Fast, all-encompassing and unrelenting, UNIVERSITY have a flair for the theatrical. Their sound thrashes with the energy of flailing bodies and restless experimentation, fusing odd turns with a throwaway post-post-punk spirit. None of them actually went to university – instead, they doubled down on their decision to keep making music, a choice that now underpins their cult status. As we sit down in the George Tavern garden, the Crewe four-piece (Ewan on bass/synths, Zak on guitar/vocals, Joel on drums and Eddie onXbox 360) hum with a nervous energy, still finding their footing as cult favourites while bracing for their London headline that was only an hour ahead. We talked everything from nights out with French models on tour to the certainty that they’d never want to be from London.
You’ve got a new EP on the way, just three months after your debut album. Was that a deliberate move to keep up the momentum, or did it come naturally?
Joel: No, our label basically said they’d drop us if we didn’t put something new out. I was like, shit alright fair enough, and we went into the studio and did it in about three days. That’s why it’s called Yes – yes, I’ll do it, I’ll do it, I’ll do it.
Do you prefer working quickly rather than sitting on songs for ages?
Zak: When you do it in a dead short time, you can’t second guess yourself that much, you can’t go back two weeks later. We do like how quick it goes. When we did the EP, we had a day left over – you don’t want to overdo it. Some bands, you can tell they’re just being in the studio for no fucking reason.
The EP includes an 11-minute track. Was that the plan from the start, or did it evolve naturally?
Joel: It was supposed to be longer. We thought it was going to be 16 minutes, and then when we looked at the time thing after it, it was 11 minutes. We were like, God saved that one, you know.
Zak: That tune’s crazy, though – that was the first tune that really sort of made Uni, so I don’t think we were anticipating it being so long when we were writing it. It just kind of ended up being like that, because that’s how we ended up finding the format of how we like to write. That was a special tune.
Are there any non-musical influences that seep into your work?
Zak: Yeah massively so. Literature, art, film, all of it. I mean, even dance. Bez is, like, a legend.
Joel: I think painters and surrealist art is a very big influence for me and him (Zak). Especially for our song titles and stuff. I love the art of Hieronymus Bosch and Francis Bacon.
Zak: Loads of films as well, like Naked Lunch and Gummo. We had a big Stanley Kubrick phase. Harmony Korine, as well, just a crazy director. He did Gummo and Gillian Donfroy, and he has this book out that we borrowed from a friend recently. A Crack Up At The Race Riot – fucking insane.
You guys used your spare room as a practice space, how did that shape the band?
Zak: It made the band.
Joel: Yeah we wouldn’t be here without it. You’d go to his bedroom, go smoke a number, and fucking watch hella videos and shit, and watch, like, people getting hit by cars. Then you’re like, right, let’s translate this.
Zak: Yeah You don’t have to go and, like, travel to a rehearsal space, but go in your house anyway. You know, you go in there, you’re smoking a banger, and you’re like, shit, we gonna play or what? Early on as well, it gave us the ability to practice, like, every single day. Like, we practiced on Christmas, New Year’s, whenever we could before the noise complaints started coming in. It gave us a lot of freedom.
Famously, gamer mascot Eddie plays video games on stage. How did that first start?
Zak: We just heard the music he was writing, and was like, shit, you’ve got to write our songs, and he was like, yeah, but I’m coming with.
He was like, but I only really write songs and play games, so I don’t want to play these songs. So because he’s the writer, he shows up a piece of paper with what the song is called before we play it, and we present it like a performance piece. It’s fucking brilliant, It just works so well. It gives the songs we play a different energy, because we treat it like a piece of art.
You grew up in Crewe, where there wasn’t much of a scene. Did that make you more determined?
Joel – Echo chamber, bro. You become influenced by yourself because you don’t really see gigs and see people. You just get influenced by just random albums you can find instead of what other bands are doing.
Do you think University could exist in the same way if you formed in London?
Joel: No. We’d all dress like a bunch of fuckers. And you’d be so obsessed with what was going on in the windmill in 2021 that you just wouldn’t get anything done. You’d just be like, shit, man, I need to be a windmill band. I can’t really go there and get sucked into all the culture and the dick sucking and all that shit. We just couldn’t get it. We’re just so far out from it that it doesn’t feel like it’s even real.
You’ve been touring all over Europe recently, what’s it been like playing places that you might not have before?
Zak – Beautiful, man. Crazy. We didn’t expect the positive reception that we received. It’s been really endearing.
Ewan – It’s been cooling exploring the cities a bit too, we saw the Reichstag in Berlin. Well we drove past it. We did go see Notre Dame – it was made of stone.
Joel – You know what I go exploring after the gig, though? I’m hanging out with, like, French models and shit. That was the first night – we met Mika and I was like, wow, first tour, this is fucking great.
How do you guys save yourselves from burning out on tour?
Joel: Burgers and coke. The Coca-Cola in Europe, it’s intense, bro. I’ve lost two teeth already.
Then you’ve got a tour in America coming up – is that a landmark achievement for the band?
Zak: Yeah, definitely. That’s intense.
Joel: It’s weird because when you haven’t done them yet, you just don’t know what to expect.And then once you get there, it’s just a gig, innit?
Zak: You only realise what it is once you’re there. Like, with this tour, I was a bit scared because you don’t know what to expect until you’re there and you’re like, oh, my God I’m actually playing a show in Paris, these people showed up. It’s crazy.
Where do you see University in a year? What would you like to have achieved?
Joel: Six feet under. Nah I just want to stick out in this sea of bands that go dum-dum-kit, dum-dum-kit, dum-dum-kit (imitates drumbeat). And then a dude who sounds like thingy from Idles doing a bit, and the guitarist who doesn’t even play, he just got his pedalboard doing the work. I just want to stand out amongst that shit, because that is so boring now.
No offence, I like this venue (George Tavern), but half the stuff they play on their new playlists these days is just so boring. We’re just on our own thing, you know.
Is there one main indicator of success for University?
Joel: When people start copying us. And given our situation, you can tell when they are. Where we’re from, the bands that have kind of cropped up now, about 50% of them have an extra member doing nothing. I watched this one band once where they had a song called Peter Griffin, and they had a dude come on stage in a title track shirt holding a MacBook, like playing a video. It’s like, you know them guitars with the fucking monkey grip? It’s like that, you’ll know it’s a knock-off immediately because why else would anyone do that? It’s cool though.
Words: Donovan Livesey Photos: Steve Gullick