It’s been a whirlwind couple of years for post-punk rockers Viagra Boys.
Led by charismatic frontman Sebastian Murphy, the Stockholm-based troupe drew widespread acclaim with 2018’s debut Street Worms – a genre-splicing effort mixed with lashings of dark humour and head-spinning energy – and their ferocious live shows.
Breakout single Sports was backed with a remarkable video which saw the band perform on an indoor tennis court during a one-on-one match as Murphy nonchalantly swaggers around mic in hand, dodging bouncing balls in the process.
It proved to be so popular that they got to relive it on an actual tennis court set up on stage for their performance at Sweden’s P3 Gold Awards last year.
Now they’re back with new EP Common Sense – an engrossing four-track effort where they continue to embrace the eclectic and offer a snapshot of what we can expect from their forthcoming follow-up LP.
Its opening song Common Sense sees the band take on a brooding synth-pop sound while Lick The Bag is, quintessentially, head-charging Viagra Boys punk.
Sentinel Island and Blue are more experimental, crossing bass heavy, distorted post-punk and soulful blues respectively.
“It was mostly fun – we tried to make songs that didn’t sound like the rest and wanted to see what happened”, Murphy told Daily Star Online when discussing Common Sense’s recording process.
“It was not too much different. In the studio we don’t really have a plan to make something. If we have a plan it always sounds different to what we thought.
“The EP came organically. We always want to experiment. We are recording songs now that were much different from the EP as well.
“We all have our own influences and it mirrors into the music but we all don’t listen to the same bands. The drummer will be listening to jazz, I will be listening to country, the guitarist could be listening to some prog. We make what we think sounds good.
“I wrote the song Common Sense in New York when we were at Electric Lady last summer. We recorded a version of it there that sounds completely different to that to does now – it was much simpler back then.
“Sentinel Island is even older than that. Blue is a bit more experimental – that was a one take, freestyle type thing.
“The LP is pretty much done. You can expect some rock and roll, some blues, and some interesting genres that I don’t really know what they’re called! I don’t know what kind of music it is.”
They were due to embark on a sell out tour of the UK and Europe this spring but, like so many other bands, they’ve been forced to put plans on hold due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
“It’s a bit depressing, of course”, Murphy admits. “I love being on the road and was looking forward to that but there’s nothing you can do about it.
“Everything is on hold right now. We are just trying to keep our heads high and working, working with other stuff while we can, keeping ourselves afloat and spending much more time in the studio now we’re not touring these shows. We will probably try to get some work done.
“Hopefully after this has all blown over there will be a lot of good music from a lot of different artists.”
Viagra Boys are now three EPs and one full-length album deep since forming in 2015, with another album release on the horizon – but how have they evolved as a band and where do they see themselves in the future?
Murphy said: “We have a much more structure to how we approach things and it’s much easier to write music together now and we know what we want to make.
“There’s not as much insecurity, there’s much more structure and not as much frustration.
“Next there will be some sort of big release and hopefully back on the bandwagon and touring again in the future, hopefully as soon as possible.”
Common Sense is out now via YEAR0001
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