Formed in 2014 in the infamous melting pot of London’s Ladbroke Grove, Smiley & The Underclass are a punky reggae explosion from a world on fire. Their musical call-to-arms invokes a passion and honesty rarely seen in these times of cardboard cut-out pop pollution.
Think Bob Dylan meets The Clash and King Tubby in a dark alley with baseball bats. Mind-altering guitars collide with razor-sharp lyrics and melodies to move your mind, soul, body and feet.
The urgency is real and carries a message powerful enough to awaken all punk rockers and roots rebels in our modern era. Having just released their debut album Rebels Out There through Bredda Records in 2017 (recorded with Mick Jones of The Clash and UK Reggae legend Nick Manasseh), expect heavy musical detonation to shake the core of the UK scene. With revolution on the cards and social unrest all over, Smiley & The Underclass capture the spirit of the times. The band recently played at Alresford Music Festival and recently did a 10 date tour of Japan playing to packed out venues from Tokyo to Osaka to Kyoto followed by a three-week tour of Europe and are set to play Boomtown this year. Check out Rebels Out There below!
We managed to catch up with the band as they talked about their latest release and more!
So how has the release of Rebels Out There gone down so far?
It’s been wonderful! We put out a four track EP a couple of years ago completely D.I.Y. style (We made a little assembly line and made them out of plain card. scissors a stamp and some ink) and then just gigged and gigged round the UK for two years, so “Rebels” is our first proper release really. We did 1000 CDs which are about to run out, and 500 LPs, which are almost gone too. We’re blessed to have had a lot of help from fans and listeners in raising money for the recording, so we’re just relieved that people seem to be digging it!
What’s your favourite track from the release?
When it first came out I would have said Jump the Barrier or [It’s All] England, because I find those songs to be positive and unifying. But as time has passed and we’ve toured a lot more I’ve been loving Babylon Is Spiralling Out of Control, though that might be down to the violent crowd reactions it gets… All thanks to the delights of political and environmental turmoil. Thanks, guys!
Can you tell us something about the release no one else knows?
Errm… We blew up Mick Jones’ guitar amp during one of the sessions? Also the brilliant Stefano Ronch [Italian surrealist artist], who painted the album cover, is hidden somewhere in the artwork along with his beautiful and wise girlfriend, Illianora. They are amazing humans. We met at the Silver Bullet in Finsbury Park. I’d just come offstage covered in sweat and he grabbed me shouting about how culture was our weapon in these troubled times, and insisted that he do the cover for the album. The dude is a genius and his hair changes colour every seven moons.
How was Alresford Festival at the weekend?
Vibes everywhere! A really interesting mix of local community, hippy ramblers, little kids and mad people. We’re doing way more festivals this year than we’ve done in the past, so you can run the risk of them all getting blurred together a bit. But maybe because the locals have so much involvement in Alresford, it felt really unique and honest, rather than that cliquey kind of feel that some of the bigger festivals can have. But yeah, really enjoyed it and love festival season, and can’t wait to bring chaos to hazy fields all over the country! Boomtown, i’m looking at you…
So will you be releasing new music this year at all?
Not sure if it will be released this year but we’re heading into the studio for sure! And we have a really interesting producer in mind too, but I have to keep a lid on it for now. We were lucky enough to work with Nick Manasseh (UK Reggae Legend) and Mick Jones (UK Punk Legend of The Clash) on “Rebels Out There,” which was a crazy, tiring but very rewarding experience. An album takes a long time to get together, especially when you don’t have the kind of financial resources you want and blah, blah, blah, so I think we might do a 4 or 5 track EP. Or maybe just release the tunes online with videos… Or maybe in a USB stick with a load of seeds for… errm… plants.
If you could work with any band on a new song, who would it be and why?
Another difficult question… As a singer? I’d love to work with Millie Manders on some sort of duet. If we’re playing Morbid Fantasy Dead Musician game then obviously people like Joe Strummer, Gregory Isaacs, Kurt Cobain… But in reality we’d probably be shit at harmonising. I love the sound of so many of the current wave of punk and ska bands (Popes of Chillitown and Pussyliquor are killing it right now) but in my heart I love my old rocksteady and Jamaican dub music… Trapped in a red, gold and green time vortex. So i’m gonna say The Wailers (Aston and Carlton Barrett specifically!)
What was your best moment on tour in Japan and Europe?
This tour in Europe my abiding memory will be sleeping on the floor in a house in Germany somewhere in the company of 3 cats, 2 rabbits and 4 guinea pigs which were just loose in the room. That was kind of intense and i’m not sure if it’s a “best moment” but it was certainly a “moment.” In Japan there are too many to mention, but just the general sense that people give a shit and want you to feel happy and welcome. Like in the UK and London especially, we have to claw and fight and beg just to get our friends to come and see us, but in Tokyo they were queuing round the block! I don’t know why and I don’t know how but alot of people in Japan connected with our vibe. I guess it makes sense, our themes are pretty universal. We’re all humans living on an earth that is struggling to breathe, we all bleed and we (mostly) all want to be nice to each other, sweat and have a good time. We were able to see a little of the Rastafari culture in Japan and it was a really lovely realisation of: “Oh, we’re all the same really. We all love decent music and want the world to be as habitable, safe and as kind as it can be. No matter what the skin colour of religious prescription, if any. And that gives me hope. I think i’m rambling now….
