Nothing But Thieves - Teen idols for the 2010s

Conor Mason, the blond-haired singer of Nothing But Thieves, was born on December 26, 1992 in Rayleigh, a town of 34,000 people in Essex, just east of London. His father enjoyed singing and, besides introducing Conor to B.B. King and Sam Cooke, encouraged him to take lessons. That's how, during secondary school, he decided not to pick up the guitar like many of his friends were doing, but to focus instead on developing his voice, soon joining the church choir and learning to control his breathing. It was at school that Mason first floated the idea of starting a band with guitarists Joe Langridge-Brown and Dominic Craik, bassist Philip Blake and drummer James Price.

Nothing But Thieves took their first steps in 2012, in a garage in Southend-on-Sea, a town on the Thames Estuary. After a few months of rehearsals, with a very clear vision from the start, the quintet released their debut in October 2013: the Ep If You Don't Believe, It Can't Hurt You, featuring early versions of "Graveyard Whistiling", "Emergency" and "Itch". It was "Itch" that would thrust the young English band into the spotlight, landing in rotation on Radio 1 and earning "track of the day" honours.

The spotlight fell on the still-unknown band, who in July 2014 released Graveyard Whistling, their second Ep, which included, besides the title track, "Itch" (again), "Emergency" (both already present on the previous Ep) and the brand-new "Last Orders".

There was an appetite for new music across the Channel, and Rca-Sony was the quickest label to recognise the potential of Nothing But Thieves, signing them and mapping out the path that would lead to their full-length debut. A year of writing and recording followed, and in July 2015 came first a promo Ep featuring the new track Ban All The Music, then the show that would help change their lives: on July 18, at Rock In Roma, they opened for Muse in front of roughly 30,000 people, catching everyone's attention with a tight set of about ten songs, among which a blistering cover of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" stood out.
It was the official confirmation of a new musical star on the rise, one who in the preceding months had already been handed prestigious support slots for Twenty One Pilots and Arcade Fire back home. They were the hottest next big thing of the moment, now launched beyond British borders too. With the hype about to explode, on October 16 came Urchin to keep anticipation alive, yet another Ep containing four tracks ("Itch", "If I Get High", "Excuse Me" and "Ban All The Music") recorded in acoustic versions.

That same day finally brought their debut album too, Nothing But Thieves, which played almost like a greatest-hits collection with a few new tracks thrown in, since it gathered the singles released up to that point. In the collective imagination, the band came to be seen as a kind of cross between Muse and early Radiohead, with twin guitars interlocking skilfully to sketch out hard-hitting scenarios ("Ban All The Music", "Drawing Pins", "Painkiller"), intriguing midtempo numbers ("Wake Up Call", "Trip Switch") and tender ballads ("If I Get High", "Graveyard Whistling", "Lover, Please Stay"). Conor Mason holds his own somewhere between Thom Yorke and Jeff Buckley ("Excuse Me"), essentially the same synthesis Matt Bellamy developed across much of "Origin Of Symmetry".
It shot straight into the UK Top Ten (reaching number seven, while hitting the bottom step of the podium on iTunes) and even topped the vinyl sales chart. Nothing But Thieves is a substantial debut, perhaps not the most original, but of great compositional quality. The record doesn't necessarily end its games at track twelve, the falsetto-laced slow number "Tempt You (Evocation)": for those wanting to dig deeper into the band's early days, a deluxe edition with four further tracks - anything but filler - would soon follow.

On October 19, 2015, the UK tour kicked off, selling out everywhere, followed by a successful first European tour that brought them to Italy too: on November 10 and 11 in Milan and Bologna respectively. The run of dates continued for several more months, bringing them back to Italy in early 2016 for shows in Roncade and Rome. Some dates scheduled in the UK for April 2016 had to be postponed, since Muse once again wanted Nothing But Thieves as the opening act on their Drones Tour.
In 2016 they also played many major festivals, including Madrid's newly launched Mad Cool; the same held true in 2017, when they performed in front of 500,000 people at the Woodstock Festival in Poland and were a major draw at Italy's I-Days, staged at the Monza racetrack.

Meanwhile the quintet was busy writing new songs, rehearsing constantly and fine-tuning the material that would land, on September 8, 2017, on their second album, Broken Machine, a record for which the band reshaped itself with a sharper identity, gradually shedding some of the overly obvious and occasionally cumbersome reference points. The operation only partly succeeded: Muse and Radiohead are never far around the corner, even if the Matt Bellamy-style falsetto pursued on "Soda", much like the new-Radiohead blueprint explored on "Afterlife", feel more like tributes - risky, demanding ones that not everyone could pull off. Nothing But Thieves' stylistic formula is certainly nothing new, but it works: tracks that race along with electric intensity (the stone-crushing opener "I Was Just A Kid", the following "Amsterdam" and, further along, "I'm Not Made By Design" are clear examples) are alternated with gentler moments ("Sorry" sounds like it came out of a Mumford & Sons session, while the acoustic "Hell, Yeah" chases the epic grandeur of certain U2 moments from the "The Joshua Tree" era).
But it's when the band leans into intersections with electronic music that the most interesting results emerge, pointing toward the future too: "Live Like Animals", the most eclectic track on the record, has a chorus with the force of a dancefloor-filler and a verse that (thanks to Mason's skill) even ventures into unexpected hip-hop cadences. Not everything shines - here and there you can spot repetition, filler passages or moments that overdo it ("Get Better", "Reset Me", "Number 13") - but the deluxe edition smooths things over with the addition of an acoustic version of "Sorry" and a piano version of "Particles", even more effective than the full-band one, with Mason's voice soaring up there, into Jeff Buckley territory, proving just how skilled these guys are, even when fine detail work is required.

Audience approval was not lacking: in its first week, Broken Machine climbed all the way to number two on the British charts, trailing only "Sleep Well Beast" by The National - a remarkable result to say the least for a band that, barely a year earlier, had still been complete unknowns outside Essex. Some songs were picked up as background music for video games (even the hugely popular Fifa) and hit TV series, boosting the band's profile even among people who don't usually follow the latest musical trends.
The 2017 UK tour sold out completely, and things went just as well abroad, Italy included, where the band returned to play Milan in December 2017, Rome and Bologna in February 2018, and the Cinzella Festival (near Taranto) the following summer. The only bump in the road came in November 2017, when some band members faced accusations of sexual harassment circulated via Twitter. The British magazine New Musical Express, concerned about how the situation might unfold, decided to cancel a show the band had scheduled to launch the Nme Awards. The band promptly denied any involvement, declaring themselves firmly on the side of abuse victims and pursuing legal action against whoever had spread the defamatory claims.

But there was no time to catch their breath: compositional urgency led Nothing But Thieves to release four new tracks on October 19, 2018 on the Ep What Did You Think When You Made Me This Way?, opened by the vivid electricity of the already-released single "Forever & Ever More", a perfect link back to the Muse-indebted imagery the band had already explored in the past.
"Gods", the second track on the tracklist, instead pushes them toward a sonic spectrum straddling Matt Bellamy's band and Radiohead's "The Bends" era, a resemblance especially noticeable at the start of the second verse. It's the oldest track in the batch, dating back to the recording sessions that produced the band's self-titled debut album. The other two tracks are less fiery: "You Know Me Too Well" and "Take This Lonely Heart" are built on progressions more focused on harmonic ebbs and flows, lending the Ep the right dynamic range.

Always mindful of a strong radio hook, Nothing But Thieves try to keep flying the flag for a kind of indie-pop that - despite its commercial leanings - still wants to stay tethered to alt-rock. It's not an easy balance to strike; playing at being Coldplay would pay off more, but the results, at least in terms of growing recognition, have so far rewarded the band.
What Did You Think When You Made Me This Way? is a necessary release, making room for songs that Mason and co. evidently wanted to clear out of the drawer before planning their next steps: on one hand it confirms the traits the band has shown so far, on the other it signals a desire to look elsewhere, testing new directions. This makes the wait for their next, third album all the more intriguing - the one that, more than its predecessors, would reveal the true measure of this English band: a flash in the pan, or genuine idols for a new generation?

The answers arrived in the thick of the Covid-19 pandemic. Undeterred by the impossibility of touring the new songs, Nothing But Thieves released Moral Panic, their third album, at the end of October 2020. Compared to the past, the range of influences opens up well beyond the well-known stylistic closeness to Muse: "Is Anybody Going Crazy?" has the same guitar sound as Marilyn Manson, the vocal opening of "Real Love Song" recalls the grandeur of Arcade Fire in a dark song with a killer chorus referencing Nick Cave and a certain gothic decadence ("I'll drink myself to death dark"), the arpeggios of "Before We Drift Away" bring to mind the most nocturnal Radiohead, and "Phobia" spans a sonic spectrum joining Billie Eilish to the riffs of Queens Of The Stone Age. "Phobia" is indeed one of the two tracks that would win over the most demanding listeners, with a structure that builds through gradual accumulation, an apparently autobiographical spiral that turns the protagonist's unease into madness: the story of a rockstar who has to face the stage but has by now grown numb to everything around him. A bit like their own "One Of My Turns".
The other standout moment is the explicit anti-Trump crusade "Can You Afford To Be An Individual?" ("Up on a pedestal / reveling in your own confusion"), while "Impossible" takes on the role of instant classic, destined to immediately become a fan favourite, an epic ballad built on a flawless crescendo. A sharper-than-usual critical edge is evident from the song titles alone, and even more so once you read the lyrics. From the opening "Unperson" onward, there's a clear stance against the internet and social media ("We lose all control of our senses"), a theme that recurs throughout, skilfully blending and blurring with the theme of dependence on various pills. Rounding things off is a pervasive sense of emptiness, that feeling of an impending end ("This Feels Like The End", "There Was Sun") that fits perfectly with such a fraught moment in history, revealing the unwitting foresight of an album that took on meanings its own authors could hardly have imagined just a few months earlier.

Less than a year later, in July 2021, Nothing But Thieves released the companion piece Moral Panic II, an Ep containing five new tracks, written and recorded in subsequent sessions. The stylistic formula of Conor Mason's band remains essentially the same, but this time the sound is noticeably more aggressive than usual, resulting in one of the most solid and cohesive releases they've put out so far. The opening one-two punch is a statement of intent: "Futureproof" and "If I Were You" lean decisively on electric guitars, direct and loud from the very first notes, with that by-now familiar approach blending the sound of Muse with that of Radiohead's "The Bends".
Two tracks that feel almost brutal compared with the carefully crafted hit singles that made them famous. Softer, the following "Miracle, Baby" is instead built on a pace that occasionally recalls Smashing Pumpkins' "Ava Adore". But it's the final two tracks that add further value to this release: the near-stoner "Ce n'est rien" is the hardest, most uncompromising moment Nothing But Thieves have ever recorded, while the closing "Your Blood" is a masterful Radiohead-style song, starting out cradled by sweet guitar arpeggios before opening up into an epic-paced crescendo that once again showcases Mason's flawless vocal talent.

In November 2022, Conor Mason launched a parallel solo project called Man-Made Sunshine, with a five-track Ep, Man-Made Sunshine. Five brand new, distinctly personal tracks, made during lockdown as a form of therapy to work through the unease built up in those bleak days. The end result doesn't stray too far from the sound of his main band's typical ballads, and Mason's vocal timbre certainly helps underline the similarities, but here the writer digs into and examines his own process of inner growth, relationship struggles, and the inherent loneliness triggered by compulsive social media use, always placing himself - rather than the rest of the band - at the centre of the songwriting.
The sound drifts gently between soft indie-pop, light psychedelia and electronics that are never too intrusive, often leaning on delicate piano lines, unafraid to ruffle the waters a little from time to time, but careful not to overload the arrangements, so as to avoid the overly bombastic stadium-sized emphasis typical of Nothing But Thieves. "Songs about survival" is how the artist himself described them, songs meant to help you keep from giving up and to fight the dark sides within all of us. Man-Made Sunshine is a small-scale work, but it marks the encouraging start of Conor Mason's second artistic life, one that doesn't aim to replace or overshadow his main path, but to walk alongside it, never afraid to show the world his own human vulnerability.

Presented as a dystopian concept set within an imaginary city, Nothing But Thieves' fourth album, Dead Club City, released on June 30, 2023, depicts stories and characters wandering through urban settings and exclusive clubs. We're led inside one of these clubs from the very first notes of the opener "Welcome To The DCC", the English band's new, hyper-danceable earworm. There's groove and energy throughout the eleven tracks of Dead Club City, mixed with a desire to explore new ground: alongside songs that recall others already heard in their catalogue ("Overcome", a tender-hearted ballad with a very '80s solo, has a chorus closely reminiscent of "Sorry"), the band introduces more than a few new influences.
While the ties to the Muse sound remain strong ("City Haunts" is their own "Supermassive Black Hole", while "Members Only" and closer "Pop The Balloon" are - unwittingly? - derived from Matt Bellamy's songwriting too), on "Tomorrow Is Closed" Nothing But Thieves absorb clear Strokes refractions, "Keeping You Around" carries r&b overtones (imagine it sung by any female soul voice), the enveloping "Talking To Myself" harks back to certain vintage textures typical of Unknown Mortal Orchestra, and the retro mood of "Green Eyes :: Siena" even hints at a first attempt to approach the more confessional turn recently taken by Arctic Monkeys.

Moving away from the dystopian, synthetic concept of "Dead Club City" (2023) and the apocalyptic visions of the preceding "Moral Panic" (2020), Nothing But Thieves return after three years with their fifth album, Stray Dogs (2026), which shifts the band's expressive center of gravity away from social critique and toward a more intimate, introspective dimension. With these twelve new songs, the Essex band aims to share a mature reflection on human connection, collective growth and the sense of belonging. It's an evolution visible not only in the lyrics but also in the musical dimension, through a very powerful sound that's thrown right in the listener's face from the first three tracks in sequence, direct and adrenaline-fueled: "Stray Dogs", "Testosterone" and "Evolution".
But Stray Dogs isn't just less electronics and more guitars: listening closely, you can catch the interesting vocal eclecticism of singer Conor Mason, one of the most gifted frontmen of his generation, capable of ranging from crystal-clear falsetto to manipulated registers, seeking out new expressive modes, as in the darker "Death In The Backseat". Dirty, jittery guitars that don't undermine the band's ability to find the right radio hooks, which take shape in the brilliant "#5" and "A Different Kind Of Happiness", which closes out, sublimely, a work that in its second half also finds plenty of sharp moments in "Baby Kool (Evelyn)", "AI. Jesus" and "American Confidence", relegating the only acoustic passages to the five minutes of "I Needed You Then, I Need You Now". Having reached the podium in the UK's best-selling albums chart, Nothing But Thieves have hit the mark once again.
Having become masters at the trick of complicating an energetic teen-pop sound by stitching "alternative" distortions and stadium-filling electric flourishes onto it, and riding on Conor Mason's flawless vocal talent, Nothing But Thieves now routinely sit in the hot zones of the charts across half of Europe. It's not that you need to sell all that many copies to get there anymore, but the formula for making a living from music in the 2020s seems crystal clear to the Essex quintet, who know how to appeal just as much to teenagers hungry for electronics and diary-worthy slogans as to thirty- and forty-somethings (and beyond) with a thing for guitars.

Photo by Jack Bridgland

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