art that you can’t really pin down. I think it’s important that everyone feels comfortable and free in a way. A lot of that came simply and easily because Bergen is one of the most beautiful cities I’ve been lucky enough to visit, let alone spend a month in. We spent loads of time in the mountains and hiking. Also, Matias Tellez is one of the most upbeat, positive, energetic, breath-of-fresh-air kind of people who we got to spend time with. It was easy to cultivate an atmosphere.
Did you guys have Tellez in mind to produce Boys These Days?
We really loved the work he’s been doing over the past few years. We were aware of his work, and Norway has a really interesting music scene; it’s sort of a secret. Rob had a session with Tellez while he was working on “I’m in Love (Subaru),” and it really worked. We all loved the song that came out of it. From there, we decided to work with him.,
So when Rob is writing, is he coming with fully formed demos, or just lyrics that you guys build around?
It depends on the song. He lives down in Margate with the rest of the band, so they kind of workshop a lot together. Depending on the track, he tends to get pretty flushed-out demos, and then they change a bit once we get in the studio setting.
Where does the title Boys These Days come from, and what was it like sequencing the tracklist?
The title is just one of the songs on the album. Initially, it wasn’t necessarily pinned down to be the title of the album, but as we got into it and the themes emerged, there was a lot of political commentary through the themes and characters, using characterizations of voices through the lyrics to draw out critique and comments on what we perceive. It’s kind of ironic and timely that we ended up using the title Boys These Days. I’m not sure if it’s carried over in the States, but in the U.K., this crisis of masculinity has become very much in the public consciousness and a direct issue that people are concerned with. It’s referencing that, but also clearly works on multiple levels in terms of questioning what it means, not just from a gender perspective, but also “boys” referencing groups and the world we see around us.
The album is lyrically cohesive, but you guys musically bounce around. What inspired the diversity in this tracklist? Are you guys listening to other music during the recording process?
There are always influences that seep in. Consistently, Rob would say his OG influences have always been Pavement and that sort of thing. Boys These Days moves more into a Bryan Ferry and EXTC world, and some of that energetic guitar music with bombast.
Since the album is so diverse, what was it like to select the singles?
We’re very much involved in that process, but it’s a tricky process. Sometimes, it’s obvious, like “I’m in Love (Subaru)” was always going to be a single, but some of the other ones, it’s a bit more of a negotiation. For example, “Maybe When We’re Thirty” was a song we started playing on tour, and we found the crowd reaction was really positive to that song, so it became a bit of a no-brainer for that one to be a single.
So you guys have already added these songs to your setlist?
We haven’t played it in full, but we did a run on the backend of last year, a few shows in America, and then a few shows as a supporting act for Supergrass. Next week, we go on the road properly. We’re doing a promo run of record stores in the U.K., so it’ll be exciting to hear the album in earnest.
Has there been a song off Boys These Days that has been your favorite to perform?
I really enjoy “Maybe When We’re Thirty.” I think it’s different from the rest of our music and offers a euphoric moment at the end. There’s also a song on the album called “Planned Obsolescence” that I really like. It’s one of those subtle earworms.
Speaking of live shows, and you mentioned how much you loved recording in Bergen. Has any other city you’ve toured struck you in a similar way?
We’ve been so lucky to get to visit a lot of incredible places through touring and playing music. Norway is up there, and we got to see so much of America because of touring. We went to Portland for the first time last year, which was stunning, but also places you end up visiting if it weren’t for the band. We had a very memorable night at DD’s Double Shots in Tulsa, and you met the most fantastic people you never would’ve met. I’ve got friends who talk about going to the States, and they obviously go to New York and San Francisco. Don’t get me wrong, those are fantastic cities, but in terms of really getting to experience a different side of the country and meeting the most incredible and diverse people, that is one of the best things about being in a band.
Going back to the experimentation on the album, will that translate over to the live shows?
We’ve experimented a bit with the live show already. We’ve got a saxophonist on some of our bigger dates last year, and we’re going to see how things pan out. It doesn’t feel like anything about the live show is set. We’ve always been focused on ensuring that the live shows are a real experience for all of our fans and anyone who comes to a show. When we’re writing music, it’s written with the live show in mind to some extent, creating an experience and building a world around what we’re doing as a band. It’s more than just a video on TikTok; it’s about buying into us as a group, and the live show is a really important part of that. We’ll see how it all develops as we go on the road. That’s another reason why it’s so exciting to have the music out in the world this week. You start to see what is connecting with the fans, which’ll shape how a set is structured.
That can be interesting, actually. For example, one of our songs really picked up a lot of attention in Canada, so you end up with favorite tracks in different geographies. If you have a song that everyone loses their minds to and the mosh pits are jumping, that inevitably becomes a more exciting moment in the set.
You mention TikTok, which has become a driving force in that masculinity issue you mentioned earlier. Since that influences the album so much, is there a balancing act between being on your phone for the LP and realizing you’re just being distracted by it?
The reality of being a musician today is that you can’t avoid being on your phone; it’s a core element of marketing. Sadly, there is no ability to stay off phones whatsoever. As well, it can be fun. We’ve made this mini documentary series with our mate Chris. It documented the studio process, so we acknowledge how necessary the phone is for being a modern musician.
What was the process like picking out the album artwork? Did you guys have to sift through a few options?
That was done by Rob and our keyboardist, Ben Mack. Most albums we’ve pitched have artwork we’ve made on our own. Deep Down Happy was a product of that. It was nice to have this trust from the label. For our last album (2022’s Gulp!), there was a painting Ben had done that we all wanted to use, and eventually, the label insisted on something else. It was nice, this time around, to be able to commit to the thing we wanted. We all liked the aesthetic and thought it could carry across much of the campaign nicely.
You mentioned how different regions catch on to different songs. Have you guys released a song that you were shocked the fans picked up on? Are there any of those on Boys These Days?
You always notice slightly different tracks that resonate in different places. Often, that comes down to radio, and we see a massive impact from playlists, particularly college radio in the States. One of our songs got played on a video game out in Canada. There’s a song on our second album called “The Drop” that really picked up in Canada. Hopefully, with this album, “I’m in Love (Subaru)” will resonate quite nicely, but we already know one of the songs on the album has been picked by another video game in Canada. It breathes new life into a song that might not have gotten too much recognition.
We used to play a lot of video games growing up, particularly FIFA Street and NBA Street. I knew songs I grew to love solely through playing those games.
