Two weeks ago, the world saw a different side to Josh Franceschi. As a singer known best for writing gut-sore songs about relationships and loss, new standalone single Our House (The Mess We Made), which arrived unannounced earlier this month, is the first time that we’ve ever seen the You Me At Six frontman get political.
With stirring lines such as, ‘Prophets with problems / Smart mouths don’t wanna solve them,’ the bass-thumping electronic track calls out political leaders not doing enough to prevent climate change, while lauding young campaigners.
“I’m not going to get on my soapbox and say that I’m Bob Geldof,” says Josh on his slight tilt towards activism. “It was just an idea that moved me. I think that music sometimes, especially writing it, can help you understand an issue.”
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The song was released to help raise money for WIRES, an Australian wildlife rescue and rehabilitation organisation, after the bushfires that devastated the country. Listening to him speak, it’s clear that climate change is an issue that has grown important to the singer – a strict vegan of six years – although it was a chance encounter on a flight back from the United States that set the ideas for Our House in motion. Kerrang! caught up with the frontman so he could talk us through it, and where it fits in with the Surrey band’s plans for album seven…
What was the initial inspiration behind Our House (The Mess We Made), Josh?
“In March last year we were on our way back from our U.S. tour, and I was on the plane next to this guy, a geologist, who had just come back from a big summit. We were just shooting the shit, and he saw that I had a vegan meal on the plane so he asked why I was vegan. I went through the different reasons and we got talking about what we both did. He was saying about how he’d been to quite a depressing summit [about climate change], where it feels like people are really understanding what stands in front of us and the repercussions of not acting or doing anything about it. It was very insightful, but fundamentally he said, ‘It won’t be in my lifetime, but in your lifetime and I’m sure in your children’s lifetime, there will be large parts of the planet that will be uninhabitable for humans.’”
Why did that resonate so much?
“The conversation hit home because, although the awareness of it has changed drastically even over the last 18 months – there’s not a single big chain of supermarkets or restaurants that don’t have inexpensive vegan options now – what he was saying to me was that, fundamentally, the big nations aren’t taking this as seriously as they should be. They’ve been aware of the issues – this conversation’s been going on for at least the last few decades – but there is a point now that if we don’t really shift the needle, then it’s going to be irreversible.”