Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes

For a band who burned as bright as Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes did when they exploded onto the UK punk scene in 2015, nobody could’ve imagined the band they’d become. Since the release of their firecracker first EP Rotten, it’s been a bewildering eight years for the Frank Carter and Dean Richardson. They’ve put out four killer albums, toured with Foo Fighters, headlined festivals, bagged three UK Top 10 singles, and featured Tom Morello, Bobby Gillespie and Cassyette to guest on their tunes. Now on the cusp of releasing their fifth LP, Honey, the two old friends are taking stock. “Normally we don’t look backwards when making a record, but this has been looking to reach us for a long time,” Richardson explains. Some songs are old ideas reworked, fresh eyes on something that didn’t quite fit on their other records. Richardson remembers, “Some of these songs were lost along the way because basically we didn’t really give them the space.”

In contrast to their previous records – which were snapshots of the time and mindset in which they were made – Honey was born from self-reflection, memory and gratitude. “I’m just witnessing the world change so quickly around me and I’m still trying to come to terms with who I am and what the authentic version of me is,” Carter says. “By giving people what I thought they wanted I think I got further and further away from who I actually am, you know? So now, first and foremost, I’m prioritising what I need.

The southern gothic balladry and crooning alt rock that they’ve experimented with on their previous releases is boldly up front on this record. There are a select few mosh pit ragers on there too, for good measure. It’s not so much a new direction, but Carter and Richardson centering who they really are, mining their souls and unearthing the music that lives within them. “From the start, the ballads always came easy to us,” Richardson remembers. “But at no point did we question whether we should make more of them. Now we are.”

Carter explains that this is the most authentic album he’s ever made, and that came from them doing the work, and really getting to know themselves and each other. “We’ve lived a lot of life together,” Carter says. “A lot has rested on our shoulders. In a creative sense that’s a beautiful thing.”

That life they’ve lived together includes selling out a headline show at London’s Alexander Palace back in February 2020. Seeing 10,000 Rattlesnakes disciples singing back every word is a moment the band cherish and speak of with heart. No mean feat for a couple of hardcore kids from Hertfordshire. Four weeks after that gig, though, the pandemic came and fucked everything up. The band’s momentum was marred. Their focus and drive became confusion and sorrow. Eventually, as the world slowly began to rebuild itself, so did Carter and Richardson. They released Sticky in 2021 – a punk rock onslaught made to drag you out of your slump quicker than you can say “dodgy PPE contracts”. Carter said at the time that it’s “not a lockdown record, but a freedom record.” It was crystal clear. This was a statement of intent. The lads planned to charge on as they’d began; writing anthems for the ages and playing gigs that change people’s lives.

Since then, to their amazement, they’ve found homes in the hearts of rockers outside of the UK too. “It’s growing everywhere, especially in Europe,” Carter notes. “There have been moments of actual surprise when walking on stage, you know? Seeing that many people for headline shows or late night festival slots in France. Portugal was fucking mad too! It was amazing. And The Netherlands specifically have been really, really good to us.

He’s referring to their back-to-back sold out gigs at ____ in _____. “The crowd has changed, like with each record really. I feel good about that as it’s just more diverse now,” Richardson says.

As a band known for their electric live shows, a growing and more diverse audience brings with it a need for mosh pit mindfulness, Carter explains. “The audience is a cross-section, and while that’s great, there’s a level of maintenance that comes with that where you have to give power to every section of it to make sure that everyone’s policing themselves in the correct way. Sometimes you’ll see some dude who is six foot and four hundred pounds trying to crowd surf and he’s not quite aware of who’s at the front of that crowd.”

Richardson adds, “I’m six foot two and I have to be more aware. I used to climb on the crowd but now I check who is actually in that crowd. Sometimes there’s no route in because the crowd are much younger or just smaller than me. But I think having a more diverse crowd is really exciting for me.”

When talking about their success, however, the band hone in what that word means to them over anything else. “I feel liberated from most of the chains of success that I had before,” Carter explains. “I had a nice car, I had a decent amount of money, you know, but now I couldn’t give two fucks about all that.” He goes onto to say what he’s most grateful for now is “the hours I get with my family, and for nature.”

When asked if their accolades have inspired their musical direction at all, Carter’s responds, “Successes never influence us because if you allow success to influence you, then you’re going to lose what you’re all about.”

This idea makes up the lyrics of their first single off Honey, the fist-clenching power rock belter Man of the Hour. A perfect example of their knack for making tunes that are at home on BBC Radio 1 as they are on Download festival mainstage or in your local DIY punk venue. A confident dance between indie, punk and hard rock, welcoming all and isolating no one.

The lyrics, Carter explains, question the idea of rock stardom, and where it fits in 2023. “We talk about how rock and roll will never dies, but we never really talk about how maybe the idea of the rock star should die. The whole concept and what it means has always been this glamorised moment, but ultimately when I put that suit on, it didn’t go very well for me.”

The ‘Man of the Hour’ in the song, they tell me, is gender, age and race nonspecific, but a character that we all could, to our own detriment, be or aspire to. Carter is cautious to expand further and assign specific and personal backstories behind his lyrics, so to not take away the power of interpretation for the listener. “That’s a gift of being a songwriter. You get to hear how it’s interpreted along the way and the power of that meaning to someone else. What an amazing thing to be part of, to help people along their path while you’re help yourself along your own, you know? I would never want to take away from anyone that opportunity to grow and to learn to find something out about themselves.”

Much like the songwriting, the recording process was different this time round. Richardson produced the last two albums himself but this time round they recorded across different studios and with a variety of talented eyes and ears helping to shape it. They’d record some bass and drums at Livingston studios in North London, have a break, reflect, then head to their own studio space and get guitars and keys down. The vocals were recorded with Carter’s vocal coach Lorna Blackwood in her conservatory. These gaps between sessions, they say, also helped the record manifest. “I felt it was a much longer, more detailed and considered process this time round.” Richardson remembers. That considered approach has brought violins and synths into the mix. Moments of sparseness and delicate harmony complementing the denser, heavier instrumentation elsewhere on the album. Carter adds, “The softness and introspection came by us just giving space to everything when recording.”

The two return to the word “space” often as they discuss Honey. They’re referring to not just the space that’s sonically present in the music, but to the space they’ve given to each other and to themselves. The space to breathe, to wonder, to be. “Some of these lyrics are from many years ago,” Carter remembers. “The first lyric I wrote for the album I actually wrote before COVID. All of those introspective moments in the past were screaming to be let out and to be an anchor, you know, and to be owned by us.”

Honey is a bold exploration of who Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes were, who they are and who they can someday be. There’s an undeniable strength in self-acceptance and in the search for your authentic spirit. That strength emanates from them as they talk and it can be heard in droves on their new album. As they gear up for their first ever acoustic mini-tour next month, full-band UK and Euro tours in early 2024 and the release of Honey in January, Carter and Richardson have never been more ready.