Glass Animals shout I Love You So F***ing Much to KC ahead of Aug. 31 evening at Azura

Glass Animals // Photo by Drewby PerezBritish pop-rockers Glass Animals just released their fourth studio album, I Love You So F***ing Much, last month via Republic Records. It’s the band’s first album in nearly four years, following up on their smash success of 2020’s Dreamland.

Glass Animals’ global Tour of Earth hits Azura Amphitheater on Saturday, August 31, and we took the opportunity to speak with the band members Joe Seaward (drummer) and Drew MacFarlane (guitarist and keys) about their connections to Kansas City.

The Pitch: I really want to talk to you about something specific to Kansas City. So I am familiar with your history with Buzz Beach Ball and how that impacted you as a band, but, just recently, they stopped 96.5 The Buzz altogether. It’s not the same radio station anymore. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Joe Seaward: Well, I have a good story about Buzz, many good stories about Buzz, but I have one specific story. Glass Animals existed very much only in England to begin with, obviously, because that’s where we were from, and one of our songs, very early song of ours, started appearing on radio in America, which was a total shock to us. I mean, to me, certainly. It started in Kansas City, because of the Buzz. I think Laszlo once told me the story.

I think the deal was, they had a radio show whereby people would send them demos and singles. They had a segment where they would put a song on from one of these random new bands and they’d play it out, and if people liked it they’d text in and say “We really like this, what is it?” or no one would text in and then they would just take it out and do the next one.

I think our label had sent this song called “Psylla” into them. They had this pile and they played all of the songs of their hour-long, whatever it was, two-hour long show that they were doing, and Laszlo said to me that they got to the end of the two-hour thing and he realized that there was still, five minutes left of the radio show and they were like, “Shit, okay, fuck, we need to build this time.” So he looked down and one CD had fallen out of the pile and was on the floor. He looked down and picked up the CD and he was like, “Okay, we’ve just got time for one more,” and the one more was “Psylla.” It was our song.

They played it and apparently they had loads and loads of people texting and being like, “What is this song?” And they were like, “Well, this kind of worked,” and they kept playing our song and from there it kind of came out of Kansas City and around America. Because of that, we ended up going to South by Southwest to perform. I don’t know how true that story is, but I was like, I’m buying all of that because it’s so great.

Basically, as far as I’m concerned, in my mind, that chance moment was what led us to having a career in America, so what I’m really trying to say is that I have a special, and I think we have a very special, affinity for Kansas City because of that radio station and the people who run it. Kansas City began to feel like our sort of home away from home. We played so many shows there, which were always packed full of people, sometimes in the morning, sometimes in the evening. It’s quite mental. I feel incredibly sad that that radio station doesn’t exist anymore, but I also feel incredibly grateful to it for beginning our journey into America.

That was such an intricate answer. I was not expecting such a deep answer. That is so beautiful. So when you were in Kansas City, I believe it was most recently, Dave decided to do a secret showing of a new song at Casual Animal. Can we expect anything similar? How are you feeling about returning to Kansas City on the 31st?

JS: When we were getting ready to release the album we were kind of trying to find intimate settings to play to small groups of fans, give them a preview of some of the songs that were going to come out. We only did like three. New York, Chicago, and Kansas City. But, I mean, Kansas City was definitely on the list because of our history with it.

What is your favorite song on I Love You So F***ing Much?

JS: It changes a lot. It goes through different incarnations of your favorite song, depending on whether you’re recording the album or learning to play it live. And then, it changes again when you play it live. But I think that the one which I’ve always kind of always come back to is “Show Pony,” which is the first one on the album. It’s a love story. It kind of goes through the different chapters of a relationship. I know David Bayley said it’s kind of like a contents page for the album. The album is kind of talking about all different sorts of love, whether it’s familial or friendship or romantic. I sort of feel like that song just kind of blitzes through everything in an amazing way. I love playing it live and in the recorded version.

Drew MacFarlane: I have a similar relationship with the songs. When we were making the album, I definitely had favorites and those favorites I still love, but it does change your relationship with the song, it does change the longer you get to know it. But, then it gets its new lease of life. When you’re playing live, you have quite a different relationship with the songs. I think that there’s a song called “On The Run” which, I love, but it’s taken on a kind of new lease of life. It’s really fun and quite a wild life. And there’s another one called “Wonderful Nothing” which I really like live. It really seems to resonate with the crowd in an amazing way. I like lots of them, but those two at the moment are two of my dearest versions of it on the album. When we’re playing “On The Run,” Joe has the job at the end of the song to make it go faster and faster and faster until it all falls apart. Which it regularly does.

JS: But, it’s fun because that’s something that you can’t really—when you record something, everything is so meticulous and careful. You know, you sort of plan it out so much, but I feel like doing it live, you actually get that sort of breaking point.

DM: Yeah. Which is one of the amazing things about playing live is that you can do stuff like that.

JS: Yeah, you can break, on stage, in front of thousands of people. It’s great. Like, bless them.

Yeah, and it comes to fruition no matter what and the best thing is, we all love you so much that even if you do mess up, we would never know. We would just think that it’s like a transformation. So, when you come to Kansas City, should we expect any secret songs or secret shows like last time?

JS: Sure.

I guess when it’s an expectation it’s not really secret.

JS: Exactly. I was kind of thinking like, how much am I going to spoil any secret plans that we do have? I think that we’ll always have special treatment and actually all of the shows are sort of, they each have their own special sort of beginning and end. I think, by that point, because it’s a couple of weeks away, I feel like the set is in the process of sort of solidifying at the moment, and there might be changes that start happening. At the moment, we’re settling in, and I have a feeling that things are going to start changing in the set. So there might be some new bits and pieces for you.

On the note of change, I know that you’re in the heart of it, but after tour, do you have any plans?

JS: Drew said to me a couple of weeks ago, he’s like, “God, I really think I need a couple of weeks off when we finish this.” So I have a feeling that when we finish this tour, there might be a few days taken for us all to just have a break. We’ve been stuck in the weeds with this album now for over a year. We started making it early summer last year. So we’ve been in close confinement, [hugs Drew] this close to each other, for about a year, nonstop now, mostly in dark rooms without windows. I think that priority number one, when we finish this run of shows and we go straight into Europe and the UK and Australia, when we’ve done all of that, we might just have five minutes of peace and quiet.

And it’s well deserved. I think that how close you’ve been with each other is testament to your chemistry and your connection as a band and why you are so successful. Because if you didn’t have that connection, it just wouldn’t work. It would implode. It does not go unnoticed.

JS: Aw, that’s very kind of you to say. You don’t get to see the bit where me and Drew walk out of this room and walk in opposite directions and don’t talk to each other. I’m joking, I’m joking, I’m joking. No, it’s great. It’s one of the most special bits about it. I think the two best bits of being in this band, for me—Drew probably internally completely disagrees with this—is like getting to spend all of this time with each other, because we’ve known each other for such a long time. Getting to do this job with people who you know and love as intimately and closely as we do with each other is a huge privilege, but then getting to share what we do with you all is great, and like that’s why we’re here. Playing these shows, traveling around America, meeting the fans, feeding off their energy, and giving them always the best. It’s the absolute best thing. We’re very, very lucky to do that.

I think Kansas City made the right ones famous. You guys are so humble, so kind, so sweet, and so grateful. You’re just really a joy. I don’t actually have any more planned questions, but is there anything that you wanted to add?

JS: The only thing I have to add is that I’m incredibly excited to come back to Kansas City. Last time we played there at this arena, not arena, is it? It’s like an amphitheater. That was honestly one of the best nights of my professional life. It was so cool. It was the biggest show by a distance that we’d ever played by at that stage. I think maybe still. The atmosphere was electric. It was absolutely unbelievable. I kind of felt like a slightly out-of-body experience. So yeah, it’s going to be very, very special and we can’t wait to come and see you guys.

Glass Animals play Azura Amphitheater on Saturday, August 31, with openers Eyedress and Blondeshell. Details on that show here.