I Was A Cub Scout

“If someone described us as a band who write power ballads, we would be chuffed.”

The boxfresh indie-pop duo kick-starting a quiet riot with teetotal tenacity, emotional sincerity and that bedrock of rock’n’roll Valhalla – early nights in. The ‘Scouts are coming…be prepared.

‘House party: semi-naked, nubile guys and gals at the dusty end of their teenage years getting off with one another. Banging, generic music playing in the background as everyone smiles with perfect, pearly whites, high on life and illicit substances’.

A sweaty-palmed, vulture-like gargoyle of an ads exec is frothing with giddy glee as he hard sells the latest promo pitch for Skins to a rapt boardroom. He wants us to buy into the du jour portrayal of a romanticised, mythological British yoof culture.

‘OK, so it’s a reckless and carefree lifestyle to propagate but hey, we did it and we all turned out okay, didn’t we? Who cares if we glamorise promiscuity and drug abuse? As long as the ratings are high and our bellies are full, what’s the difference if one or two impressionables go out in search of the real thing?’

Who cares? I Was A Cub Scout care and they want you to just say no, kids.

“Literally all our old friends are on drugs now,” says IWACS sticksman Will Bowerman, with grave resignation. “One of the guys who tried out for guitar in the band’s early days is now a total drug addict. It’s such a shame. It happens a lot where we’re from because it’s a small village and there’s not a lot to do, so people turn to drugs to escape. We’ve had to stop being friends with people because they’ve become so dependent on things like ketamine. We just don’t want any involvement in that world. We don’t go in for that whole party scene. I suppose we’re not a very rock’n’roll band, but we’d much rather have an early night in bed.”

Will and his musical IWACS brother Todd Marriott (vox, everything else) are the most unlikely of rebellious sorts. Quietly unassuming, well spoken and polite teetotallers – such virtues aren’t exactly the stuff of rock’n’roll legend. But when a no-mark wannabe like Towers Of London’s Donny Tourette (please don’t kick my ass Donny) apparently epitomises what rock’n’roll stands for, perhaps it’s time we had a rethink about all that. In a cynical, ‘net-savvy musical malaise - where everyone is a Top 8 superstar on Facespace - taking the road less travelled and pursuing a genuine artistic endeavour is a truly rebellious and edgy act. While IWACS’s music will never be described as edgy, there is absolutely no doubting the passion threaded through their every note and at just a whisper past twenty years of age each, they are the antithesis of all that Skins-style, packaged rebellion bullshit.

“We use quite direct, honest lyrics so that people can connect to the music better than something like, ‘Daft Punk’s playing at my house, my house’ [LCD Soundsystem, ‘Daft Punk Is Playing At My House’]. That’s a great song of course, but you can’t really connect to it in the same way as you would with something that’s more personal.”

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Issue #51 - I Told You This Would Be A Good Issue

Featuring Biffy Clyro, Of Montreal, Duke Special, Frightened Rabbit, Cold War Kids, Jay Reatard, Pat Mills, and more.