Pop Mutations & Freakender present:

Modern Nature

+ Special Guests

Monday 29th September

The Old Hairdresser's

18+

When Modern Nature toured their last album, 2023’s

No Fixed Point In Space

, it became apparent to Jack Cooper

–

the band’s main creative force

–

that they were already pulling away from the free, open

-

ended approach they

had spent five years working

towards; almost as if the music had become so abstract and elasticated, it now had

to snap back towards something more structured. As they found themselves naturally locking into more fixed

grooves, he realised a new direction had been set. Their new album

–

The Heat Warps

–

is the triumphant

manifestation of where that new direction took them.

In the aftermath, Cooper’s songwriting, which had become increasingly impressionistic, found a new focus and

the idea of making an album that followed a similar pat

h to the last two increasingly seemed obtuse. The purpose

was to forge a radical change. The core trio of him, Jim Wallis (drums) and Jeff Tobias (bass guitar) were

augmented by a new guitarist

–

Tara Cunningham.

Modern Nature’s recent records have refle

cted an insular life. Cooper had moved out to the countryside in 2021

and had, in his words, been “hibernating” while he started a family. He felt this new band was a symbol for his

reawakening and the perfect vessel for him to continue to explore themes t

hat he’s sung about with Modern

Nature

–

collectivism, our relationship with the natural world, the weight of consciousness

–

but with more

directness and purpose. The key was the new dual guitar sound.

“I’ve always been drawn to bands where two guitarist

s work as a unit to move around and colour the rhythm

section,” explains Cooper. “I’d been listening to the demos Television did with Brian Eno in the day and then that

night I played with Tara for the first time at an improvised music show. We have a very

similar approach to the

guitar and that extends to the way we sing, so it gives the music an interesting balance.

“What we do is mirrored; a symmetry on either side of what Jim and Jeff are doing in the rhythm section. We’ve

played with lots of amazing m

usicians who continue to orbit around what we do, but Tara joining the band felt

like finding the other side to the square. Previous records have been performed by upwards of fifteen people but it

was apparent the four of us could achieve something more po

werful and more direct.”

In the time Modern Nature has been a band, the world has undoubtedly changed. The words Cooper had been

writing previously were somewhat ambiguous but it had started to feel like he was sitting on the fence and that

was something

he needed to address.

“Every day we’re confronted with a confusing and scary world,” he says. “Making music and creating things can

feel flippant or unnecessary, but my own world view was defined and influenced by art and artists who weren’t

afraid to hig

hlight and offer solutions: Public Enemy, The Smiths or a wider American counterculture.”

“The community we’ve built our life around

–

artists, musicians and the people who gravitate to these things as

way of communicating

–

are struggling to reconcile ho

w they fit into an increasingly cruel world. This album, the

themes and the lyrics are directed towards them because I think there are still reasons to be optimistic. There are

amazing things happening all around us and it’s up to communities like ours to

double down on the things we

believe in. It feels as if being part of a group like Modern Nature and making an album that’s open, optimistic and

ambitious is in itself part of the solution.”

As the new band started to play together more, the energy, excit

ement and telepathy between them gained

momentum and it became clear they needed to make a record that captured that. They locked into a process

where they booked a couple of shows, directly followed by four days in the studio (the all

-

analogue Gizzard

Rec

ording in east London). They’d spend two weeks living in each other’s pockets

–

a very condensed rush of

creativity.

“It’s rare to hear a recording of a band playing in a room together,” adds Cooper. “And that interaction, the

discrepancies in timing, syn

ergy, in pitch, that’s where the magic really is, I think, and that’s what we wanted to

capture.”

Modern Nature - bio.docx

One additional (and slightly unlikely) influence on the record was Andrew Weatherall. Before he passed away,

he’d played Modern Nature on his NTS show and Co

oper was thrilled that he liked them. He made it an aim to

make a record Weatherall might have played to his friends late at night. His motto “Fail we may, sail we must” is

what the Can

-

esque track

Pharaoh

is about.

“It’s difficult to stay aware of the w

orld around you without becoming despondent,” says Cooper. “

Pharoah

makes

the case for finding a personal philosophy and trying to live a life that might inspire others or at the very least not

hurt them.”

Elsewhere,

Radio

touches on the contempt capitali

sm has for the natural world. The line “there’s a fire all around”

offers a kind of gallows humour. Cooper adds that recently they played the songs on a day that the news was

showing footage of the Los Angeles fires. It occurred to him that it was perhaps

an insensitive subject to be

singing about but there again

–

in his words

–

he feels it’s “important not to turn away from these things.” The

same desire not to shy away might also be attributed to

Source,

which touches on the recent riots in the UK

direct

ed towards asylum seekers, inspired by misinformation spread online.

For all this wrestling with the grimmer realities of 2025,

The Heat Warps

is ultimately not a record entirely

consumed by anxieties. Its frequently beautiful sounds offer consolation and

a wide

-

eyed optimism amid all the

upheaval. Nowhere is that more apparent than on the transcendent album closer,

Totality

. As Cooper explains: “It

was fascinating spending time in America as the country geared up for the 2024 solar eclipse. The news stati

ons

covered the event in the same way they’d cover a big football game or the Oscars. Everywhere I went, people

were talking about the eclipse and for a few days it really seemed to capture the public’s imagination.

“My friend’s dad had organised a huge

party and had obviously done his homework. When he was running us

through his preparation and how the day was going to go down, he said, ‘We’re hoping for totality,’ and it blew

my mind.

“The day of the eclipse I was driving through New Mexico and we stop

ped by the side of the road with hundreds of

other people gazing up to the heavens. It felt exciting to be part of something that clearly resonated with people

on such a profound level. It’s a fitting album closer and somewhere in there is a philosophy; a

romantic nihilism.”

And at its heart, right there is the core of Modern Nature’s appeal. Never more so than on this new record.