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You were meant to play Clockenflap in 2019. It finally happened. In that time, the pandemic gave us a chance to reset and fix a lot that was wrong with the world … but we squandered it.

Talbot: The world is a very complex and big place, my man. I don’t think Covid had much to do with anything except the progress of the right[-wing politics] – but people were already voting for the right-wing side of things because they were scared financially and seeking comfort in blaming other people, predominantly brown, poor people. So, f*** the king.

One of my favourite lyrics of yours is, “The best way to scare a Tory is to read and get rich”, from 2017 breakout single “Mother”. All that preaching didn’t work, did it?

Talbot: That’s not true. It’s not a collective thing – I spoke for myself, it wasn’t preaching. I was telling you how I feel, and I still feel the same. I still despise the Tories, and the general public’s [opinion] have nothing to do with my opinion. [But] that’s not to say it didn’t work with them.

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A lot of your music is so engaged with British issues and culture – why do you think, say, a pro-immigration anthem like “Danny Nedelko” can still create a mosh pit in Japan?

Talbot: It’s not specifically British, is it? I’m singing about the human condition. I started the band because I wanted to feel like I was part of something much greater than myself; I wanted to feel a connection with the universe and a connection with people. That is a human condition, that’s got nothing to do with British politics.

Bowen – I can’t help noticing you representing with the LCD Soundsystem T-shirt (above). How did you end up working with the group on what became Tangk’s first single, “Dancer?”

Bowen: When we were writing the song, Joe came up with the backing vocals and the idea for the chorus, and his reference point was LCD Soundsystem. When we were touring with LCD we got a call from Nigel Godrich, who was producing the album and said, “The vocals we’ve got here are not really working, it’s just not slamming.” So we’re like – we’re with the people we referenced, we might as well ask them. And we did and they acquiesced and it was great.

Talbot: We’ve always wanted to make people dance, and there’s a violence in our tone – and those two things are very apparent in LCD.

Much as Crawler was a reaction to Ultra Mono, it seems like Tangk is a reaction to that.

Talbot: It’s all reactions to the previous thing, which is always present in where we’re at. There’s gratitude to where we’re at. We understand how lucky we are, and the way we show that is through transgression and challenging ourselves, moving forward. We can’t sit comfortably, otherwise we become comfortable and boring. To be interesting is to be interested, and to be interested is to be interesting. The bored get boring – we just want to move forward.

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So, what led you to working with Nigel Godrich of Radiohead fame and DJ/producer Kenny Beats on this album?

Bowen: What we’re working towards is that in a lot of our favourite music, the production is involved in the songwriting itself. Before the last album, we were very much a live band. My favourite bands are Portishead, Radiohead, all the ‘heads – and they all use production as an element in the writing. What we got from working with Nigel is, he’s worked with bands when they make left turns – Beck, Radiohead, Here We Go Magic – he’s a good person to be around when you’re making those tentative steps into the unknown. He can restore your confidence.

The first two records were so immediate and really grabbed the zeitgeist, for a while you were rock music’s toast. It feels like now you’re fighting to redefine yourself and enter a new era.

Talbot: Yeah, we did that with Ultra Mono. We consciously had to cut that tie, because we didn’t want to be owned by anyone. “You’re the angry political type,” – no, we live in a country that’s falling apart. We’re talking about it because we have fears and wants and needs. I’ve only ever sung about the human condition – people try and own that. With Ultra Mono, we tried to make the most grotesque and bloated version of ourselves in order to burn it down, kill it and move on.

But then it seemed like you disowned the record as soon as you released it.

Talbot: We didn’t disown it. We play a lot of it live and we love it, we own everything we’ve made. I love every record we’ve made. There’s a song on Joy I don’t like because it’s not me. I don’t play “Great” because I was just angry and I didn’t write truthfully, I wrote defensively and it was stupid.

I don’t play “Model Village” because at the time I didn’t want to have conversations about it, but yeah, I stand by “Model Village” – I love that song. I’d love to play that sometime.

So, what’s the greatest misconception about Idles?

Talbot: That we are one thing.

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What about all the accusations that you “faked” being working class?

Talbot: That’s not our concern. If you [look back] – not that you would – there are interviews around Brutalism where people are trying to tell me I’m working class, and I say, no, I’m middle class. But obviously people are obsessed with class in our country, and that’s something I put to bed a long time ago. It’s also not a conversation I’m interested in, but the idea of discontent is associated with a class – you can’t own discontent or subversiveness from the working classes, it’s up to everyone to question their authority and make life better for everyone as a socialist construct, right. It just doesn’t benefit one person, it benefits everyone.

On a more mundane level, you were part of what feels like the last hurrah of guitar bands. Could you have broken through in the same way today?

Bowen: I don’t think so.

Talbot: It’s hard to say. It’s also not our business. It’s not our interest to understand the business.

So what was your secret in getting here?

Talbot: It’s a perfect storm of a lot of things. No 1: serendipity – a huge amount of it has to do with luck and timing. But I think our work ethic and our appreciation and gratitude for what we do, is conveyed in everything we do. We put everything into what you see, hear or feel about us. Our live show is great, it’s really good – we’d love it to be better – but it is as good as it can be any night because we put everything into it. We’re very ambitious, and we seize every opportunity that comes at us.

Anything else you want to say about the new record?

Talbot: F*** the king. Thanks for the great questions.

You didn’t seem to like the questions much.

Talbot: I don’t not like them – I either answer passively or I don’t answer at all. It’s up to you.