Music > Interviews

Kids in Glass Houses discuss their new album

24/10/24

I called Iain Mahanty on a bright Tuesday morning ahead of a busy week of album release shows, something he seemed very excited for. “The nerves have settled now I think,” he explained, “we were just happy to be making music again, and once that process was winding down it was like, ‘oh, we’re actually going to put this out – people are going to hear this!’” It has been a long time since Kids in Glass Houses have graced us with new music; their 2013 album ‘Peace’, released about a year before their farewell shows, feels like such a long time ago. The band initially reunited at Slam Dunk festival last year to celebrate 15 years of their record Smart Casual, selling out an autumn tour that year before announcing new music was on the way. Mahanty laughed about the fact that this reunion had probably been in frontman Aled Phillips’ mind for a little while before the others realised it was coming into fruition; “me and Al were just getting together and writing just for the sake of it, as we love making music together.” Playing such big festivals as Slam Dunk, and 2000 Trees this summer, the band are readying to play three intimate shows in Cardiff, Glasgow and Kingston, something which Mahanty says they used to do all the time. ‘Over the years, we’ve played big venues and then the following week we’d do a house party!’

Times have obviously changed quite a lot for the band over their decade hiatus, something which Mahanty explained has been a theme behind the upcoming album. “Aled’s really stepped up as a lyricist on this record. He’s addressing things, social issues, personal issues, world issues, in a way that he maybe hasn’t before.” I mentioned the cinematic feel of the album’s bright colours and retro videography and asked about the holistic vision for Pink Flamingo, and Mahanty affirmed that ‘cinematic’ was the perfect word for it. “For me, from a songwriting and production point of view, it was all about setting the tone for these stories and these points of view that he was putting across,” he said. From Mahanty’s great admiration for his friend’s lyricism, to the strong sense of the album’s purpose, it is easy to see how the band just fell back into place when creating this record.

The first track on the album, ‘Theme from Pink Flamingo’, certainly reinforces these theatrics, and almost brands the album, as if ‘Pink Flamingo’ were a physical place where this music plays. Mahanty explained that the iconography of the pink flamingo is quite important to the band’s history. “The flamingo is so associated with our band, like fans bring flamingo related things to shows […] I think it’s something that if you know the band it really encapsulates us, but no one can really pinpoint why!” Despite this, Mahanty broached the idea that it stemmed from Phillips’ love of the Americana aesthetic of motels and dive bars. “I think it’s as simple as the band needed a merch design and he put a flamingo on a t-shirt, and that just became emblematic of the band.” With new merch for this album including a cassette tape in a Marlboro themed casing indicates that this aesthetic is as prevalent to Phillips’ branding as it ever was.

The band’s social media presence has been on the up while promoting the album, with particular highlights being the reels showing how some of the singles were made. I was particularly interested in how their latest single, ‘Have a Good Time’ was made, after reading that it took the group three years to write and complete. Mahanty explained how it all started

with a demo, sent from him to Phillips, which was the verse groove in the song. It wasn’t until Phillips was writing something else that the pair realised that the chorus of this new song fitted perfectly with the ‘Have a Good Time’ demo. “It just became this organic thing where Aled was sending loads of different vocal parts over the same music and I was changing the music slightly.” After the rest of the band came in for the reunion, the track finally got completed, with Mahanty laughing that ‘the whole process was essentially an on-and-off WhatsApp conversation.” This is something Mahanty highlighted as really having changed in the last decade for them; with himself and Phillips living in London while with rest of the group resided in Wales, the songwriting process has gone from being everyone in one room to writing individually and sending ideas to one another. “Individually and externally, everything has changed so much,” Mahanty told me, “our life situations have changed; people have families […] and other responsibilities now, all these grown up things that we didn’t really have the first time around.”

As ‘Have a Good Time’ had been developed over a longer period, Mahanty explained that several versions of the song existed, and I asked if these would ever see the light of day. “One day we’ll do a full exposé,” Mahanty said. “I think that was the thing with the song, there was nothing in mind, so we were at a stage with our writing where we were just having fun and doing whatever. There was no goal - it’s the freedom you dream of having.” Mahanty shared that he had a lot of pride in the song, as “it feels like such an accomplishment […] I feel like it’s a song we’ve always wanted to write, in a way, and wanted to represent us as people and a band.” Another favourite of his is ‘Flowers in the Rain’, a rich sounding track with an assortment of orchestral elements. “We’ve always been a band that’s wanted to use strings, horns and additional instruments,” Mahanty said, and explained that the version on the album is essentially one take of the band playing the song through. “[The songs] represent a side of the band that has always been there, but we haven’t felt confident enough to express,” the guitarist claimed. It appears to be such a satisfying reunion, with the band not only effortlessly picking up where they left off, but finding their feet in creating music they always knew they had the potential to, and rightfully beaming with pride as a result.

Reminiscing about visiting Norwich many many years ago, Mahanty tells me he ate an excellent curry here on tour, and he hopes to track it down when they visit early next month. “I remember quite a few things about Norwich,” Mahanty mused, “I remember watching the football in the uni before we played there and that was one of our biggest shows I think.” Playing The Waterfront this time round on 6th November, Kids in Glass Houses are rounding off a stacked bill, with the fantastic HIMILAYAS and Mouth Culture opening for them, bands that Mahanty and the rest of the band are big fans of. As of 23rd October, tickets are still available, and I would highly recommend seeing these seasoned favourites perform their brand new album on the Adrian Flux stage.

Pink Flamingo is out this Friday, 25th October.