Thom Rylance couldn’t record emotional new Lottery Winners song “without crying” in the booth.
The indie rockers released their new album ‘KOKO’ on Friday (21.03.25) and the frontman admitted there is one song on the candid collection that he doesn’t think they’ll be able to perform live.
Discussing new track ‘Struggling’, he exclusively told BANG Showbiz: “I don’t think I’m ever going to be able to play ‘Struggling’ live.
“I couldn’t even – literally in the middle eight in the booth, you can hear that I’m crying.
“I couldn’t get a take without crying on that one, so I think that we’ll never be able to do that one live.
“But it’s one of my favorites. It’s a really important song to to us as a band.”
The track is similarly as raw as 2021 song ‘Overthink Everything’, which is always an emotional one for Thom and bandmate Katie Lloyd to play live.
Thom explained: “We’ve all had such a journey, and all the songs are real. Like, the worst thing for me is a disingenuous song.
“I think you can just really hear it, you can hear right through it. If it’s been written by a bunch of people to tick boxes, you can tell.
“And I never wanted to be like that. So every word that I sing, I mean – and there’s always a story.
“And obviously, in the band, we all know the stories. So when it’s when it’s like [‘Overthink Everything’] in particular, it does mean a lot to Kate and I.”
Thom wears his heart on his sleeve every time he steps out on stage, but feels himself become another person.
He said: “I’ve spoke to Robbie [Williams] about this as well, because he’s got this other guy, and I’ve got this other guy.
“This version of me isn’t the one that goes on stage. This is another guy, and he turns up all the time, apart from once recently, where he didn’t, and it was just me.
“And that was hard. I was like a deer in the headlights. I didn’t know what to do, I didn’t know what to say, I didn’t know how to move, what to do with my hands, and I was thinking about all those things.”
Even during rare moments like that, the band – completed by Joe Singleton and Rob Lally – rallied behind him.
Thom recalled: “I came off stage that night was in Bournemouth, and I was like, ‘I’m so sorry. It was awful, wasn’t it? I didn’t know what to say. I just couldn’t get into it. I’ve ruined it. I’m really sorry.’
“And they all just gave me a hug and like, ‘What are you talking about? It was great. You were great. The audience loved it. We loved it. You were absolutely – it’s all in your head.’
“They are so supportive. They really are my best, it’s more than friends, it’s more than family even. I can’t describe the bond that we have.”
The band share in each other’s highs and lows, with everything good or bad that happens being felt by them all.
He added: “It’s a really unique kind of bond that you have with your bandmates, especially when you’ve been in the band for so long.”