The Lathums on songwriting with parents - plus watch their live session

Virgin Radio

13 Aug 2021, 12:38

The Wigan band joined the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky to talk about how they met, navigating their way through lockdown, and writing songs with one of their mums. They also played an amazing live session.

When explaining how the band got together, vocalist Alex told Gaby Roslin and Sam Pinkham, who are in for Chris, “Johnny and Ryan, bass and drums, they knew each other from being little whippersnappers, but we all met in a music college in 2017. The first year was kind of like a ‘getting to know each other’ phase, where we were just kinda having fun.”

When Sam asked Alex how the lads had coped with being in lockdown, considering that it accounted for almost half the time they’ve been together, the frontman replied, “It’s quite a weird thing for a band to do what they do through lockdown, but we’ve made it work, we’ve gained loads more fans, and we’ve done fun things through lockdown, so it’s been a blessing in disguise almost.”

During their exclusive live session for Virgin Radio, the four-piece performed their brand new single, I’ll Get By, which was released on Wednesday, and the title-track from their upcoming album, How Beautiful Life Can Be.

Alex told Sam and Gaby that the single How Beautiful Life Can Be came about with a little help from his mum. He said that he was, “just chatting with my mum about how the world was at the moment. It wasn’t a very nice place for anybody.” 

He explained that the song is about, “trying to make a bit of light out of it, and have a new thing to look forward to when we come out of this dreaded year, or couple of years.”

Expanding further on how he came to create a song with his mum, Alex said, “We were just talking through it, and just kind of put our heads together.”

He joked, “She writes them all. She just sends them to me and I just sing them!”

The four-piece’s live set also included a cracking cover of Squeeze’s Up The Junction, which is a cautionary tale of doomed romance and poverty in South London.

Following last year’s vinyl-only EP compilation, The Memories We Make, and the live album from their set at the Sefton Park pilot event in May, The Lathums will drop their first full-length studio album, How Beautiful Life Can Be, on September 24th. 

The band’s UK tour starts in Birmingham on September 30th and ends in Edinburgh on December 7th. This week, they played a show at London’s Omeara. Alex said, “It was brilliant. The crowd was just insane from start to finish. A lovely way to get back [after] 18 months!”

For information on The Lathums' upcoming album and tour, visit thelathums.com.

For more great interviews listen to The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky, weekdays from 6:30am on Virgin Radio, or catch up on-demand here.