Working Men’s Club return to Sheffield with a headline slot at No Bounds Festival

Ahead of their headline slot at No Bounds Festival, Exposed caught up with Working Men’s Club frontman and songwriter Syd Minksy-Sargeant to talk No Bounds Festival, Steel City links and recent line-up changes…

Words: Ash Birch
Pictures: Lilie Eiger

You’re back in Blighty with a Sheffield date, headlining No Bounds Festival this month. How are you feeling about that?
I played it last year with a different project and it’s great. I really love Hope Works and everything they do, so hopefully it will fit. It could go either way, I suppose. It’s quite an ominous title, headliner, so I just hope it will fit with the rest of what’s on the bill and people get into it.

You make a lot of your music here in Sheffield. Does it feel a bit like a homecoming?
I live in Todmorden, but the first two Working Men’s Club records were made about two minutes from Hope Works. So, in that sense, it is close to that sort of home; but in terms of an actual hometown gig, it doesn’t feel like that for me. Mairead (O’Connor), who’s part of the live band, she lives in Sheffield, so I guess we’ve definitely got strong affiliations. In that sense, we enjoy playing here and it’s nice to play so close to where I make albums as well.

So, it’s more of a musical affiliation with the Steel City. You made the first two albums with Ross Orton, who has worked with the likes of Arctic Monkeys, M. I. A and Bromhead’s Jacket. How was that?
He’s fucking lovely, he’s one of my best mates! I love working with Ross and we’ve been working with each other for a decent amount of time now. We played together last year for another project we’ve been doing for a while, which is much more solid electronic stuff. We have a really good working relationship and it’s just really easy to be honest. I’ve got nothing bad to say!

Photo: Lilie Eiger

Does that positivity extend to the city itself?
I’ve got a really good relationship with Sheffield, and I’ve spent a lot of time there. I love the history of Sheffield electronic music, which seems to get forgotten quite a lot in the wider northern landscape. How people choose to remember Sheffield electronic music seems to be quite embedded within the underground, which I do like, but it’s a shame as well because I don’t think it gets the kind of respect it deserves. It’s the Steel City, innit! What was once the biggest industrial exporter of steel. I think that’s kind of embedded within the music as well. It’s really interesting how elements of history relate to the music and also the people of Sheffield. There’s great culture in Sheffield that maybe doesn’t see the light of day as much as it should. For example, Cabs [Cabaret Voltaire] don’t get the respect they deserve and they’re still making amazing records.

Did Sheffield institutions like Cabaret Voltaire influence you musically?
When I first started making music with Ross, he said a lot of the elements sound really Sheffield. It’s completely incidental, really. At the time I was making the first record I hadn’t even ever listened to Cabaret Voltaire, or people like Forgemasters and all that early Warp stuff. Obviously, I started listening to those records and I think, to a point, that kind of inspired sounds on the second album.

I love the history of sheffield electronic music, which seems to get forgotten quite a lot

In the early days, you were also compared to Hacienda artists and lumped in with the post-punk movement in the indie scene. Do you feel like that was unfair?
I mean, journalists try to compare you to anything to try and sell stuff, so I try to ignore that. I feel like my music is my music. It seems weird to look backwards when what I’m trying to do is supposed to be looking forwards. I’ve tried to avoid being pigeonholed into any kind of era and I’m not trying to revive anything. I’m 21 now, those first two records I made when I was a teenager, and they were just me making tunes in my bedroom. I wasn’t thinking, ‘I wanna do this, I wanna do that.’ You might as well be in a cover band if you’re doing that.

Over the last few years, there have been a lot of changes in the band’s line-up. Do you still consider Working Men’s Club to be a band?
I see it as a collection of people who make each different stage of the process work. I mean, I write all the tunes and in the studio it’s just me and Ross with different people playing bits and bobs, but predominantly, it’s my project. Now that’s not to discredit or diminish anybody else’s involvement, but I guess it’s my vision musically.

Looking back on the vision for those two albums, how do you feel about them now?
They document where I was at two separate points in time well, and I’m glad that I got two albums out, but for me, I’m trying to look forwards now. They’re done and I hear them when I play live, but I’m always trying to be one step ahead. I think sometimes that can go too far and you just end up stuck in your own head, but I try to be looking forwards. For me, if I could have it my way, I’d be in the studio making tunes every day. As soon as touring season ends, hopefully I can be.

Ok, as a final question, we’re going a bit off topic, but it’s important to ask the big stuff! – what’s your favourite dinosaur?
A very good question… I’m gonna say triceratops. They look like rhinos, man. They’re wicked! Old school rhinos.

Working Men’s Club play the closing sequence of No Bounds Festival on 16th October. Tickets are available now at ra.co.