On Friday, November 11, 2022, the epic new single “How To Buy Happiness” by Modern Guilt was released digitally.
The London-based group is being supported by celebrities like Steve Lamacq (BBC 6Music), Jess Iszatt (BBC Introducing London), and John Kennedy (Radio X). They “are re-igniting and modernizing their era and genre influences in a strong flame of color,” according to these celebrities (Listen To Discover).
The Mikey Buckley-produced song “How To Buy Happiness” is a hopeless tale of desperation and longing, similar to a Western. It tells the tale of a man who believes that having enough money will make him happy and how he pursues this idea. The song’s music creates a welcome soundtrack of Americana and Garage Rock.
A brand-new music video for the new single, directed by renowned filmmaker Ross Scott, features the band’s first live performance in a setting and with a persona that are reminiscent of spaghetti westerns from the past and the Coen brothers’ “No Country for Old Men.” Check out the song and the exclusive interview below:
1. Can you tell us a bit about where you come from and how it all got started?
MODERN GUILT:
SCOTT: Myself and Jaz met through mutual friends in Camden one night and were talking about starting something new together. I had played with Andreas for many years in other bands and session work and asked him if he’d be interested to get involved… The three of us then met up to discuss a new project over an orange juice or two, and to see if we were on the same page musically…
We then booked a rehearsal studio for a “jam” with the idea that no-one comes with any ideas pre-written so that we just try work out which direction we might naturally point together… To be honest, the session was pretty bad haha, but at the very end we wrote the track ‘Hoping For The Hoping’, which became our first single and formed a blueprint for our initial direction.
After the three of us wrote together for a few months and felt we had enough material to start gigging we then looked to put a band together to be able to play the tracks live… with bass guitar and organs/synths being the key elements we needed to add for a live performance – That’s when we introduced Dan (bass) and Glyn (keys), and the guys have been such an important part of our sound and creative process since the five of us have played together.
2. Did you have any formal training or are you self-taught?
MODERN GUILT:
JAZ: Self-taught
SCOTT: When I was about 13 I was torn between either taking up the drums or guitar…I opted for the drums. I then took drum lessons for about 4 years which set me up really well and got me to a good level of playing. The early basics I was taught I’ve carried through with me over the years and are arguably the most important; how to hold sticks, how to use your feet, sitting at the kit, setting the kit up, tuning the kit etc…
After starting the drums though, I was still intrigued by the guitar… I saved up money from my paper round and bought myself a second-hand guitar – teaching myself rhythm guitar (I can’t play lead), and picked up basics on the piano over the years.
The way we work as a band, we all have input on all instruments when writing, it doesn’t matter what “level” anyone is, what matters is making the best song and that’s one thing that is great about this band J
3. Who were your first and strongest musical influences and why the name ‘MODERN GUILT’?
MODERN GUILT:
JAZ: Springsteen, Dylan, The Strokes, The Stones…
We wanted a name that could mean a whole variety of things, whether it’s the fact that there’s so many new ways to experience guilt, like new vices or just the fact that it’s a great album by Beck… Or that Captain Beefheart was taken 😉
SCOTT: A lot of the 80’s classics like Fleetwood Mac, Wham! / George Michael, Prince and Madonna, as well as The Beatles were some of the first music I heard and loved. Then came Oasis, Ocean Colour Scene, The Strokes…
Regarding our name and to add to what Jaz said – we had tried many names (haha) but nothing seemed to fit collectively for us as well as being a name that we felt the listener can interpret themselves. Then out of nowhere at a “band meeting” (‘Flight Of The Conchords’ reference haha), one of us said “Modern Guilt” we all said “Yes” straight away… it made sense for us, the missing piece we needed.
4. What do you feel are the key elements in your music that should resonate with listeners, and how would you personally describe your sound?
MODERN GUILT:
JAZ: I think that what we talk about is a combination of observational commentary on the world spinning around us and the core experiences of love and loneliness. I’d personally describe it as ‘music written for heists and the subsequent car chase’.
SCOTT: To add to that, I’d encourage everyone to come see us live if they can… we’ve got a fantastic front-man in Jaz 😉 and the music is great J We take elements from all of our influences… from Garage Rock to Soul, Motown to Hip-Hop… we’re constantly trying to add more to our sound and style, so please check us out and keep with us J
5. For most artists, originality is first preceded by a phase of learning and, often, emulating others. What was this like for you? How would you describe your own development as an artist and music maker, and the transition towards your own style, which is known as INDIE?
MODERN GUILT:
JAZ: I really took the classic approach of wanting to write music I liked listening too, hearing artists who wrote songs that perfectly described how I felt in ways I hadn’t heard expressed, that combination of word and sound and slowly working out what it was I wanted to say and the how I wanted to say it, which is definitely something that has evolved and changed as I’ve met other musicians.
SCOTT: Going back to what I said earlier about how we started Modern Guilt… we basically got in a room with no material to see what we’d come up with together. Much of that session didn’t seem to work or feel natural, but by the end of the session we created our first single and it was natural to us. We’ve all got different learnings and influences, but that’s what makes us great and exciting. Musically the listener may hear influences, but I think Jaz’s lyrics are something quite different.
6. What’s your view on the role and function of music as political, cultural, spiritual, and/or social vehicles – and do you try and affront any of these themes in your work, or are you purely interested in music as an expression of technical artistry, personal narrative, and entertainment?
MODERN GUILT:
JAZ: This question is huge and could fill a book, I think it’s an incredible vehicle for expression on a vast spectrum. I’d say our focus is definitely on the social, communal and observational level. There’s so much depth and complexity in the smallest moments of human experience that it’s an almost inexhaustible well.
7. Do you feel that your music is giving you back just as much fulfillment as the amount of work you are putting into it or are you expecting something more, or different in the future?
MODERN GUILT:
JAZ: It does give back so much, but I think the relentless nature of being a musician, always wanting to push it that much further, musically, performatively and lyrically that I think I’ll always feel a hunger to get more from it.
SCOTT: I agree… we obviously put a lot of work into it… music is our passion, our art, and keeping creative with Modern Guilt is all the fulfillment we need to keep going… we’ve got loads of exciting work to come J
8. Could you describe your creative processes? How do usually start, and go about shaping ideas into a completed song? Do you usually start with a tune, a beat, or a narrative in your head? And do you collaborate with others in this process?
MODERN GUILT:
JAZ: There isn’t really a usual is the truth, the jumping off point for a song varies depending where sometimes we have a set of lyrics that dictate the mood and we build the arrangement around that or where we have a bass or guitar part that we then start crafting the fuller song from. All the music is a collaborative effort in which we all bring our ideas in. A lot of our original ideas evolve as we play the songs, building an idea of how it flows. Sometimes the song falls into place almost immediately and some of our ideas we have kept going back to until we know what it wants us to do… so it might come from a particular tone, tempo or narrative.
SCOTT: Yeah, there isn’t really one specific formula with us, but the great thing is that we can all play multiple instruments and have many different influences / ideas, so when we’re writing we’re all inputting in everything in many different ways.
9. Creative work in a studio or home environment, or interaction with a live audience? Which of these two options excites you most, and why?
MODERN GUILT:
JAZ: Definitely playing live – the interactions with the audience, feeling what they feel in that time, it’s such a joint experience for us, we want to entertain, we want to give people that hypnotic elation, we want to give people that joy. It’s vindicating for us to see how people respond to what we’ve poured ourselves into.
SCOTT: Yeah, same as Jaz – it’s amazing to be playing to our audiences, and more and more often it has been unbelievable to see fans singing back our songs at the shows.
Studio / creative writing is different but equally amazing… That’s Andreas’ baby, and where a lot of our sound and instrumentation is formed. It’s a time where we experiment with different sounds and structures across the board of our tracks, then it’s a case of figuring out how to play them live with the band.
10. Do you think is it important for fans of your music to understand the real story and message driving each of your songs, or do you think everyone should be free to interpret your songs in their own personal way?
MODERN GUILT:
JAZ: I don’t think people need to know what inspired us to write a particular song. I want people to build their own meaning or attach their own experience to it, almost as though it’s just a sound-based scaffolding where people can apply their own lives to the building between. I think I want people to be curious, to reflect and if we are able to give them that same feeling we get from listening or creating music then amazing!
SCOTT: Yeah, I can’t put it any better really haha!… From my own perspective, I guess a lot of songs and lyrics I’ve loved over the years are never too particular – that’s the beauty… you can interpret, experience and feel songs in your own way, and often when you do that then it helps you relate and deal with something in your own life better, or it kind of gives you “someone” to talk to… that “someone” being the song…
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Photo credits: Keith Duffy