tunesday – first times, last times with lewis evans from black country, new road
The English rockers are coming back down under.
Ahead of their Australia and New Zealand tour, Black Country, New Road’s Lewis Evans caught up with us for a chinwag to discuss all things first and last times.
When was the first time you wrote an album together? It’s hard to put a particular date or even year on it. It was a pretty slow process as we’d slowly built up a repertoire of songs for playing live – by late 2020, we’d put off recording for as long as possible so we decided to go in and track it.
What was the last song you finished for Forever Howlong? “Happy Birthday”. This tune came together really quickly – we were really locked in on the record at this point so it felt like we all knew exactly what to do. I think for most of us this song really made the album feel like an album.
When was the first time you realised you wanted to be a musician? I always loved music but I think by the time I was at the age where I was having to do exams in subjects at school I quite quickly realised it wasn’t for me and that music might be my only option, so I would say around 13!
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When was the last time you did something creative that wasn’t music? That doesn’t happen very often for me! Someone at a show recently asked me to do a drawing for them that they could turn into a tattoo (high pressure situation for someone as artistically challenged as me).
What was the first album you loved as a kid? Demon Days by Gorillaz. It was the first album I ever owned and I was absolutely obsessed with it. It’s aged so well as well, so I can keep coming back to it for nostalgia without any cringe factor. Less can be said for those McFly records that were really popular in my youth.
When was the last time you played live? The last Black Country, New Road show was in Singapore in December last year, which was really special. The last gig I played was at the Windmill in Brixton last week with my friend Cameron and his project My New Band Believe. I came on and tooted the sax for a couple of minutes to little avail.
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When was the first time Black Country, New Road played to Aussie audiences? It was in March 2024. My dad is from a town called Maryborough in Central Queensland, so it was so exciting for me because I spent a lot of time in Australia as a child. It felt genuinely enriching for me to be reconnecting to a country I have such happy childhood memories in as an adult. I can’t wait to come back.
What’s the last thing you’ll do before flying to Australia for these upcoming shows? I’m going to have a night in, watching shit crime dramas with my girlfriend.
Black Country, New Road will be touring across Australia until February 28th before heading across the ditch to New Zealand. Feast your ears on their tunes here, and for more rock goodness check our interview with local band Cousin Tony’s Brand New Firebird here.