All White Now - White Lies Interview

Although throwing television sets out of hotel room windows is a rock ‘n’ roll cliché that few acts partake in nowadays, London post-punk band White Lies could perhaps have been forgiven for defenestrating a few flatscreens on their current tour. After all, the album they’re promoting is called Big TV.

However, they didn’t succumb to such silliness. “No TVs have been destroyed, unfortunately,” laughs drummer Jack Lawrence-Brown. “A few dressing rooms, maybe! We played with Kings Of Leon in Swansea a few weeks ago, and our dressing room as the support act was this little box, but I was in their room and they had this massive TV with an Xbox set up and it was really luxurious. We were quite jealous. But some promoters made sure that we had big flatscreens in our dressing rooms.”
White Lies have been on the road for well over a year, having toured Big TV all around the world. Their Indiependence show will be one of the last gigs, with Jack maintaining that their set is about as tight and well-honed as could be. “We’re coming to the end of the tour for this record now,” he explains. “So we’re nailing the shows to the best of our ability. It always takes a few months before you start to really get into the swing of things, but now we’re very confident with everything we’re doing onstage.”
Do they prefer festival shows?
“Well, it all depends, really,” he says. “But I will say that it’s quite fun picking the set list for festival gigs. You haven’t got as much time to play as you often would, which some would argue is a good thing. So it’s quite nice to put together a list of songs which you know are gonna go down really well. You don’t feel like there’s any padding. You feel like you can really go for it.”
White Lies intend to get started on their fourth album as soon as possible. “The current plan is to get this summer of festivals finished and then start afresh. We want to sign off on it before we get going on. So we’ll finish around September and then start afresh on new material. But it’s not gonna be a massive wait because, while we loved touring the world with this album, we’re now all quite keen to get cracking on in the studio again.”

White Lies play Indiependence on Saturday August 2