Photos + text by Rene Rosierse
Manchester-based super group IST IST are currently touring Europe, with Scandinavia being on the list for the first time, and the band returning to many Dutch venues they’ve played before. Last weekend they returned to Rotterdam. Before playing another sold out gig at Rotown, we got the chance to chat to Adam Houghton about their success in The Netherlands and their plan for the rest of 2024. We met him in the cosy little restaurant of Rotown.
Hi Adam, how has the last two weeks been going for you guys?
“They have been really good and really tiring. It’s the longest tour so far but it’s going really well. We’ve played Scandinavian for the first time, that was pretty amazing to do. The venues and shows keep getting bigger and bigger. Last night was our biggest ever show, playing Doornroosje in Nijmegen for 1100 people.”
More and more shows have sold out, didn’t tonight’s show in Rotown sell out in a day?
“Yeah, actually this one was sold out in four minutes!”
You’ve played this venue three years in a row now, and they all sold out.
“Yes, but I imagine this will be the last show here, I think we will probably go bigger after this.”
And you’re going to play your first festival of the season in a couple of days!
“We’re playing Paaspop which is a good one, and we’ve played Vestrock previously.”
Can you explain your success here in Europe and especially in The Netherlands?
“I don’t know, I wish I knew! KINK Radio championed it and that helped. A couple of promoters here said it’s quite an accessible sound for Dutch people. It’s something they like and it goes down well so maybe that’s it, I don’t know. It’s great and a bit strange.”
It’s quite hard for people to get your albums over here, there’s only one or two record stores that stock them…
“Yes, but when our new album comes out in September it will be in all the shops here as well. We’ve tried really hard to make that happen because it’s important that our fan base here can get our music without having to pay massive import taxes. It always bothered me that we have an album called ‘Live in Amsterdam’ but you couldn’t buy it in Amsterdam. But we’re getting there, we’re being more organized!”
What can you tell us about the new album?
“Haha, we have a new album ready but we’re not telling anybody what the name is. It will be announced by the end of April and the album will officially come out on the 20th of September. It’s really good. It took quite a while to record it, a lot longer than the other records. We’re working with a different producer this time, and it sounds a lot bigger.”
That’s good news. Are we going to hear some of the new songs tonight?
“Yeah four new songs tonight. I think they’re gonna be the singles as well. We’ve released ‘Lost My Shadow’ already, and the next one is gonna be called ‘The Kiss’. What we’re doing is, we’re filming every show in The Netherlands and then we’re gonna put that information together on one film so it’s one live video, so it’s the best bits of each show. This works really well and I actually hate making music videos, so I’m happy to kill two birds with one stone.”
After this you’ve got another week touring through the UK.
“Yes that one’s a lot easier because it’s not all in one go. We’ll do Thursday, Friday, Saturday and the next week on Thursday and Friday. We don’t want to be away from home for months. It’s always a bit of a kick in the teeth playing in the UK after playing here earlier. It’s great but it’s much nicer over here.”
With the summer coming up, are you going to play some festivals as well?
“Yeah, we’ve got a few coming up. We’ve got a lot of offers and there are definitively some good one’s coming up. We still have to decide on some of them but they will be announced soon.”
Good to hear that we might be hearing more IST IST during the festival season!
After talking to Adam we left him to prepare for the evening’s show and headed to the venue, which has already turned out very crowded. Reason being opening act October Drift who’ve already got a big following in Rotterdam. October Drift started their set with ‘Lost Without You’ and with the familiar amount of energy and enthusiasm that they’re known for. They once again made a great impression on the crowd and after 30 minutes they left us with a buzz and the outro of ‘Forever Whatever’.
It is the third year in a row that IST IST takes the stage of Rotown and a great part of the crowd tonight was at their previous shows as well. IST IST has got a lot of die-hard fans in the Rotterdam area. ‘Wolves’, ‘Stamp You Out’ and ‘Fat Cats Drown In Milk’ set the tone for the rest of the night. They were the songs that we are familiar with and the songs we all wanted to hear and sing along to. Next up was one of the first of the new songs, called ‘Repercussions’. This one fitted perfectly within their set, just like the rest of the new songs. The night continued with a set of songs from their three albums and some of their very early stuff, such as ‘Emily’ and ‘Night’s Arm’.
Although their latest single ‘Lost My Shadow’ was only released a couple of weeks ago, most of the crowd already knew the song by heart and were singing along to every word. Next up was ‘The Kiss’ which will be the upcoming single. Andy Keating, IST IST’s bassist, explained that the song was to be recorded and that we’ll all be part of the live video for the single. The song was received with the best response of the evening and this will definitely show in the video. The night ended with ‘Slowly We Escape’ and although the fans tonight might not be aware of this, it’ll probably have been the last time IST IST played Rotown. Thank you IST IST, we can’t wait for your return later this year for the promotion of the next album!
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