Sports Team returned after some extensive time away from touring with the incredible single, “I’m In Love (Subaru)”, and are now gearing towards their highly anticipated third album release.
“Boys These Days” lands May 23rd 2025, but you can catch the band on their UK tour this month where they will be performing the new material live.
Sports Team have garnered a stellar reputation since breaking through for their high energy live shows and as they return to some of the more intimate venues the UK has to offer, it promises to be an unmissable run of dates.
We caught up with Alex Rice (frontman) and Rob Knaggs (Guitarist & Vocalist) to discuss what to expect from the band’s third chapter.
NC: You caught a lot of people off guard with the direction of comeback single “I’m In Love (Subaru)”, was the aim to showcase a less familiar Sports Team sound?
Rob: “I guess there’s part of it where you release the opening single as a slight shock just for the thrill of it but also, as a band, you don’t want to constantly be doing what you did on the last record. I think there are a lot of songs on this album that probably sound a closer to Gulp and Deep Down Happy, but we were always talking about doing a song with this sort of vibe and texture during the last two records. I think working with this producer, he was really happy and comfortable working with that sound so we thought we could actually do it. I think we got a bit more used to writing outside of a rehearsal room and not just having a bass, two guitars,160 BPM, and an extended section for moshing. So we just though fuck it, let’s do a soft jazz kind of track.”
NC: For the last couple of albums, you’ve recorded during a hectic touring schedule, so would you say these sonic changes are also reflective of a more relaxed recording environment?
Rob: “Yeah, I think so. When you’re playing a lot, it’s so nice when you have those tracks like The Game or Happy where if you’ve had five pints beforehand you know you’re still gonna be able to smash them out really well. If ever the crowd’s feeling a bit dead, you just throw on the sort of fast-paced songs with the mosh sections. But I guess also if you look at our first EPs to when we released M5, there were already some big sonic shifts in a way. Having done two albums and lots of EPs now, I think there is an expectation around kind of settling into a safe space with singles like Here’s The Thing, so it is nice doing something different again where we’re not entirely sure if people are going to love it or hate it, but it is just fun to do.”
NC: I have to ask about the red Subaru Impreza… why not the classic blue?
Alex: “At the end of the day I think it comes down to more rhyming potential with red than blue… For me, all we wanted to do was create an aspirational theme for the opening track. You take the Colin McRae rally car, one of the coolest things you can imagine as an 11-year-old. This glossy car, you know, you would have a sense of love, aspiration, romance – everything you want at that kind of age. As you grow up it becomes a flippant symbol and an exploration of how much you can project onto these objects.”
NC: You moved from Subaru to Condensation, which I feel was more of a familiar sound. Are we expecting the album sound to be a meeting point sonically between these two tracks you have chosen to showcase?
Rob: “Subaru is the opening track of the album and it felt kind good to play with people’s expectations. For the second single we were flipping between a few. There’s a couple that I think could have sat in that sort of place so it came down to what winner we landed on about a month-and-a-half ago. We were tempted with a song called Bang Bang Bang which is a lot more guitary and a more classic structure. Subaru is an incredibly glossy song and Bang Bang Bang is the exact opposite so it sets up that contrast. We had Condensation knocking around as a demo for so long that we opted to get that one out into the world.”
Alex: “The whole album has that feel to it. The contrast between glossy and raw, and weighing up how you feel about it yourselves. This is where the whole album sits I think.”
NC: Sports Team’s bread and butter is on the live stage performing in front of fans. How have you found this extended time away from touring?
Rob: “I found it really boring to be honest. I think that touring is so great but then you get to the end of a tour feeling tired, awful, and hungover in an airport, we’re just like fucking hell this is miserable. But after two days of being back it’s like I’m so bored, please God take me back.”
Alex: “That’s right but it has been nice. It feels a lot more of a studio album in a more focused environment, surrounded by some snowy hills. It felt like a nice recording process and less like we needed to deliver a single by midnight that night.”
NC: So are we about to see a more sensible, maturing era of Sports Team approaching the third album?
Rob: “I would say no. We tried it for a bit with Subaru, you know, we’re gonna be this sexy band in suits. But it gets boring and you start getting itchy fingers on social media. You start wanted to do ridiculous things. When the aesthetic of a band is too tied down and too slick, it just becomes so boring and predictable. In a band, you are always your first fan, making music for yourself and the sort of stuff you’d want to listen to. So we kind of thought how do we keep ourselves entertained? And we’ve found as it progresses it’s getting more and more childish again.”
NC: There has always been that jovial nature to the band both on social media and at live shows when people meet you in person. Do you ever feel Sports Team are underrated because of that, particularly with the strength of the lyricism going under the radar?
Alex: “When we first started out, the scene was very pouty, sunglasses on stage, leather jackets. We always found that a bit strange and we just wanted people to see that we were enjoying being in a band. Nowadays this is more common with the likes of The Last Dinner Party and Wet Leg, it’s joyous and out there, you’re allowed to be a group of mates enjoying making music together. I feel like the music industry caught up with us in a way.”
Rob: “I guess also we write about an intellectual sort of aesthetic – carrying a book around artfully, having a letterbox, and making sure you never watch anything that’s considered low brow or whatever. So it’s kind of fun in a way to do all these jokes and stuff, and you get interviews and people say we are like funsters and fun timers. We’re kind of like okay, if you’ve missed the point that’s fine, it’s gone over your head. It’s like one of those Viz magazines where it looks childish but there is a lot of stuff going on beneath the surface.”
NC: You’re heading on a fairly intimate tour. It feels perfect for a high energy Sports Team live show, can you talk us through the thoughts behind the venue choices?
Rob: “It feels like we’re in the pre-album space. We are wanting to keep ticket prices low and wanting the chaotic feel to the shows, a throwback for the day one fans. The cost of venues are so much higher now too, even academies, so we need to be careful not to outprice fans. You look at a college student for example, would they be able to afford ticket, travel, drinks? So we were never going down the money grab box office route.”
You can watch Sports Team on this tour, kicking off in Manchester next week with new music played live ahead of next year’s “Boys These Days” release – out May 23rd. Head to Sports Team for more information and tickets.
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