These New Puritans - Light and sensuality in a post-industrial world

The wait is over: These New Puritans have just released a new collection of unreleased tracks. For the occasion I spoke with Jack Barnett, and together we reflected on some of the recurring themes and motifs running through “Crooked Wing” and on the band's creative process. Love, death, peace and darkness blend and blur together in a sonic journey that is once again superbly structured. The sensuality of “Inside The Rose” now breathes within the mechanical weave of an industrial, desolate world, yet one still inhabited by an inexhaustible sense of hope. A hope that takes shape in an erotic breath capable of joining organic, inorganic and celestial matter together. Amid mud, lead falling from the sky, and ether erupting from subterranean hells, beauty takes on the most unexpected forms.

I'd like to start by talking about the first track, which, in a way, also represents the ending, with “Return”. Here we come across two images that seem crucial to the dynamics of the whole album: the idea of waiting and underground worlds. What meaning do they hold for you?

Hard to say. “Waiting” was one of the first songs we wrote for the record and it was immediately clear it would be the album's opening. You hear the voice of a boy, a soprano, singing from the perspective of being underground. He's waiting, but we don't know for whom or what. He does seem ready, though, to lead the listener on a journey through life, death, darkness, light, humanity and machines; at the end of this journey he returns to the place where he started.

This journey connects to another important theme on “Crooked Wing”: the idea of homecoming. Is it a metaphorical, spiritual home?

Good question. Generally when I compose I start from the sound and the words come afterwards, as if in a kind of trance. For me music is the place where everything is simple: there's no problem in music, it's the rest of the world that's complicated. It lets me find peace and calm amid the madness that surrounds us.

There's also a very sacred atmosphere from the very start of the record, with the organ and the church bells.

Yes, that's definitely another central element, just like the contrast between hell and heaven. On “Crooked Wing” there's a more brutal side and a more dazzling one, and I like the way they clash with each other. Besides, you never know in advance where inspiration will come from, where you'll find beauty. You can find it in the most unexpected places.

Desolate or ruined worlds, marked by a sparse human presence, populate the new songs. There are these endless fields, snowy landscapes, a desert and of course the sea. But what strikes me most is that it's still a hopeful album. I don't think despair really shows up in these songs.

No, I'm an optimist by nature. To me it feels more like a very realistic album, with its bright elements and its darker ones, and the contrast between them. But it's also melodic: you can whistle it. Going back to what we were saying before, for me music is passion and fun, there's nothing else I'd rather be doing. Although after a while you almost have to force yourself to get to the end of a project. The more time you spend working on something, the higher the bar gets, and you don't want to betray what you've already done. And the idea of something being finished doesn't reassure me either: once it's truly done, what am I supposed to do?

Go on tour…

True, and that's the best thing about touring. The music comes back to life, and it's as if it's no longer finished, petrified. That's something I appreciate more and more, especially after the pandemic.

“Industrial Love Song” is a very original love song. I find there's something very poetic in this surreal declaration of love between two cranes on these building sites at sunset. What inspired it?

I was on a train to London going through an industrial area, and the person who was with me, looking out of the window, suddenly said there were two cranes in love with each other. I wrote it down knowing it would become a song. It was great recording it together with Caroline Polachek: she has this angelic voice that seems to come from another world, and it contrasts with mine. I tried to sing differently to make that contrast even more pronounced, as if it were a dialogue between an angel and a gargoyle.

“A Season In Hell” and “Wild Fields” are the most percussive and aggressive songs on “Crooked Wing”. How were they written? Was there something different in the songwriting process that pushed you in this direction?

When I was writing them I was living in an area of North London, an industrial zone. I almost felt like I had to compete with the noises around me. Maybe that's where this side of the record came from. That said, this percussive element has always been there in our music. But using it sparingly, only at the right moment, makes its effect much more powerful.

I really liked the video for “A Season In Hell” and the contrast between the aggressive, percussive music and the slow movement of the protagonist. On top of that, you have a star acting in the video…

Harley Weir directed it and has known us since we were nineteen. She's taken many of the band's best photos. She'd worked with us on a lot of the visual side of "Inside The Rose". It's rare to find someone you can trust completely. Yes, Alexander [Skarsgård] is a friend of George's. He's fantastic in the video, convincing in every single moment.

The visual side is fundamental to your music. When do you start working on it? After the album's been made, or is it something that also shapes the writing and final form of the songs?

Generally, I start writing the music and at the same time George starts working on the visuals, and we influence each other. It's a complex process that goes on for a long time.

We've talked about how themes, images and words recur throughout the collection. How do you put together the tracklist, the musical journey, and all these intertextual references?

The beginning and the end are usually already clear from the early stages. As for the rest... Honestly, you know what, I don't know? I'd be lying if I made something up to tell you right now. It's all very instinctive!

(June 1, 2025)

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