English Teacher have “already mapped out” the “theme” for their follow-up to their Mercury Prize-winning LP ‘This Could Be Texas’.
The post-punk rock band – comprising Lily Fontaine, Lewis Whiting, Douglas Frost, and Nicholas Eden – took home the prestigious prize for their acclaimed debut album, which was released in April, at this year’s ceremony, beating the likes of Charli XCX’s ‘Brat’ and The Last Dinner Party’s ‘Prelude to Ecstasy’.
And just six months after releasing the record – which tackled several societal issues – the ‘Nearly Daffodils’ group are already starting to shape their next studio effort.
Frontwoman Lily told Uncut magazine of their plans for 2025: “Writing is what I am most excited about.
“We have a few songs written, but we’d like some time to get together outside of touring to collate them into the next body of work.
“I already have the theme mapped out in my brain, and we are hoping to schedule some demo time before Christmas.”
Winning the prestigious prize – which has previously been won by the likes of Arctic Monkeys, PJ Harvey, Wolf Alice, The xx and Skepta – came as a “complete shock” to the band and it gave them “real validation”.
She said: “It was the award we wanted to win more than any other. If you look at the people who have won it in the past, it’s the artists that inspired me to make music, so to see your name alongside those people is a real validation. This is a prize for the curation of an album – it celebrates a body of work and that means a lot.”
Lily continued: “We had no warning, so winning came as a complete shock and we hadn’t prepared a speech. I think you can tell, because I thanked “our pub” instead of “our producer”.
We had a party at The Lexington afterwards and quite a few other nominees came, which was special as we hadn’t had a chance to speak to anybody at the event.”