The Levellers
The Levellers has been around since the 80´s and they have always delivered music which hits you straight into your heart. It was about time to see what they are up to these days, as well as reflect on past episodes! So, we sent over some questions to the ever brilliant Jeremy "Jez". Here´s what he had to say:
First of all, greetings from Sweden. How are you doing?
Jeremy: Hiya. I
finally got the time! Here
we go. Doing ok thanks, just been having an art exhibition of some of my
paintings + also drawing out new levellers summer t shirts.
If we start with the present...what has 2025 given the band so far in terms of touring and recording music?
Jeremy: So far we did quite a long tour of the uk with our ‘Collective’ acoustic tour, then a one - off benefit show of our usual electric stuff for a friend of ours who can’t work at the moment…
The Levellers has been around since the late 1980´s. How often do you reflect on that fact? What comes to your mind?
Jeremy: Strangely we never really reflect on that fact - crazy tho it is!!
Levs are all about looking forward - tho I suppose if we make it to our 40 anniversary in 3 years time we’ll have to think about it a lot!
It was quite nice reflecting on everything on our 20 anniversary cos we’d just never really done it before …. Hopefully we’ll be pleased with our achievements:)
You have always been a band that has stood up for the ordinary everyday working people. How does it feel in these times with countless wars going on around the world?
Jeremy: It can be quite overwhelming with all the global conflict currently. But like u say, levs stand with the common man + not any institutions etc, so it’s actually simpler for us because the people in these conflicts experiences are often very similar - so we tend to sing about the affects on their lives rather than individual conflicts themselves. Unless they in some way affect us directly that is, like if we got a friend involved there …
We have seen The Levellers live seven times since the mid-90´s and you have always had this explosive energy onstage. As you get older, is it harder to maintain that level of energy each and every night?
Jeremy: We all have to wear knee pads these days and see doctors behind the scenes but as soon as the first notes kick in on stage we may as well still be 20 haha!
We have a forward projecting energy we just never lost, probably cos we think the message is still urgent + the music is still fun to play + jump up + down to!
Many thanks for your support over the years! Much appreciated :)
Speaking about live concerts...what´s the trickiest setlist you ever tried out and how did it work out in the end?
Jeremy: There’s been a couple! Our Collective show is very hard to play, so everyone sits down + concentrates …..
As for electric ones a particularly difficult one was re-playing our record breaking Glastonbury set. Was very hard to learn + we’ve written better songs since then, so was generally a lot of effort for not much return. I’m sure the crowd (at beautiful days that year) would rather have heard us play a more contemporary set with more hits in it!
Was an interesting exercise tho is about the best I can say about it!
One of our favorite songs of yours is the wonderful ”Mutiny”. Could you tell us how this song emerged both lyrically and musically?
Jeremy: Mark wrote that song but as usual we all arranged it. Was a hard one! But yes - cool song.
It’s based on the true story of the Etaples mutiny, in France 1917 during the First World War.
Basically the common British soldiers rose up against their officers over their incompetence leading to catastrophic loss of life on the front line.
For a while they set up a kind of commune before being suppressed by the British army + the ringleaders executed. The main leader was a guy called Percy Toplis.
we know the story from an old British tv series.
The incident is well worth checking out now u have that info tho…
Now onto a question that we sometimes like to ask the bands that we interview...How would you describe your music to someone who comes from a galaxy far away?
Jeremy: It’s kinda heavy metal folk music with punk attitude!
You also have your own festival, Beautiful Days, every year in Devon at Escot Park. Is that a opportunity to invite all of your friends from various band from around the globe?
Jeremy: Yes we do indeed have our own festival + we do invite global bands + our friends …. They can’t always make it tho! But we try to get the best line up we can of bands who can just play live really well! Plus there’s lots of other stuff going on as well as music … we try to give it an old school festival vibe where anything can happen but in a safe environment!
Speaking of Beautiful Days...which are the top 5 performances you have witnessed there and why so?
Jeremy: In no order:
Frank Turner … he just had the crowd going mad, was great
Midlake - just cos I love the band
Pogues - same! Didn’t sound great + Shane wasn’t long for this world but no one can argue those songs arnt brilliant!
Specials - same thing. Terry the singers last show before he passed away + the band were on fire.
RDF - I hadn’t seen them since the early 90s so it was just great to hear those songs again. I stood side stage with my hoodie on + no one in the band even recognised me haha! After all those shows we did coming up together too….
Loads of other smaller bands like Clearlake + The Crimea + Wolfpeople were fantastic as well, all for different reasons!
Too many to mention really!
We are based in Sweden, a country that has big problems with criminal gangs who makes the cities more and more dangerous. Many underaged kids are getting throwed into this very dark world of crimes and hopelessness. In the 1990´s and the early 2000´s Sweden was still a country where you could leave your bike unlocked. What is your current picture of Sweden and do you have any fond memories of our country from when you have toured here in the past?
Jeremy: Yes I watched a documentary on Swedish gangs recently … was some scary shit going on!
I always have very fond memories of Sweden tho, from graduation day in Stockholm with lots of naked students swimming while drummer charlie + I were out on a pedal boat at the same time haha… that was a fun day.
Then seeing all the historical places … everyone in the uk is kinda obsessed by Vikings so we love to see all of that stuff! :)
To wrap it up on a positive note...what are your wishes for the Levellers and also what are your hopes for this world in 2025?
Jeremy: I wish peace for the world in 2025!
Beyond that Levs are out doing summer festivals, starting in Belgium in June.
Then in winter we do a 30 anniversary of our Zeitgeist album! So we got plenty going on! After that it’s gonna be new music time…
As for me personally I have a painting exhibition in June (all on my Instagram under jeremy leveller), then prob some more even after that…
Many thanks for the interview Jeremy! Hope you will have a blast when touring this year!
See you down the road!
Jeremy: Ok, hope that’s all good. Apologise for the delay!
Jez
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