Start Listening To: The Queen’s Head

“A sick and twisted watering hole where your fears and foes infect the very furniture.”

Photography: Chloe Gilbert

The Queen’s Head don’t care if the cards they’re dealing are nice. As long as it’s real, it matters. Looking for anything emotionally tangible in a doom-funk and depressed nu-rave dimensions, the London-based group explored the themes of male depression, spoken word and genre-fuckery. With their new self-titled release out, the band want to force you into their twisted scenario. Suddenly, you find yourself in a slimy hole inhabited by nightcrawlers and person-sized fears. To escape you need to dance and drink your demons away. 3...2…1… Go.

Can you tell us who you are, where you’re from and about the music you make?

The Queen’s Head. We all currently live in London. Some descriptions of the music from others that we particularly like are: doom-funk, trauma-pop and depressed nu-rave. 

How are you feeling about the release of your new self-titled single?

Very relieved, very happy and slightly bored to be honest. Onwards! 

Can you tell us more about the lyrics in this track?

We always wanted to write a theme song and the lyrics follow in this vein. A scene is set: a sick and twisted watering hole where your fears and foes infect the very furniture. The pub, and the voices which inhabit it, implore you to dance, to drink, to weep, to relive the traumas which haunt you and the lost futures which leave you bereft. The words describe the music, describe the space, the band. The Queen’s Head. 

How has The Windmill, Brixton scene influenced your music?

In all honesty, not very much. By no design, believe me, the spoken word aspects and post-punk tinges to our music were developed very much outside of the “scene” but, by some kind of doom, there is an obvious formal link to many of the bands that are associated with the Windmill. 

That being said, the Windmill, itself, has been of huge influence to us as a live band. Its complete openness to new music of all styles is inspiring and they have welcomed us in when many others were uninterested, allowing us to refine songs in a living, breathing public house. The sound is always brilliant, to boot. All of this is thanks to the strength of the institution and the excellent taste of Tim.

If you were to describe your music to someone who’d never heard you before, what would you say?

Hope for nothing! Desire something. 

How do you produce your music?

It is a complicated chain of events, starting with Joel’s abstractions, Tom’s cantankerousness, constructive cynicism from Robbie, Mike and George, a wizard called Graeme Cohen in Manchester and then whichever producer swoops in to take the glory (Andy Savours and Dan Carey thus far). All aspects are equal parts painful and enjoyable. 

What inspires your music?

Male depression.

Do you have any plans to tour in 2022?

Plans? Yes! Realities? Almost certainly maybe! 

Can you tell us something interesting about your band that doesn’t have anything to do with music?

We have all, separately, been medically dead at some point in our lives. 

Name an album you’re still listening to from when you were younger and why it’s important to you?

Too many to choose from, so everyone gave two from their misspent youth: 

Pink Floyd – Relics

Joni Mitchell – Blue

Ian Dury – New Boots and Panties!!

My Chemical Romance – Welcome to the Black Parade

Eels - Daisies of the Galaxy

Alice in Chains – Jar of Flies

Sung Tongs – Animal Collective 

City of Evil – Avenged Sevenfold 

What do you hate right now?

The man who in a smoking area who proudly described himself as a flaneur then checked if I knew what that was. 

What do you love right now?

Cold showers 

Is there any new music from 2022 you are enjoying?

Blue Bendy – Motorbike

Fatdog (live)

Tectonic – Hannah Holland

Return – Katy J Pearson 

Big Rain – Bingo Fury

Ithaca – They Fear Us

Sad Night Dynamite – Sad Night Dynamite

Coco Bryce – Twenty One Highs

Is there anything else you would like to share with our readers?

Golf courses occupy more English land (2%) than housing does (1.1%).