The Stars Will Grace Their Stage – The Murder Capital take Leeds

Managing to conjure a sound that is as pensive as it is cutting, Irish quintet The Murder Capital’s sophomore album Gigi’s Recovery (2023) sheds light on the bands softer side. While rubbing shoulders with their contemporaries Fontaines DC, Idles and Soft Play, the effort stands as (in part) an amalgamation of musical references, yet simultaneously achieving something that is exceedingly refreshing. Where When I Have Fears (2019) carried the motif of death, Gigi’s Recovery addresses that of life. The two, however, don’t exist in polarity but as companion pieces to one another in terms of the metaphors they stand for and the direction the band is naturally growing. Due to this, evident comments about the album reading as a lot ‘calmer’ than the band’s first offering followed. However, where Gigi’s Recovery succeeds is in showing that there is beauty and strength in being vulnerable, reflective, and slow. Hope permeates Gigi’s Recovery, the album is a triumph – a guarding light in the darkness.

Monday the 20^th of February saw the band return to their favourite tour stop location – the mighty Leeds. Stylus is brimming with people – rows upon rows, slotting into whichever sliver of space is available, plastic cups in hand, all eagerly awaiting a night of live music. The lights dim, the energy rushes and the existential swirl of ‘Existence’ lingers in the air. I stand at the left-hand side of the stage and the band filter single file through the doors to my left and take their places – the stars gracing their stage.

Aesthetically, the quintet is effortlessly stylistic, clad in an eclectic mix of loose shirts, brightly patterned jumpers, and chic suit jackets. The band’s performance throughout is equal parts nonchalant and meticulous, as the quintet perform their rolodex of musical escapades – accompanied by the odd confident crowd surfer being elevated over the standing audiences’ heads. The band winds through their work – with entries from both the first and second album – perfectly balancing the aspects of light and dark within their discography with enough control over the audience to work them into a mosh pit frenzy one second and a pensive reflection the next. Every track is treat for the eyes and ears, but real standouts were fan-favourites of the new album ‘Ethel’, ‘The Stars Will Leave Their Stage’ and ‘Return My Head’.

While most people in attendance headed separate ways after the gig, a select few carried onward to the afterparty – Oporto on Call Lane saw every indie kid around gathered in one intimate venue, many of whom were wearing the same t-shirt showcasing Fontaines DC’s tour dates from late last year (that I also own – guilty as charged). The band slink in and around the venue, making sincere conversation with their fans and posing for any pictures when politely asked to do so. For a band who portray a musical and aesthetic image of being rather nonchalant and blasé, it was exceedingly refreshing to see just how genuinely nice and approachable each member is.

Admittedly, after a few (appropriate) Guinness’s in Stylus and the subsequent journalistic gall, singer James McGovern agreed to have a quick chat and answer some of my burning questions; guerrilla journalism wins again. The interview, albeit it more of a short conversation (so as not to take up their leisure time), is transcribed below:

E: Welcome to Leeds!I read in an interview from Citadel in 2019, that Leeds is your favourite place to play shows. Not to play favourites, but I was wondering if that still holds up?

J: It has held up – and the main reason is because of Nathan at the Brudenell.

E: Right! I love Brudenell; glad to hear you guys are fans!

J: Cause he’s such a legend, that f*cking place is unbelievable; so we love it here, yeah.

E: Well, welcome back – glad to have you guys with us! I also wanted to ask, because the band is influenced by so many artists: if you could be singlehandedly responsible for a singular artists/bands whole discography who would you choose?

J: Definitely Nick Cave.

E: An awesome choice – one that I hadn’t considered but I think you’ve nailed that. So, my main question was about the album artwork, which is beautiful – how do you feel the artwork is representative of the album as a whole piece?

J: What happened was – maybe two years ago, two and a half years ago before we had really written anything, we were like ‘Okay, what do we want to do?’ ‘Who do we want to work with?’ Cause making artwork is always really difficult, you’ve got designers, and they’ve got their ways – and so we were like ‘F*ck it, we want to work with our friends.’ So Peter, who is a great friend of ours, we wanted to work with him. So we met up with him one night, and slid this piece of paper across the bar and we were like ‘We want you to do everything, all the covers, do all the singles and everything’. And then, a couple of years goes by, we’re writing the record and then he started working and he started doing these little sketches, and there was a few ones we didn’t connect with, and then we had that picture of the figure turned away. That struck us straight away, because that felt like introspective but we knew that he would bring like mad colours to it as well, which really was like the whole conversation throughout the album is like colour and texture and atmosphere and all these things. It took a little bit of time to get it to the right place but Peter’s artwork is always really vibrant, it feels like its moving.

E: It reminded me a lot of Joni Mitchell’s artwork – I recently read Morning Glory on the Vine, which is a collection of her poems and sketches and the artwork was really reminiscent of your own. I really love how carefully considered the artwork is for you guys as a band.

J: Thank you, Erin and that’s sick. That’s really beautiful that you can see that connection.

(Damien then arrived and complimented my choice in footwear.)

E: My final question would be – if you could make a time capsule of ‘The Murder Capital’ by choosing 5 tracks that give a holistic view of the band’s work and overall angle, what would you chose?

J: Definitely ‘Slowdances’ (Both of them?) Yeah, that’s counts as one though.

D: ‘We Had To Disappear’ definitely.

J: ‘On Twisted Ground’, ‘Crying’ and ‘Ethel’. I feel like that’s a solid spread.

I will now forever boast that I was showcased on The Murder Capital’s Instagram story as ‘the best interviewer in the game’. I don’t think I’ll ever recover. They were as genuinely nice as they were musically impressive, and I can’t thank them enough.