Wild Beast’s Tom Fleming says bands have to have a "certain amount of arrogance" to be successful.
The band released their first single ‘Brave Bulging Buoyant Clairvoyants’ in 2006 but became better known after being nominated for a Mercury Prize for their 2009 album ‘Two Dancers’, and bassist Tom Fleming thinks bands have to be slightly arrogant in order to do well.
He said: "I don’t think the world has got to be any fairer or better a place since we’ve been making music but I think we still feel – as any good band or artist should feel – that it is you against the world.
"You have to have a certain amount of arrogance mixed with absolute terror that it may or may not work. But that’s the good part, that’s the exciting part."
Tom and his bandmates’ – Hayden Thorpe, Ben Little and Chris Talbot – other albums include their 2008 debut ‘Limbo Panto’, 2011’s ‘Smother’ and ‘Present Tense’, which was released last month, and he claims they’ve never been a "yeah, oh baby" kind of band because their lyrics are important to them.
He told XFM Radio: "I think a lot of our favourite songwriters are lyricists as well. I think lyrics are an instrument. They are supposed to add to a whole – whether those lyrics sound appropriate or inappropriate – lyrics are supposed to have a musical aspect to them too rather than just being words that mean something."
Wild Beasts’ Tom Fleming thinks arrogance is important
