The view from my window: Jason Williamson on Nottingham and Brexit Britain

Jason Williamson, right, with Andrew Fearn, of Sleaford Mods. Photo / Ewen Spencer

Jason Williamson is part of the UK duo the Sleaford Mods. He also starred as Lazarus in Peaky Blinders. Williamson gives a glimpse of his view from Nottingham on the world as the band marks their most successful album yet, which delivers the focused rage and dysfunctional funk the duo push forth. The album is a howl against Brexit Britain and its afflictions.

I’m in the home office in our house where I handle stuff relating to my band, Sleaford Mods, and my wife – our manager – does all our paperwork. Balanced against the wall behind me is the classic God Save The Queen Sex Pistols’ image - that was gifted to me by Jamie Reid, the designer who created that and the other Pistols artwork. He did a series of prints to raise funds for a housing charity in Liverpool and I feel honoured that he reached out and gave me one, as the Sex Pistols are a huge part of what inspires us to make the music we do. That sense of singing directly about the Britain we live in really demonstrated how you can use music to protest about what’s going on around us.

We live in south Nottingham and, when I look out the window, I see wide open streets. It’s very leafy, suburban, a nice place for the family to live. The success of the Mods has enabled us to shift to this neighbourhood – it’s more middle class than where I used to live – and I like the space and quiet. It’s the start of spring here and today’s cold and sunny. Nottingham is not renowned as one of the country’s more noted cities but I like living here. I’ve lived here since 1996 and have lived in most parts of Nottingham – I’ve lived here longer than I lived in Grantham, where I grew up, so Nottingham’s definitely my adopted city. It’s half the size of Birmingham and has lots of old Victorian architecture and is definitely the city that gave rise to Sleaford Mods. Andrew [Fearn, his band mate] and I have a studio where we do all our band stuff, rehearsing and recording, about 3km from here.

I do write about what I see around me so some of our new album, UK Grim, is inspired by what goes on in Nottingham. But I’m not simply focused on what’s local. No, I’m trying to address the UK in all its awfulness. And it is awful these days. It’s f***ing terrible. The Government is so wretched and they’re not even trying to hide it anymore – they’re corrupt, self-serving, part of the problem that has always kept this country down. Some people see what’s happening but others fall for the big lie – blaming immigrants or other social groups - for the nation’s problems. The recent spat between Gary Lineker and the BBC exemplifies how the Government doesn’t want dissenting voices heard. Will things change? No, it will carry on. Even if Labour win the next election, they are very centrist. It’s an ongoing tragedy and things are likely to get a lot more authoritarian before they get better.

Having so much bad news dominating doesn’t make it any easier for me to write the songs I write. To write something that’s effective you have to dig deep – you need to really express it, not just shout slogans. Do that and you end up sounding like a tabloid newspaper. And there are a lot of bands who are doing that. And I’m sick of them. For me, I need to deconstruct a situation, get inside it, to write about it. I don’t want to put anything s*** out. It’s bad enough just commenting on things and not doing anything about it. But now I’ve got to this relatively comfortable position I don’t really want to do anything. I know, I’m becoming this cliche of just another white guy moaning.

The thing is, we are, first and foremost, entertainers. We’re not a political organisation, we are musicians. Our primary aim is to write good pop songs. Of course, now that we’re successful we get stick from all these younger punk bands who want to have a go at us, take us down a notch. I do get tired of their carping and I addressed this on D.I.Why on UK Grim because I get pissed off at their posturing and bulls***. I do spend a lot of time on Twitter so I see all their crap but, at the same time, I need to stand above it. It’s not dignified to be responding to such. Twitter’s useful as a way of getting an idea of what people are thinking - the public psychology - and my job consists of thinking about what’s out there, what’s happening, so I tap into it and pay attention. And for music as well, people making contact, reaching out, new artists. Social media can be deadening but it’s got its uses.

Andrew and I get on well. We’re a musical partnership and we don’t argue – we don’t need to. We both know what we need to do. We like working together and when we get in the studio and listen to one another things start happening fast – we can work on two or three songs a day. That said, now we’re established some songs take longer as we’re trying to push the boat out. Some bands are riven with conflict, but not us. If we find we’re disagreeing on a song then we discard it and move on. Ego doesn’t get in the way of us creating together.

Jason Williamson, left, with Andrew Fearn, of the Sleaford Mods. Photo / Ewen Spencer

Iggy Pop’s long been the Mods’ greatest champion, which is quite surreal. To have this legendary rocker playing our music on his radio show, 6 Music, every week was unbelievable when we were getting going. I stay in contact with him via email and he’s such a lovely man. And he has a huge appetite and enthusiasm for new music. He’s a real punk – very accessible and down-to-earth.

The late Terry Hall was another friend of the band. We couldn’t believe it when he got in touch with us and asked us to tour with The Specials – that was a dream come true! He was a very private man and had a lot of depression issues. I think he might have been bipolar. He was quite intense in a lot of respects. The Specials were one of the old-school, classic bands who really laid it down and told things as they were. I do see us as part of the lineage of British bands who aren’t afraid to sing about what society’s like – the Pistols, The Jam, Stone Roses, The Specials - all of them brilliant.

The last time we played in New Zealand was just before the pandemic. People were talking about Covid but it hadn’t hit yet. At the time I thought it was just a spin. And then I quickly realised it wasn’t. Spare Rib was our Covid album – we made it during lockdown – while UK Grim is our post-Covid album. But the energies of the pandemic linger – the aggression and isolation and phobia of talking to people … all these things got to us during lockdown. There’s still a lot of fear and paranoia out there. Then we came out of Covid and the Ukraine war started. It’s a dark time at the minute and I don’t think we have dealt with it psychologically yet.

New Zealand was striking to visit – it felt like a different world. I’m really looking forward to getting back. Last time there I remember working on Spare Rib – we were starting to write that album. This time I just want to chill a bit and enjoy being there. Have a break from the UK. It’s grim here and, while you have your problems, perhaps you’re a bit more optimistic. I hope so.

As told to Garth Cartwright.

UK Grim, by is the Sleaford Mods, is No. 3 in the UK charts (and No. 28 NZ - their first chart placing here) and is out now.