Nothing But Thieves have spoken to NME about their new album ‘Stray Dogs’ and latest single ‘#5’, as well as reflecting on how they’re “still making it up” 10 years on, ahead of their huge headline tour.
Out today (Friday September 25), the LP marks the fifth full-length project from the Southend five-piece – following on from 2023’s ‘Dead Club City’, and sees them lean into themes of introspection, reflection and gratitude.
Written over five months as they were out on the road, Conor Mason and co. retraced their roots for the recording process, heading back to the same studio where they made their 2015 self-titled debut. They integrated a DIY approach while focusing the songwriting on their appreciation for the friends, family, crew and fans around them.
The album was previewed by the singles ‘Evolution’, ‘Baby Kool (Evelyn)’, ‘A Different Kind Of Happiness’ and the title track, and the band have continued to celebrate their fanbase with a series of intimate gigs, online Easter eggs, secret live shows and more.
“As the band has got bigger, strangely, the thing that feels most important is the smaller thing underneath it,” the band tell NME, looking at why they wanted to celebrate the community around them on the album. “It’s five people in a room. No one plays or sounds the same as when the five of us play in the same room. Then it’s the crew who bet on us and everyone who has found something in the songs.
“There’s something quite comforting about that idea. You spend so much of your life trying to define yourself as an individual, and eventually you realise most of the good stuff happens because you found the right people or as a result of some dumb decision along the way. The record became a bit of a refuge in that sense: finding your people, finding the pack. We’re grateful for it.”
Now, NBT have finally dropped the highly anticipated ‘Stray Dogs’ alongside the final single, ‘#5’, telling NME that it’s the “cornerstone for the album”.
Read the full interview below, where the group discuss how they’re “subverting expectations” in their latest era, look back on their earlier days, share their thoughts on Fontaines D.C. and Geese, highlight the importance of grassroots venues, and tease what to expect from their biggest tour to date.
NME: Hi, Nothing But Thieves. You’re back with your first album since 2023. Tell us about the inspiration behind this record? It seems like there has been a sense of reflection going on in the band…
Nothing But Thieves: “I think we reached a point where we’d made four records and suddenly there was enough distance to actually look back at what had happened to us. Not in a nostalgic way. More like, what’s still true? What’s real in this world we’ve created? To be blunt, what’s in it for us? There can be a lot of outside noise. ‘Stray Dogs’ came from trying to strip things back to instinct again. Following the thing that felt true, rather than just something that felt like it would get us into a bigger venue.”
Where did the title ‘Stray Dogs’ come from? What does that term represent to you?
“It started to describe us before it described the album. There’s something I like about the imagery of a stray dog. Slightly battered, hungry, working on instinct. A stray is often looking for somewhere to belong. That felt more honest than presenting ourselves as some perfectly engineered band 10 years into a career. We’re still making it up. Nothing seems clear until the moment has passed.”
What was it like to record in the same space where you made your debut album? Was your mindset different now compared to back then?
“The first time we went there we didn’t know how to make a record. We’d write the songs, but were then very reliant on others to put them onto wax. We beat ourselves up for a good few years about things we’d change on that record. On all the records, really. Now our thinking is that mistakes are often the bits that define an arrangement or are at least more human. That’s an ever more valuable commodity, I’ve heard. The other side of that coin is if you know too much about how something ‘should’ sound, that can get boring quick. It’s a balance.”
Looking back at that period, how do you see the music from that time? You’ve obviously come a long way since then…
“Our music or all music? Let’s go for all music. People were telling us rock music was dead. In fact, they have been for most of our time in music. I feel like I am much more comfortable saying how great other bands are now than back then. Fontaines D.C., Amyl & The Sniffers, Bad Nerves, Geese, Fat Dog… there’s so much great stuff around. I’m not sure we would have talked like that 10 years ago. But maybe that says more about us at the time than the music.”
You’re at a point now where you could go all out and add all the bells and whistles, but instead you spent those five months making the album cohesive, stripped back and all very purposeful. Why did that approach feel like the right one?
“I feel like we’re a band that takes left turns. ‘Trip Switch’ [2015] doesn’t sound like ‘Amsterdam’ [2017], which doesn’t sound like ‘Is Everybody Going Crazy?’ [2020], which definitely doesn’t sound like ‘Welcome To The DCC’ [2023]. This time, subverting expectations felt like making something smaller and noisy. We wanted this record to be the one you’d want in your collection.
“It’s still got scale in terms of theme. It’s designed to be like a dream state Nothing But Thieves gig. Songs bleed into each other in the way we would live. We took crowd noise from our shows and manipulated it into transitions. The record actually opens that way. I love that the fans are physically on the album. Moments that we’d discover after a year on the road we tried to find in the room. It gives the album its own colour.”
Tell us about new single ‘#5’. What does it mean to you?
“The title is a punchline really. I can’t believe it has taken five albums to realise some things about myself or ourselves. A few months off touring and some much-delayed therapy will do that.
“Recording wise, I feel like it’s a cornerstone for the album. The ethos was – write a great song and record it well. Don’t decorate it in production so you can’t see it anymore. Tom Petty logic.”
Going back to your connection with fans, how has it been getting back into grassroots venues for intimate shows? It must feel different to how it was when you first started out there…
“I feel like we really own those spaces. You’re not wrestling with the disconnect of distance at smaller shows; it’s less to think about, and I think simply easier to reach people. You can react in real time. I completely stacked it at the Underworld in London; it’s never happened before. Only the front few rows could see. In an arena that would be on YouTube a few thousand times the next day. What a blessing.”
Why was it important for you to head back to these spaces? Obviously it’s an amazing experience for fans, but it also feels like these local venues need support from big names now more than ever…
“They’re where bands learn how to be bands. You can’t fake it. So many of the venues we grew up playing either aren’t there anymore or are under pressure. Our local one relies on tribute bands. And once those rooms disappear, you don’t immediately notice what you’ve lost. You notice 10, 15 years later when there’s nowhere for the next generation to get good. It’s easy for bands to celebrate grassroots venues once they no longer need them. It probably means more to actually go back and use them.”
Now you’re going from some of your most intimate shows into your biggest headline tour to date next year. How does it feel, and what can fans expect from the gigs?
“We want to bring some of that small room feeling with us. Use the scale but close some of the distance, really bring the audience in. Sometimes when you play bigger shows it’s easy to polish out the interesting bits. Things can get a bit automated. I’m not interested in bringing a West End show around the world.
“Obviously the production can become more ambitious, and it will, but I think what we’ve learnt recently is that spectacle only really works if there’s still some human beings in the middle of it who might f*** something up.”
‘Stray Dogs’ is out now via RCA/Sony Music. Nothing But Thieves’ UK, European and North American headline tour kicks off in January 2027 – visit here for tickets.
The post Nothing But Thieves tell us about “subverting expectations” on introspective ‘Stray Dogs’: “We’re a band that takes left turns” appeared first on NME.
