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Wombats new album “Fix Yourself,Not the World”

The Wombats are an English indie rock band formed in Liverpool in 2003. Since its inception, the band’s line-up has consisted of Matthew Murphy (lead vocals, guitar, keyboards), Tord Øverland Knudsen (bass, backing vocals, keyboards), and Dan Haggis (drums, backing vocals, keyboards). Wombats have had lots of success in the music business and honestly from this writer’s perspective they only make bangers. (Let’s dance to Joy Division, Jump into the Fog, Greek Tragedy, and Your body is a weapon) this is only to name a few. It’s helped the band surpass a billion worldwide streams.

January 7th 2022 marks the debut of their new album “Fix Yourself, Not The World” marking the fifth  album in this band’s incredible run. 15 years and three top 5 UK albums into their career, The Wombats are pulling in a bigger audience than ever before. The viral success of Oliver Nelson’s remix of their 2015 hit “Greek Tragedy” on TikTok has enraptured a whole new generation of fans, a feat they’ve managed to continually repeat since their 2007 debut A Guide To Love, Loss & Desperation. Used in over 600,000 videos (some of which have over 100 million views), the remix has rocketed to over 30 million streams, propelling the original to 120 million streams and sending it Gold in the US. 

  I had the opportunity to interview Dan Haggis (drummer for the band) ; he was recently diagnosed with Covid-19 and was on lockdown. The funny thing is as I am writing this article I myself am fighting off Covid-19 and it’s a reminder to how our world has changed. Music was no different as the band also recorded the whole album remotely.Recording remotely over the past year from their respective homes, the band has been working hard to produce some of the most captivating, inventive and forward-thinking music of their career to date. With Murph” in Los Angeles, bassist Tord Øverland Knudsen in Oslo and drummer Dan Haggis in London, they discussed each day’s plan via Zoom, then recorded separately, sending individual files to producers Jacknife Lee (U2, The Killers), Gabe Simon (Dua Lipa, Lana Del Rey), Paul Meaney (Twenty One Pilots, Nothing But Thieves) and Mark Crew (Bastille, Rag‘n’Bone Man) to mix into the finished tracks. “It was pure madness, to be honest,” explains Murph. 

The album from front to back is amazing with gems of genius spread throughout the album, from lyrics to melody and even the album title “Fix yourself, Not the world” is a gentle reminder the only way to fix our world problems isn’t canceling each other and being the judge and jury, however the reminder that we are all imperfect and the best way to start changing the world is to change the opinions of the man in the mirror.“It’s about cancel culture,” Murph says of pointed lines like “why don’t you chop my tongue out?” and “you don’t speak for me”. “The toxicity of social media. One of my friends said there’s no room for nuance in anyone’s opinions or views on the world, you’re either with us or you’re against us. I think people are sucked into a vortex of pretty bad ideologies when I feel like wouldn’t it be nice if we formed our own ideology individually and talked about them properly, rather than shoving them down people’s necks or cancelling people for not agreeing with us? Where is the conversation, because it’s not gonna progress anywhere without being able to talk to one another intelligently. Maybe the things you’re talking about are far, far, far too complex to be put in 280 characters.” Says lead singer Mathew Murphy 

The songs on this album are so different but so familiar as if this album has always been a part of my life, I asked Drummer Dan Haggis what was your favorite songs on the album? “Method to the Madness” and “People don’t change people, time does” are my favorite songs on this album. Those songs are the songs that really just stood with me, after we made them and I was going home leaving the studio, I remember putting the working tracks on as I was driving in LA blasting the songs and I was like whoa, this morning these songs didn’t exist and now here they are. It feels so good. I love all of our songs but these two just felt special, and I remember with “Greek Tragedy” it was one of those moments where you feel you go outside of yourself for a moment and it’s almost like somebody else made the song.  I love this part of music the best when you see your work come together and you almost don’t recognize where it came from, as if it were given to us from the ether.” says Dan

This album is beyond what I expected, when bands typically make it to five albums you tend to see a couple good songs on an album surrounded by a bunch of filler, but honestly this album is All Killer and No Filler. With the injection of the social media app TikTok which allows its users to create content using a variety of original songs and mixes to create art and share it on their platform the music of The Wombats have acquired a whole new generation of fans that have transformed them from successful rock musicians to World Wide superstars, that has cemented their legacy as future Hall of Famers. As millions and millions of fans discover them a month The Wombats sky rocket ascension to the top has been an amazing process to watch. We would like to invite all of our wonderful readers to check out The Wombats new album Fix Yourself, Not the World wherever you consume your music.  

Fix Yourself, Not The World tracklist:

1. Flip Me Upside Down

2. This Car Drives All By Itself

3. If You Ever Leave, I’m Coming With You

4. Ready For The High

5. Method to the Madness

6. People Don’t Change People, Time Does

7. Everything I Love Is Going To Die

8. Work Is Easy, Life Is Hard

9. Wildfire

10. Don’t Poke The Bear

11. Worry

12. Fix Yourself, Then The World (Reach Beyond Your Fingers)

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