“It holds up today as an artefact in its own right”: Why Boston Manor are celebrating 10 years of Be Nothing.

Though Henry Cox recently welcomed his second child into the world, the frontman has some very important 10th birthday parties to attend to. It’s been a decade since Blackpool pop-punk Boston Manor hopefuls dropped their debut album, Be Nothing., kickstarting a career as one of the UK’s most consistent bands. Sure, 2018’s Welcome To The Neighbourhood retrospectively feels like the tipping point for the moody alt.rock that followed. But it’s Be Nothing. that their fanbase adores.

“I haven't really revisited this record for a long, long time,” admits Henry. “It's been really emotional and has given us a little bit of a bridge back to the beginning, why we started doing this in the first place.” Celebrating the record at Slam Dunk this weekend and dropping a brand-new acoustic version of Lead Feet today, here Henry exclusively reveals why now is the time to take stock of the past 10 years...

What have you discovered on that bridge back to the beginning?
“Going back, looking at studio footage and seeing kids so excited to make an album. The giddiness of it all, the passion – which has never changed and never gone away, I should say – but seeing it for the first time. On my part, there was so much apprehension and anxiety, because I felt such a pressure to deliver a really good album. I remember it being equal parts fun, exciting and scary. So it's a little emotional to look back at that.”

On some recent tours, you’ve left out material from Be Nothing. entirely. Did you forget about or lose touch with the record in any way?
“We found such a different sound after Be Nothing. that felt more original and true to us, which is still the case. I think we looked on Be Nothing. a bit unfavourably after that. Immature isn't the right word, but it was definitely inspired by an earlier version of who we were. We did still play Laika for a long time, but it did feel more of a token offering, as opposed to the set being built around those songs.

“Having more time now to reflect, it's given me such a fondness for the record. In our heads, we wrote it off as a pop-punk record, but I can hear so many nuances. I think it holds up today as an artefact in its own right, because, in typical Boston Manor fashion, it sits between a bunch of different [sounds]. It’s really quite loose, in a cool way. So that's inspired us to get back to that a little bit in the future, which is exciting.”

Can you trace how Be Nothing. influenced your later material?
“More so now than in the past. Songs like Burn You Up, Broken Glass and Kill Your Conscience, there's so much moodiness, a lot of atmosphere building and textural stuff that definitely got carried over into what would become our sound. We also started to experiment with heaviness in a varied way on that record. There's little bits of screaming and ‘rock out’ sections… it does feel like a starting seed of that.”

By numbers, Be Nothing. is not your biggest album. Have you been able to understand why it’s so revered among your fanbase?
“It's quite culty, in that respect. A lot of other really classic records got made at the same time. We did Warped Tour on this album, and our stage was Movements touring their first album, Trophy Eyes touring Chemical Miracle and Knocked Loose touring their first album. They all feel part of the same moment.

“Lyrically, it's a very angsty, no-holds-barred record. I wouldn't be able to truthfully write like that anymore. I find ‘honest’ a strange term to use, but it’s a very open, emotional record, so I think a lot of people have found solace in that. Forget Me Not is about my grandmother who had Alzheimer's. She's passed away now, sadly, but a lot of people have come to me with their own stories about that. There's songs about self-loathing and depression. If I went to try and write an album like that now, lyrically, it would be disingenuous and fake. It's definitely a previous incarnation of me.”

As you say, the lyrics are heavy: Broken Glass is about your friend who nearly died in a car crash. Is it another thing entirely to revisit those memories?
“I feel quite removed from it, emotionally. I've been up and down a million times since then, but it has been important to try and connect with the spirit of those songs and perform them in a way that is truthful, so it [doesn’t] feel like dress-up. It's important to think about what was going on and channel that into the music, and it's also given me a lot of inspiration for writing our next record. Sometimes you get wrapped up in big concept records, being a piece of a bigger puzzle, whereas on Be Nothing., we were like: ‘I'm feeling this way today, and I'm going to write a song about it.’ Which is probably how it should be, to be honest.”

How do you assess the album's legacy, a decade down the line?
“It can be dangerous waters getting into your own legacy, because it can start dictating what you do while you're still here. But the fact that people still care about it 10 years later does mean that it has a legacy, which is a beautiful thing. When we wrote these songs, I don't think any of us had even thought about [being] a band in 10 years. There wasn't some grand world takeover strategy… we were only thinking one foot in front of the other.

“I'm proud of that record. It’s looking back at your teenage self and giving yourself a little pat on the back. We shouldn't pat ourselves on the back too often, because that becomes dangerous, but it's nice to enjoy it for a minute.”

The 10-year anniversary edition of Be Nothing. is released August 14 via Pure Noise

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