“This album is such an ambitious piece of work for us: we’ve levelled up what Space Pistol is in every way.” With the hype surrounding their upcoming UK tour on the up-and-up, we sat down with bassist Ash Sainsbury and drummer Tom Darby to talk all about the band’s upcoming sophomore record, as well as the heat-stricken dangers of wearing pink jumpsuits on stage.

Space Pistol’s second full-length album is on the way, and it’s called ‘Headlocker.’ As Sainsbury explained, “the theme of ‘Leave With Everything’ was learning the power of ‘no’ and controlling your own neuroses and your own addictions: you’re leaving with everything that’s important to you and healthy for you. The idea of ‘Headlocker' is: now I’m in a better place, but I’m left with my own head and my own mental issues, with no buffers or aids in order to escape it. All of the things that were dulled down are now at full volume: I’ve got to raw dog my own head!” In many ways, the band are looking to one-up their previous work, describing their upcoming crop of tracks as “a violent album. With ‘Leave With Everything,’ we wanted to make an album that had an ebb and flow: it wasn’t necessarily for those people who knew Space Pistol before. This time, we’re kicking down the door and kicking your teeth in from the get go. We wanted to just [take a] shotgun to the face— this is Space Pistol, this is it.”

A key element setting the new record apart from its predecessor is new member Tom Darby, who joined Space Pistol back in December. “I was already a fan of these guys for years, so it felt seamless. It makes it easier when you actually love the music, to be honest, so you’re not gritting your teeth through the whole process.” Though the record was already written when Darby met up with the crew— as Sainsbury put it, “Dan is an absolute songwriting machine: his ADHD superpower is that he’s hyper-focused on songwriting”— the drummer was still thankful for the opportunity to, as he put it, “leave your own drumstick marks all over the songs. It was fun to take these songs I’d been used to hearing and add my own thing to them.” The band’s bassist was even more emphatic than that, describing Darby as “as absolutely phenomenal drummer. The mark that he’s left is absolutely incredible: it was evident that there was no way we could’ve pulled it off without Tom.”

From the sounds of it, ‘Headlocker’ is shaping up to be a truly monstrous addition to the group’s catalogue. On the direction the band wanted to head in this time around, Sainsbury remarked that “I would say there’s a real level of intensity and drive to the album. We play a lot with what Space Pistol can do— we’ve pushed the boundaries even further with ‘Headlocker.’ There’s a lot more technicality: there’s a lot more ADHD-madness!” For Darby, it’s the album’s unpredictability that stood out as a major highlight. “The main thing we were talking about throughout was ‘rug-pull moments,’ where we’re constantly pulling the rug from underneath your feet and you don’t know whats comes next. That sense of anticipation can be felt throughout: for me personally, that’s what I find so interesting about the music that I like.” The band were keen to tease a number of elements we can look forward to hearing on ‘Headlocker,’ describing the record as “a whole journey. There’s a song that’s very ballad-like— it’s very Smashing Pumpkins. It’s even got a recording of Dan’s girl on it singing doing harmonies: there are strings on it! The heavy isn’t as heavy if you don’t have the opposite, so we’re really big on working those dynamics.”

Speaking on the recording sessions for the new album, Space Pistol were keen to share just how passionate they are about their upcoming release. As Darby put it, “you could just feel the intensity in the room, especially with these guys wanting to hone in on what they were hearing in their heads in the first place. And for our producer Dave Draper as well, because he does such a great job: I think he really cared about the project.” Sainsbury echoed the same sentiment, emphasising the energy the band were feeling in the studio. “As we started to get through it, we started to realise that we’ve got something really serious on our hands here. And all of a sudden, we’ve got quite a responsibility to pull this off and do it justice. We were just kicking each others’ asses, jumping around and dancing and cheering and throwing each other in the air!” Space Pistol will be offering a taste of the new album via a single ‘Space Pirate,’ releasing soon.“The song is essentially about escaping your problems: the theme of it is actually about a friend of Dan’s who just went off to Thailand to get away from everything. ‘Space Pirate’ is the opener for the album. We just wanted to come back with a bang and really knock the door down.”

The band will be going on a massive UK tour next month, including a host of collaborative shows with doom metal crew Froglord: for Darby, “this is the moment that it’s really been leading to for me, and for the rest of the guys. At the end of the day, if you could take everything else away and be left with one thing, you’d want to be doing the gig.” Sainsbury was also keen to shoutout the bands Space Pistol have shared the stage with before, commenting that “the best thing that happens at a gig is where you play with a band who you instantly fall in love with. It’s great meeting bands and it’s great meeting people— touring is one of the best things in the world because it’s a real rarity when you meet a band who are not just a lovely bunch of people.” For as aligned as the group were on so many topics, though, their views on Space Pistol’s striking pink jumpsuits could not have been more different. Where Sainsbury boldly declared that “if there’s a fan of stage, it’s getting switched off: if I’m not absolutely drenched in sweat and bright red and gasping for air, we’ve done something wrong!,” Darby let us in on his preparations for the tour. “I despise being overly hot, so I’m bringing my fan— the only fan I’ve got— with me to all the shows!”

To round things out, we of course had to know what album the guys would bring to a desert island: this time around, the choice was not an easy one for either musician. As Darby eventually settled on, “historically, for me, it probably would be ‘Songs For The Deaf’ by Queens of the Stone Age: that’s just one that, since I was a kid, it’s stuck around. There’s not a bad song on there, so I’d say that’s a solid pick for me.” For Sainsbury, the choice was even more painful! “I’ll just choose ‘Bringing It All Back Home” by Bob Dylan, who’s my favourite artist. I’ll say that.”

Space Pistol are represented by DC Sound Attack. Their upcoming UK tour begins at The Globe in Glossop on April 3rd.