The story of resistance and sacrifice of the English Teacher
Last September they won the Mercury Prizeone of the most coveted musical prizes in the United Kingdom, with their debut album “This Couuld Be Texas”. The English Teacher, originally from Leeds, have become the First non -London artist in nine years to wander the prestigious recognition: an emblematic fact. Yes, because the music of the British quartet composed of Lily Fontaine (voice, rhythmic guitar, synthesizers, piano), Lewis Whiting (guitar, synthesizers), Douglas Frost (percussion, choirs) and Nicholas Eden (bass) is full of such a subversive attitude that makes the ambition to subvert the order constituted the mission of the English Teacher: from the outskirts to the center, where the “periphery” and the “center” are not only geographical ones, but also institutional.
It is no coincidence that the band has decided to register – virtually – to the list of artists of the British independent scene who have been carrying out the requests of the Music Venue Trustthe charity body that last year published a text to invite the government of the United Kingdom to pay attention to the struggles that the ecosystem of live music must face, starting from the difficulties of the small clubs: “The situation is absolutely urgent.
It is a good thing that the theme has become part of the national debate. Those places inspire people to take tools in hand, “commented Fontaine, Whiting, Frost and Eden, alluding to the statements to which artists such as Ezra Collective and Myles Smith on the Brit Awards stage,.publicly asking the government to support the artists of the independent scene and the small venues. The four musicians met in the corridors of Leeds Conservatory In 2018. At the beginning they had decided to call themselves Frank and played Dream Pop, before changing the name in English Teacher and starting to mix Indie Rock, Art Rock and Post-Punk: «The band we were before and the band we are now are so different from each other. We benefited that we had the time to understand who we were. ” They made his debut in 2022 with the EP “Polyawkward”, published by the independent label Nice Swan Records, uncertain by critics. The New Musical Express called it “A deliciously harsh debut ep, which seems to get out of a soundtrack of restless art-punk». And so the first passages on TV arrived, starting from that, in November 2023, in the “Later … with Jools Holland” living room, spin-off of the “Late Show”, one of the most viewed programs of British TV. Time defined their “Nearly Daffodils” one of the best ten songs of 2023.
The debut album on the long distance “This Couuld be texas“The Universal Group was released last spring for Island: the multinational one gave the group that push necessary to make the big leap. This is how, for example, that the English Teacher with “The World’s Biggest Paving Slab“They ended up in the EA Sports FC 24 soundtrackthe old Fifa, the most famous of football video games, in the middle of the M83, in Skrillex, Fred Again and others. Not only that: For the second year in a row, in June they will return to perform on the stage of the Glastonbury Festivalamong the most anticipated and commented rock gatherings in Europe. “The World’s Biggest Paving Slab” is their most popular track on Spotofy, with over 5 million streams, as well as being the most representative song of their style, between spoken texts and Riff Rock: “We write rather irregular songs and we often jump from one genre to another because we cannot decide”.
Behind the success of “This Couuld Be Texas”, as the magazine Daze wrote, There is no ballet made in front of a smartphone, but a community story, battles to obtain funding and liters of sweat paid on club stages Rooms such as the Brudenell Social Club, the Hyde Park Book Club and of competitions such as Play With Me and Music: Leeds, who come forward not without difficulty, in the indifference of the British government. A story of resistance that fascinates and moves.
