Sports Team: Deep Down Happy
Sports Team have been on an incomparable journey over the last few years. Having gone from sleeping on floors of friends’ houses to playing sell-out shows up and down the country, the self-admittedly ‘slightly shambolic’ six-piece have garnered an unrivalled reputation for their unconventional live performances and provocative interviews.
The controversial quotes often uttered in interviews by enigmatic frontman, Alex Rice, habitually leads to a swathe of Vice journalists calling for his head on Twitter. Not that it discourages him or his band-mates – Matt Healy the latest butt of a joke we can all get on board with.
It’s this observational nature, however, that translates into the bands lyrics; usually penned by guitarist and chief-songwriter, Rob Knaggs. Their latest single ‘Here’s The Thing’ is littered with zealous statements often expressed by the older generation, “And if you’re barely getting by, then that’s your fault,” sings Rice in the second verse, before reminding us “it’s all just lies, lies, lies, lies.”
Whilst the record is outwardly observational, it wasn’t intentionally written as such. “We didn’t consciously write it that way, it sort of evolved from how we were feeling at the time” he says. That particular time referenced was the heated general election campaign of last Winter, when many young creatives felt increasingly disenfranchised. “The general election was happening and we noticed the tendency towards only having a valid point of view if you made a statement in this absolutist way, with such assurance of truth,” he says, before adding: “I suppose it’s condemning both sides and if you like, is encouraging people to speak with more certainty.”
The single was accompanied by a video featuring some of the best cheerleaders in the country, who Rice was more than able to keep up with given his onstage exploits – though there were some daring moments we all missed out on. “They came well-rehearsed and really didn’t care for the health and safety element – I asked to go to the top of the pyramid and they happily obliged,” he says, before jokingly retorting: “We couldn’t actually show it on screen, but it worked really well.”
The single is the first of many to be filtered out ahead of the full album release this Summer; it’s also the first Sports Team record to feature Knaggs on backing vocals, and Rice declares there are plenty more surprises in-store. “There’s a couple, we really wanted the album to feel like us as a gang, the way we do things in the house demo-ing. It’s always slightly shambolic.” However it is this chaotic nature that fuels the bands creativity, they all take turns on different instruments and aren’t constrained to any particular way of working. “I don’t think anyone feels tethered to the way we do things,” he begins. “We’re all just kind of, whoever is about we’ll just lay a bass track down and then ask everyone else – what do you think?”
This combative attitude towards recording translated in to the studio. The band’s unorthodox nature meant they didn’t hibernate away in the Welsh mountains for months like most artists, almost accidentally opting to record amidst their extensive touring schedule. “Coincidentally we didn’t record in a big chunk like a lot of bands would. We played something like 150 dates last year and a lot of it was at the back end of the year,” he opens, before adding: “It was a lot of going into the studio shattered, doing the tracks and then going off to Holland or wherever afterwards; I think you can hear that in the record. It also charts the journey from sleeping on rehearsal room floors to living together in Camberwell.”
The latter part of that journey was recently completed, as they moved in to their new home the day they finished the record. It marked the culmination of the first chapter on their inevitable rise to indie stardom, though the growing fame hasn’t given Rice or his band-mates tunnel vision, there is always time to reflect – especially on the album. “Deep Down Happy is sort of questioning – are we enjoying living together as a band?,” He asks. “Are we living the dream now we are all back together? It speaks to the feeling a lot of people our age get in their early twenties, getting to London after growing up in towns and thinking is this it? Is this success?” Rice says that the ‘Deep Down Happy’ message is to question whether we’ve found true happiness. “Have we found this alternative version for living, being on tour together? Or is it just young professional hell?” he says laughing. “Has Al got her overnight oats in the fridge?”
It’s living together that has brought Sports Team even closer, if that is even possible? For a band who’s aesthetic relies so much on their internal dynamic, they wouldn’t have it any other way. “It definitely helps a lot. If you’ve got six mates and you’re down the pub bored digging your heels, I think you come up with a lot of ideas,” he ponders. “A lot of creativity comes from being in a mundane environment with not much money a lot of the time.”
Despite the lack of physical resources they are never hindered; the DIY ethos that the band embody is built-in to everything they do. Whether that is playing at the Kentish Town Forum to thousands or organising an impromptu gig at their local. Although a lot of the time, it’s only to wind each other up. “It came from me and Rob being in the pub hammered,” jokes Rice. “Oli was getting on to us about cleaning, so to really piss him off we decided to announce on the socials that we were going to do a gig in our living room. He got angry, and that’s the pay-off for us. It’s all born out of the internal dynamic – it’s all just to entertain ourselves.”
It wasn’t just themselves they entertained the following night; fans from all over the country crammed into Camberwell’s Nags Head pub to catch the band they adoringly follow play a set of new songs, just feet apart from them. Despite their standing, it’s this niche attitude towards playing unusual spaces that has fuelled their constantly growing status. “We’ll play anywhere really,” Rice says nonchalantly. “We’ve always come from a place where we like to stay humble. We started out playing pubs to a load of mates and a lot of them didn’t necessarily want to see a guitar band.”
Rice believes the lack of upward trajectory for guitar bands in an industry more concerned for pop artists and streaming figures has challenged his band to make something a little more out of their shows. “Guitar music isn’t a nation-sweeping genre – guitar bands certainly aren’t playing Wembley,” he says, before adding: We’ve always wanted to make it more of an event, not just six lads on-stage. So you stick on an afterparty and get it in a venue people actually want to go to – put a performance on and get some weird support acts, it shouldn’t just be a gig.”
This philosophy has been synonymous with the band since they were playing in the union. Their raucous shows and emerging reputation has led Island Records to make them the first guitar band the label has signed in over five years. “They have no idea how to break a guitar band,” begins Rice, adding: “Nobody does, has anyone broke a guitar band in the last ten years?”
The label themselves like the organic traction that the band are picking up; Rice jokes that they received some money because the label love how ‘weird and culty’ the band and its followers are becoming, before remarking: “They basically said have some cash and keep what you’re doing. It’s meant we’ve been able to do all the things we want to do and people find us entertaining; so we’re spending the money for them in a way.”
Since signing with Island, Rice says they’ve accepted their ‘bosses’ in to the Sports Team family with open arms. With label execs joining them on many a night out and for tea at their Camberwell home. “It’s great, they all come out with us – they are mates and they actually care a lot,” he says. “You hear a lot of sob stories about majors, but it’s usually from acts who have been dropped.”
Whilst there is an over abundance of musical talent out there whose time at a major label may not have gone so swimmingly; Rice says his bands experience couldn’t be more dissimilar from those horror stories. “People always say how it’s so horrendous and how much they’ll change you – we’ve had none of that”. News of a new guitar band signing was celebrated at Island Records, with a line of people wanting to work with the band. “Everyone gets into labels to work with guitar bands. Nobody wants to churn out same-y material from pop acts,” he claims. “Everyone’s been really excited and wanting to work with us – it’s great!”
Whilst it would be easy to get wrapped up in all the glory and acclaim, Rice and his band remain grounded enough to be thankful of the situation they’re in. “We’ve got a really unusual experience for being with a major. They’re on the 6 A.M. nights out with us and then not clocking in for work; I don’t think others have got that – we’ve been lucky.”
Sports Team’s Debut Album ‘Deep Down Happy’ is released June 19th.