'Excuse Me While I Vanish', very nearly didn’t happen. Following the imposition of lockdown restrictions, frontman Ruarri Joseph found himself cocooned at home in Cornwall, ruminating on an uncertain creative future, watching on as his wife Mandy, a valiant mental health social worker, engaged with the all-too-real dilemmas of the pandemic-riven here and now. Her example motivated Joseph to become a temporary care worker, an experience which would provide renewed focus and influence the songwriting on the new album.
“My wife was insomniac for the first six months of lockdown, which made it impossible for me to moan or grieve the fact that everything I’d been working on for the last five years had come to a standstill,” he explains. “It was a much-needed perspective and made me realise what a selfish undertaking William had been – navel-gazing with my head in the clouds when what people needed was boots firmly on the ground, preferably on the feet of someone like Mandy.”
But, the band’s fourth album finds the indie-rock trio firing on all cylinders as Joseph confronts the thin line between creativity and madness, inspired by compassion for the real-life angels of the world.
Produced by the band in a playground of vintage gear, and mixed by Barny Barnicott (Arctic Monkeys, Sam Fender, Kasabian), the resulting album’s ten tracks marry earworm tunes with insistent, imperious, soaring rock shapes, punctuated by chorus hooks that are simultaneously nuanced and anthemic.
Joseph’s compelling semi-spoken vocals and swamp-blues-Seattle-scuzz guitars are propelled by the rhythm section of Naomi Holmes (bass) and Harry Harding (drums) as ‘Excuse Me While I Vanish’ delivers an effortlessly winning blend of melody and ensemble dynamics, the most accomplished William The Conqueror album to date.
With William The Conqueror’s live performances drawing wildly enthusiastic comparisons to the likes of Kings of Leon, Nirvana, Buffalo Tom and The Marshall Tucker Band, the trio performed to a packed room at The Great Escape earlier this year and recently completed a European tour with Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats.
The band will also play at Latitude Festival this month, before embarking on a nationwide in-store tour in support of the album’s release across July and August and a full headline tour in October.
