NEW MUSIC, TOURING TALES AND JAPANESE KARAOKE WITH DRUMMER TOM THOULD
If your record collection has room for both McFly and Meshuggah, Blank Atlas should be right up your Strasse. Specialising in angst-laden lyrics, the Bristol alt-rock trio serve up a rich mix of angular riffs, thick three-part harmonies and big, catchy choruses.
The band comprises twin brothers Dan Thould on guitar and Tom Thould on drums, alongside Chris Simpson on bass, with the boys sharing vocals. They’ve played together for 15 years, with a decade of that under the Blank Atlas banner.
Their impressive debut album, Dawn Chorus, arrived in 2023 and its follow-up is one the way, with recent singles ‘No Good’ and ‘Same Mistake’ offering a taste of what’s coming.
Blank Atlas are due to hit The Bullingdon in Oxford on 29 November, joining Arimea and Worst Wishes for a show we can't wait for. It also promises to be a special one for Chris, who grew up in Oxford but has never before performed in the city of dreaming spires.
To whet our appetites for the show to come, we had a chat with drummer Tom about the band's history, influences, tour plans and more.
For gig etiquette, Japanese karaoke and One Direction — read on!
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Welcome to our virtual pub, The Winchester. What are you drinking?
TOM THOULD — Happy to be here. I’ll have a Thatchers Haze, please.
Great choice. Please describe the Blank Atlas sound for anyone who hasn’t heard you before.
Lots of harmonies, angular riffs and big, catchy choruses. All three of us share vocal duties.
We like to say we’re for fans of McFly and Meshuggah. By that, we mean if you’re weird enough to like both of those bands, chances are you’ll probably like ours.
Please tell us about how the band started.
We met Chris at school and have been playing together for 15 years. We kind of started playing together out of necessity because there wasn’t anyone else around to play with!
We started playing lots of Iron Maiden, Avenged Sevenfold and so on, and formed a band under a different name. Blank Atlas has been a band for ten years now. We’re one album deep and still going strong.
Which bands have been the biggest influence on your sound?
Without a doubt, Press to MECO. I came across them like 13 years ago while checking out the bands taking part in a Red Bull Download competition. They swiftly became my favourite band.
They opened my eyes to the underground UK alt-rock scene and all the amazing bands in it. If it wasn’t for them, we’d probably still sound like Iron Maiden and Avenged Sevenfold…
What exactly did you take from them?
They completely changed the way we write songs: we quickly started adding loads of vocal harmonies and tritones, and sharing vocal duties across all our stuff. PTM really started it all for us. I’d argue we probably sounded a bit too much like PTM back then.
Now, it’s evolved into more of a tasteful nod to them. We still get compared to them often, and we always take it as such a compliment.
When it comes to vocals, how do you decide who does which bit?
With lead vocals, we all bring something different. I’m more suited to the soft and high bits. Daniel’s an all-rounder but has a particularly good voice for the rockier stuff, and Chrissy is good for the lower and shouty bits. The part itself usually dictates who sings it.
How do you typically write songs — if you have a typical process?
Usually, one of us will have an idea — normally a chorus — and we’ll try to build a song around it. Some songs are easier to finish than others, but finishing a rager of a song is always very rewarding.
Your latest single, ‘Same Mistake’, dropped on 19 October. What’s it all about?
The song’s about the different ways you can avoid dealing with your problems. The chorus lyrics are pretty self-deprecating, emphasising that you keep making the same mistake and constantly running from your problems.
Then there’s a turning point towards the end when you can’t run from your issues any longer and need to face them head-on. Don’t run away from your problems, kids!
Sound advice. Dan has said the track came together in about ten minutes. Is that true, and how much changed before the finished recording?
Yes and not a lot. That’s how you know it’s a good song: when the initial idea stays intact throughout the process. We changed the verse a bit and condensed it to make it snappier.
The song’s got more of a grungy vibe, which is a bit different for us, but we’re super pleased with how it turned out.
Tell us about the recording process.
We record everything with our longtime producer, Simon Jackman. He’s produced everything we’ve released since 2017. It’s always a blast working with him.
After nine years, we work together really well, so it’s just lots of silliness and fun.
You shot the video while travelling in Japan. Was that always the plan?
No, filming it in Japan was unplanned. But we’re glad we did it because it’s turned out to be a sick video and a nice little memento from our travels.
It was so cool filming around Shibuya and Shinjuku, especially after dark with all the fluorescent lights.
Shooting the karaoke bit was particularly fun. After singing our own song, we ended up singing lots of Take That, Kylie Minogue and Eminem.
No McFly or Meshuggah? You’re about to start touring again. Are you excited?
We’re super excited! We’re playing some familiar places and some new ones too. We’ve never played Alton or Oxford, so we’re looking forward to playing those.
We haven’t played Brighton, Glasgow or Manchester for a few years either. We’ve been pretty quiet this year on the gig front, so we’re super keen to get back to it.
What’s been your biggest Blank Atlas highlight so far?
There have been lots! But a highlight is getting to play 2000trees Festival. We’ve played twice now, and it gets better every time. It’s the case for a lot of "Trees bands", but it seems as though your entire following is at the festival, which is lovely and makes the gigs that much more special.
Which Blank Atlas song is your favourite to play live?
Any one that involves the crowd singing along. For that reason, I’d choose ‘Beautiful Morning’ or ‘Better Off Dead’. Those are always the best singalongs for us.
We’ve been rehearsing some new songs recently, and they’ve been super fun to play.
What do you love about touring, and what starts to wear thin after a few dates?
The best thing is seeing all the familiar faces and friends you’ve made from gigging over the years. Turns out being in a band is a pretty good way to keep in touch with your friends.
The negatives are definitely sleeping on floors after shows. Being in a band isn’t as glamorous as some might think. We try to avoid it these days, but we still have to from time to time.
You’re coming to Oxford on 29 November, playing alongside Arimea and Worst Wishes. We’ll be there. What can we expect?
Lots of riffs and singalongs!
Chrissy [Simpson] is particularly excited for this one because he grew up in Oxford and, bizarrely, has never played in the city. It’ll be special for him, and I think the Simpson clan is coming in full force too.
You also have a podcast: Guffcast XL. Tell us about that.
It’s something we’d wanted to do for a while. The idea eventually evolved into the current format: in the van, because it’s the best way to guarantee we’ll all be in the same place at the same time.
It started as little clips on our socials and is now a fully fledged podcast, with full episodes in all the usual places.
What can listeners expect to hear?
I think its USP is that we’ve known each other for so long. We can talk about all sorts: terrible gigs, shenanigans we got up to when we were younger, and everything we’re up to now.
It’s so much fun and really breaks up the van journey to gigs. It’s worth doing for that alone.
You’ve interviewed plenty of other musicians on the pod: what question do you wish someone would ask you?
We love our standard Guffcast question: what’s the worst gig you’ve done? We’ve got plenty, and so has every band on the planet. It’s good to laugh about bad experiences, and it helps you see how far you’ve come.
Here’s a bad-gig story: when we were 16, we were still unaware of gig etiquette and what we needed to bring. Things got lost in translation and we didn’t bring drum stands. We ended up doing a drumless set, which was particularly sad for me…
Any other ‘gig gone wrong’ stories?
We once put on an EP launch and had a bunch of cool local bands play with us. On the night, it was rammed.
There were so many people watching the other bands, but when it got to our set everyone left. AT OUR EP LAUNCH! That gig took a while to recover from.
Please give us three albums everyone should own.
First has to be an Enter Shikari album. I’d probably pick A Flash Flood of Colour, although their first three albums are all up there for us. Enter Shikari were our first collective favourite band. We introduced them to Chrissy at school, and from then on we were obsessed — and still are. Super gutted to see them calling it a day.
Next would be Good Intent by Press to MECO. It’s really nostalgic for me. You can clearly hear its influence on the stuff we were releasing around the same time. There are some absolute ragers on it.
Lastly, Puzzle by Biffy Clyro. Biffy have been a huge influence on us, being another three-piece. Having such diverse albums definitely influenced us to try to do the same on our own albums.
What in your listening history would most surprise your fans?
We love a good boyband. Me and Daniel are particularly keen on Take That, Westlife and One Direction, so all of those!
What’s the best thing about life in music?
The best thing is seeing how people resonate with the music. It makes it all worthwhile.
Seeing the commitment some people make to come to our shows is very humbling too.
How do you keep perspective when things aren’t going your way?
I try not to think about the negatives too much because that can set you down a dark path. I could spend loads of time wallowing in why we haven’t played with a certain band, played that festival or played that country.
It’s not sustainable to think that way, so I try to stay grateful for what we’ve achieved. We’ve managed to do some crazy stuff over the years, and I try to focus on that.
If your atlas wasn’t blank, where would you like to visit?
We’d love to tour the US. I’d particularly love to visit and play Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado. Such a cool setting for a gig. It would be a dream to play there.
‘No Good’ was introduced as the first taste of your second album. Where are you with the record?
It’s all finished. We’ll reveal a bit more when we get into 2027, but we’re super proud of it.
What are your dreams for Blank Atlas?
We’d love the chance to tour more extensively, maybe in mainland Europe. We’d also love to open for some bigger bands around the country and have the opportunity to play in some big rooms.
Then we’d finish that up with a headline set at Wembley Stadium. Job done!
Thanks so much for chatting with us. Do you have any final words for your fans?
Thank you for listening and caring about our band. It’s so nice to see people care as much as we do, and we invite anyone who likes silly alt-rock along for the ride too!
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► Stream 'Same Mistake' by Blank Atlas on Spotify, Apple Music and elsewhere.
▶︎ Header photo by Claire Hodgkins
RAGAMUFFIN MUSIC PODCAST: EPISODE 83