Fifteen years is a long time to be a band, and it only speaks to the perseverance of Band of Skulls that they're still around to talk about it.
Members Russell Marsden and Emma Richardson have been making it work over the course of five studio albums and two band names since 2004. The duo tells Q104.3's Out of the Box with Jonathan Clarke that they're proud to have a bit of a history, however, complex it may be.
"All bands have those early versions, but in reality we are still that band," Marsden says. "That's the band that Emma and I formed, and though there's been lots of changes since, we're the same band."
He continued, regarding what the band has observed just having visited New York on tour over the course of the last decade.
"It's great because things do change and you see new buildings go up and you see venues opening and closing, and you go and try and find somewhere you've been before and it's not there anymore. Having that sense of time ... we feel really lucky that we've been able to play, and been on the scene, 10 years ago and now. It's cool to have been around a little while."
The band's latest album is Love Is All You Love, named for a song of the same name. Marsden says the song arrived in one of those validating fits of inspiration all artists crave.
"It was a weird one, really," he explains. "It was just a song that happened all in one day. That lyric came with the first moment. ...I just felt the meaning was nice and ambiguous. We were trying to make something that had an uplifting feel, but really the songs on the whole record — including 'Love Is All You Love — have still got a dark undertone that we didn't really expect."
Check out the full interview, plus Marsden and Richardson's in-studio performance of "Love Is All You Love" in the video above!
Get all Band of Skulls' tour dates here.
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Check out the official music video for "Cool Your Battles":