Written by Annie Barber
Photos by Jess Meade
“Tin foil hat [mentality] but they’re always listening,” Crawlers bassist Liv May says. She is referring to an earlier moment during our call where she suddenly lost connection in the middle of a discussion about the detrimental impacts that AI is having on people and the planet. As technology is seeping into every aspect of life, the Northern band are gearing up for their return to the music industry and are pushing back against the new age of tech.
Evidently, it does not take long before things turn to politics. “I think everything that you do as a queer person tends to be inherently political,” says May. It is unsurprising then, that the band are outspoken on topics they care about. One such issue that they are taking on is the rapid expansion of AI. Lead singer Holly Minto says, “being able to project feelings and reflection and inward expression is so important, and that’s something AI can’t replicate.” The others nod in agreement. May does not hold back, saying “we are destroying the planet to have our ideas and creativity be explained and enacted by a computer, and people are slowly becoming dumber because nobody can think and act for themselves anymore because everyone’s relying on AI, and it’s pathetic.”
When the band signed to a major label, they felt like they did not have as much time to foster their creativity as they would have liked. Minto says, “it felt like we didn’t get to be intrinsically involved in that whole creative process, and it got to a point where we didn’t really get to sit and write; like we were so busy, and we were so stop start with the most amazing opportunities that you can’t turn down.” After the band parted ways with their former label, they decided to reconnect with the purpose and goals that they had set out with when they started the group in a shed in Warrington. Speaking about the experience, guitarist Amy Woodall says “it was just kind of like a change of perspective at that point… it was like ‘right, we’re not going to have this label, we’re not going to have, you know, X amount of money behind us. What are we doing it for?’” Soon after, they decided to take a writing trip to Wales, which was where the song ‘AFRAID TO DIE’ came to fruition.
The song is the first on their latest EP, ‘TURN OFF THE TV’, and charts Minto’s experiences of living with functional depression and going into recovery, which she describes as being like an extractor fan that is always on that you do not notice until it is switched off. She says, “I think one thing we’ve always managed to do is be extremely vulnerable in our music.” It is a theme that forms a common thread throughout Crawlers’ music. With this latest EP, the group draw on personal trauma and wider political issues to inform the tracks, never shying away from being honest. ‘COOL’ is a perfect example. Born out of a frustrating writing session between Minto and a rock producer, it is a swaggering track in which she adopts a brash character that is all of the things she wishes she could be. Speaking about its backstory, she says, “I was made to feel really small in that rock kind of world and setting, and I was just like, ‘fuck you’ so I came in with my friend Tom, and I was like, ‘I’m gonna do a heavy, annoying song to prove that I can.’”
The cover for ‘TURN OFF THE TV’ is a mixed media collage with the title hand-written onto it. As a self-proclaimed “DIY band”, they jumped at the chance to get involved in the process after Woodall showed the others a 90s style tea-stained collage. The group have always felt that the band is bigger than just them, and that their audience forms part of a community, which they all feel deeply connected to. In order to reflect this, they decided to have friends to represent each of the songs. They gave each person a written bio and got them to act out the tracks in real time, with photographer Jess Meade capturing it. Afterwards, they printed the photos out and got to work on the collage. The result is a standout and visually pleasing EP cover, which reveals new details with every look.
As the band are answering the first of Karma!’s staple questions (‘if you or your art were a colour, what would it be?), they struggle to come to an agreement. Minto picks charcoal grey as she feels it taps into the theme of duality nicely. Minto retorts, “Liv, I’m not millennial grey,” and the group laughs. She picks “a scarlet cool tone red,” saying it is the colour that comes to mind whenever she thinks of Crawlers. For Woodall, it is definitely something dark. As for their song recommendation, they opt for one of their own, ‘ALL WE HAVE IS US’, since it draws on all of the sonic influences that have informed Crawlers’ work over the years.
By charting life’s highs and lows, Crawlers are tapping into the common threads that bind humanity together. Their journey as a band and the art they create may not be linear, but that is exactly what makes them so great. May sums things up neatly, saying “no matter where we’re at, we’re constantly changing and we’re constantly growing, and that seemed to be something that happens in our music as well.”
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