Press To MECO (Interview)
Having already called Press To MECO “one of the best underground British rock acts since Reuben” during my review of their latest album Here’s To The Fatigue (which can be found here), I’m not sure how much more excitement I can convey with mere words here.
Honestly, that quote alone does the job – so enjoy this chat with Press To MECO guitarist/vocalist Luke Caley…
Your new album Here’s To The Fatigue is fucking epic, and seems to be getting a lot of positive feedback already. Aside from excitement, how’re you feeling?
Thank you! Yeah, the response from press has been really humbling so far. It’s always nice to have that extra bit of reassurance via some positive reviews, to ease those pre-release nerves.
“Staying connected is so important for your morale”
You recently signed with Marshall Records – how did that come about?
Yeah! Marshall were actually one of the first labels to approach us once we’d recorded the new album. The label was still very much in its infancy so initially, although very tempting, it was something we ultimately felt wasn’t particularly aligned with where we were at as a band at the time.
Then the rest of the year went by, back-and-forwarding with other labels until we eventually decided on self-releasing. It was all so close to the wire, I think Steve (head of Marshall Records) called our manager up, like “I need to sign you guys, stuff’s changed, let’s talk ASAP”.
So we went and met him, and left the meeting feeling really optimistic about the changes they’d made, and decided it was the way to go. It’s been great so far. I’m so glad we made the call to sign.
How have you all evolved, as musicians and as people, over the course of creating the new album?
We’ve never slowed down as a band or stopped playing, so I think every year naturally we’ll just keep getting better at what we do.
I don’t think any of us have drastically changed over the last year or so. We’ve just become more accomplished versions of ourselves.
As people, we’re just more jaded by the music industry than ever [laughs]!
Could you describe each of the songs on Here’s To The Fatigue in one sentence / paragraph each?
I’d quite like people to form their own opinions of each track, and they all have different qualities I don’t necessarily think can be portrayed properly with a few words.
I think the best way to summarise them all is to just say they’re a collection of songs that have never sounded more like Press To MECO.
Besides making music, what makes you happy?
Most of my time outside the band is spent with my girlfriend, Bethany. Other than that, I value seeing the people I care about as much as I can. I think staying connected is so important for your morale.
Me and Adam’s brother Paul have a couple of cars we take to the track now and then. I like having a whole other thing that I’m still learning so much about all the time. It’s really refreshing to feel completely amateurish about something, and start progressing again after reaching a certain level being in bands your whole life.
So, working on cars is really cathartic for me…until you try to fix something and actually make it worse!
How would you like to see the world change?
Whoa! This is way too big a question to even start trying to fathom.
I think if every person on the planet could adopt the mindset of “live and let live,” there would be so much less conflict. But the human race is greedy by nature, so I feel like you’ll always have the rich and powerful fucking the poor and weak, and people taking advantage when they’re already in a position of privilege.
The importance of educating people with fair and unbiased information is something I think is still very overlooked.
There’s no one magic fix to all this though – just lots of opinions and theories. It’s all shades of grey. The world’s not a nice place. Here’s to the fatigue.
Beyond the album launch, what do you have planned for the remainder of 2018?
Touring, touring, touring!
What did you think of this interview? Leave a comment, follow me on Twitter here, and let me know!
Read my full review of Here’s To The Fatigue here.