Interview
Interview
Mallory Knox talk 10 years of Asymmetry
The British alt-rock heavyweights reflect on the success of their second album ahead of their 2024 comeback tour
In the early 2010’s, British alternative rock was having a moment.
With the likes of Enter Shikari, You Me At Six and Lower Than Atlantis dominating the airwaves and rising up the charts, when Mallory Knox emerged onto the scene with their debut album Signals in 2013, they found themselves part of a swiftly growing community.
The soaring anthemic choruses of ‘Lighthouse’ and the crushing riffs of ‘Death Rattle’ cemented them as key players in the movement, and vocalist Mikey Chapman and his bandmates immediately felt right at home.
“When we were younger, we’d see things like Taste Of Chaos and the Kerrang! Tour. There were these cohorts of bands playing together, and I remember thinking how cool it must be to have that camaraderie,” Chapman recalls.
“Flash forward by five or so years, and we were a part of it. I felt very proud of that, and we were all experiencing everything for the first time. There were so many uncertainties, and everybody was kind of winging it.”
Turning heads in every city whilst on the road with Don Broco and A Day To Remember across the UK, as 2014 rolled around the pressure to set to work on a follow-up full-length set in. With bassist Sam Douglas conjuring up a series of structural concepts and lyric ideas before joining forces with Chapman to stir the pot together, the pieces began to slot into place. Ideas naturally formed as they jammed together, and the trepidation of the dreaded second album soon wore off, giving way to a new type of excitement.
With not only a few years of touring experience under their belts, but a whole host of new life experience, as Chapman and Douglas continued to put pen to paper they noticed a shift in their songwriting. The abstract concepts and intricate imagery of their debut lyrical outputs became much more informed by their own lived experiences and frustrations, and they embraced the natural evolution.
“You want to keep hold of what made people fall in love with you, but you also want to add new elements in,” the frontman remembers.
“I started getting pissed off at the world and understanding politics a bit more. I saw the impact these things had on not only our community, but on our families. That reflected in the songs we were writing. Also, by that point we’d had our first few big breakups with partners, and sadly suffered some loss. All of those things started to come out in our music.”
With more adult responsibilities and consequently more adult problems, the songs on Asymmetry became much more direct and personal than the band’s previous efforts. From the rallying cries of opener ‘Ghost In The Mirror’ – exploring the feeling of being haunted by someone’s presence – to the empowering notes of ‘When Are We Waking Up?’ asserting the importance of never losing hope, each of the album’s eleven tracks still feel remarkably urgent.
The success of Signals had caught the attention of major label Epic Records, and the five-piece were put in touch with legendary rock producer Gil Norton. Armed with a batch of pre-prepared song ideas, drums for the album were recorded at South Wales’ Rockfield Studios – a previous working space for the likes of Oasis and Brian Eno – before the band headed to Bath’s Moles Studio with Norton to carry out the remainder of the process. Faulty wiring in the nightclub below causing the studio to go up in smoke whilst the band were home for the weekend, and they found themselves in the producer’s home studio, sitting amongst GRAMMY awards and platinum records.
“We must have been a pain to work with. We were very staunch in our resistance to some of his input, largely because we would practice and write four or five times a week. A lot of the time, songs were brought to the table not as question marks, but as finished products,” Chapman admits.
“At the time, the excitement came in what the potential of a connection with someone like Gil might facilitate,” he continues.
“In hindsight though, it was more about what you can learn from people like Gil in regard to the process, especially from a singing perspective. I don’t think I realised it at the time, but it was a fantastic education in a lot of studio etiquette, recording processes, and production processes. Looking back, that was worth its weight in gold.”
With scene heavyweights Enter Shikari and Bring Me The Horizon introducing a whole host of electronic elements and slick production to their sound at the time, the goal for Mallory Knox became to maintain their analogue simplicity. Focused on delivering driving rock songs that captured the heart, soul, and spirit of what made them fall in love with the genre, each moment needed to strike something visceral within each of them.
“The byproduct of rehearsing so consistently was that no bit of writing we did was ever hypothetical. If we were jamming and something manifested goosebumps for us… that was the litmus test,” Chapman says.
“We were our own test dummies for so many of the album’s moments, and that translated well onto the stage.”
Becoming a staple live band of the British rock scene during the mid-2010’s, Mallory Knox announced their split in 2019. With Chapman departing in early 2018 – leaving Douglas to take on lead vocal duties for their final year – the frontman had spent plenty of time dwelling on a possible return. With the idea taking up an increasingly larger space in his mind, the day finally arrived earlier this year in the form of two reunion sets at Slam Dunk Festival 2024, and as Chapman stepped onstage alongside his bandmates again – he felt a release.
“It was a source of therapy, and the crowd seemed as happy to be there as we were. I was blown away to see so many familiar faces, all with salt and pepper hairs in their beards now,” he smiles.
“Once we got going, it almost felt like riding a bike. So many things that we’d drummed into ourselves all those years before came to the surface, and there was such a euphoria in hearing that many people make noise in unison again. I was overwhelmed. One minute I was crying, and the next minute I was laughing my ass off. I could have paid a therapist £20,000 and they still wouldn’t have hit on some of the points that those shows did for me.”
With plenty having changed in their respective lives since the last time they all shared a stage, time away from Mallory Knox has given the Cambridge natives some much-needed perspective. A chance to step back and rediscover an appreciation for everything music has gifted them – and they’re returning with a new level of gratitude.
“You can lose track of what it means to perform, to have people watch you perform, and the impact that your presence can have on someone and their experience of the world,” Chapman nods.
“Now, I’m not just playing with the blinkers on. I’m appreciating it for what it is, and how unique an experience it is to be on a stage with those people in front of us. It’s a very rare thing for a human to experience, and we’re very fortunate.”
With a run of headline shows set to pay homage to 10 years of Asymmetry this October, reflection has become the key for Mallory Knox in 2024. Getting back in a room together and reacquainting themselves with songs that have resonated so deeply with their fanbase over the last decade, they’re returning to the UK’s stages recharged, refocused, and ready to take in every single second.
“I used to be scared of getting older, but now it feels like this wonderful Disney-esque circle of life moment. When I was a teenager, there were bands that inspired and motivated me to do this, and one of my greatest regrets is that I never got the opportunity to thank Chester Bennington for what he did for me. Now, as time has passed, the boys and I have become that for other people. That’s such an honour,” Chapman nods.
“There was a long period of time over the last seven years where I didn’t think that we would be in this position again. The fact that there are people out there who still love these tunes enough to part ways with their money and to make the effort to come… that means the world,” he finishes.
“If you’re constantly looking forward and never taking a moment to reflect and celebrate your wins, what’s the point? Mallory Knox being able to exist like this again is a win, and celebration is first on the agenda for us now. It’s time to reflect on all that we’ve done, and to understand the things that worked as well as the things that didn’t work. If we reflect, repack, and repurpose, whatever this band becomes going forward will be stronger and greater.”
Photo by Mike Lewis Photography/Redferns
