Nothing But Thieves on their Irish date: “Everyone’s always up for it. We like a drink, I feel like the Irish like a drink as well. That always helps. You generally sound better when you’ve had a few drinks”

Dublin is humming with the buzz of live music again. It’s been a while since the city was arrested by anticipation for the next big gig but we need wait no longer. With a sell out show at the 3Olympia theatre and a whole host of new songs to play, Nothing But Thieves drummed up plenty of excitement with their arrival in Ireland.

In 2020 they dropped Moral Panic — a politically charged record rooted in the Essex group’s hard rock sound with a hip-hop influence. NBT supplemented the LP with a brand new EP called Moral Panic II in July this year. It’s been a while since the rockers were in Ireland but they arrived in Dublin ready to put on a show.

Before the show, Dom Craik and Joe Langridge-Brown of Nothing But Thieves sat down with Hot Press to discuss their gig at the 3Olympia Theatre.

Tucked away in the Clarence Hotel on Wellington Quay, Nothing But Thieves are relaxing before the show. Dom Craik is already in the hotel lobby, wearing a Tame Impala t-shirt and waiting for fellow guitarist Joe Langridge-Brown to join him. The musician grabs a quick coffee before Joe arrives wearing a green flannel shirt and blue jeans.

The pair are excited for their headline show at the 3Olympia Theatre after their previous visit to Ireland’s capital. “Last time we played here was the last show of the Broken Machine tour so it was a big party for us,” says Dom.

“It’s got to live up to a good gig tonight, so I’m looking forward to that,” says Joe.

“And the crowd’s always pretty crazy,” adds Dom with a wry grin. “Everyone’s always up for it. We like a drink — I feel like the Irish like a drink as well. That always helps. You generally sound better when you’ve had a few drinks.”

Joe was out for a couple in Temple Bar last night after the band played Belfast. It turns out the songwriter’s drink of choice is the black stuff when he’s in Ireland. He also thinks it’s the only place worth getting it.

“It just is better. I hate being that wanker. Like ‘aww it’s much better in Dublin but it actually is,’” Joe says with genuine passion. “I never drink it outside of Dublin,” he adds.

Moral Panic was noted for its political commentary and the keen eye it threw on modern society — especially social media. Moral Panic II came about by ways of a happy accident. As the group wrote for the next record, they noticed the songs were in the same vein as Moral Panic; the five-piece realised they weren’t finished with what they had to say.

Moral Panic II doubles down not only on the heavy subject matter — but on the dark and dissonant sound curated on the album. The group seemed to uncover a new level of negativity surrounding the issues facing the world now.

“Moral Panic is fairly pessimistic in general,” says Joe before Dom chimes in:

“There is a step further than that,” he says with a laugh.

“‘Ce n’est Rien’ is particularly pessimistic,” Joe remarks about the penultimate track on the EP. “I think sound-wise we probably were filling in some holes that we thought Moral Panic had.”

“We just didn’t have the time. It was kind of a weird situation where you can add to a project later on. Now it feels more rounded out and I’m happy with the whole thing,” he adds.

“The sound is slightly different but it isn’t too distant so it felt holistic in a way,” explains Dom. “We had to record it but couldn’t go anywhere. We had to find a residential studio to lock ourselves in and we worked with Rich Costey instead of Mike Crossey who did Moral Panic. That’s where some of the sound change comes from.”

It seems almost cruel that after lengthy stints locked up inside due to the pandemic that the group once again found themselves trapped indoors — albeit this time of their own free will. Despite the restricted aspect of the recording process, NBT enjoyed it and were able to create freely. The laissez-faire nature of the creative process was facilitated by their label, RCA.

“We’re lucky that we don’t suffer label pressure,” Dom remarks. “There's a reason we’ve been with RCA for so long; it’s because they trust us and we trust them.”

“I love that because we have conversations with other bands and friends of ours who don’t have that and it sounds tough, stressful and it probably does have a detrimental effect on the music.”

Despite enjoying bringing their musical ideas to life and adding to the Moral Panic project, the pair are relishing being back on the road after a lengthy lay off.

“We’re just happy to be out of the house, we’ve been stuck in doors like the rest of the world,” Dom says. “When you see a room full of people it makes you feel like, ‘fucking hell this is what we live to do’.”

The pandemic derailed the quintet as it did everyone and Dom explains how unusual it was to be rehearsing together again after having very little contact:

“We timed our year off miserably basically. It would've been over two years since we’d played. We were all looking at each other in rehearsal thinking ‘how do we do this?’ It was actually very alien, but a few days into it we hit our stride.”

The group are building momentum upon the release of Moral Panic II after a difficult period. In 2020 the group readdressed sexual assault allegations made against them on Twitter in 2017. The group wrote on Twitter at the time that they “100% deny” the allegations.

The charges were reportedly brought to the police and subsequently dropped due to “false allegations.” In a statement on Twitter last year the band said.

“Several posts detailed or implied the involvement of those who were underage of consent at the time of the alleged interactions. We want to make it clear that this is entirely false.”

NBT recognised that a “misuse of the balance of power may have occurred” between them and their fans. They added that this “was not something we were aware of as a young band.”

“We want to make clear that we have long grown from this and will continue to do so in the future,” the statement concluded.

Following the claims being dropped due to “false allegations,” the band are ready to grow from the experience:

“It’s obviously not nice to go through but you know the truth,” says Dom on the topic. “You just keep going.”

“Those types of things should be a moment of reflection,” Joe points out. “You’re an absolute psychopath if you don’t question yourself in those moments. People should be questioning these things but in a certain way.”

Nothing But Thieves won’t be slowing down following their two Ireland dates. Dom and Joe have an eye on 2022 and all of the exciting things they have lined up including a US tour, the remainder of their European tour and then they’re into festival season.

But for now, the focus is solely on the 3Olympia Theatre, the “crazy” Irish fans and maybe even a few pints of plain after the gig. But the group’s connection to Ireland goes deeper than the cream atop a fresh pint of Guinness. A certain Irish band called Thin Lizzy are amongst some of Dom’s influences.

“When I went to secondary school it was a bit of a School of Rock moment. I used to play classical guitar and Phil [NBT’s bassist] was like ‘put down the classical,’ gave me an electric and three albums which were Zeppelin, AC/DC and Thin Lizzy.”

“I absolutely smashed it and I decided to learn the tunes,” adds Dom about the Thin Lizzy record, reveling in the nostalgia. “We’d be playing them in rehearsal — obviously terribly. But that was a very good introduction to rock music. If I hadn’t have gotten it I’d still be playing Bach!”

Dom has clearly long since moved on from the German composer. He, Joe and Nothing But Thieves stormed into the 3Olympia theatre hours after the interview to deliver a blistering set full of attitude, powerful riffs and aggressive distortion.

The gig turned into the special night the pair had anticipated. The excited crowd sang every word, danced wildly and cheered for the boys from Essex — long after they played the final note. No word on the Guinness though.

Listen to Moral Panic II below.