Sleaford Mods: ‘The new album is gonna go over people's heads a little bit’

INTERVIEW

On the eve of the release of their new album, Sleaford Mods’ Jason Williamson tells us about the pressure of success, letting his ego go and how Abbey Road Studios is like a knitwear factory.

by David Rea

3 January 2026

Photo: Stephen Parker / Alamy

David Rea: The Demise of Planet X comes out on the 16th of January. How are you feeling about it?

Jason Williamson: Yeah, I dunno, a bit weird really. It feels like so long ago now since we made it. One of the best bits of this job is the creation of a set of songs and then, when they are just about to go off to be mastered, listening back to them in all of their naked glory, and getting a real buzz from it. I've listened to it about 300 times in its entirety.

For me it's probably our most complete album. All the tracks are as strong as each other for me. It just feels like a more commercial, accessible album. I'm at the point now where I've got to learn the songs to play them live. And I'm kind of sick of listening to it. So it's really hard because it's something you love, but it's now something that hasn't pulled you in like it did 3 months ago. I'm waiting for the gigs to bring the songs alive again.

Your last two studio albums, Spare Ribs and UK Grim, have both hit the top 5 in the UK Albums Chart. Did that change how you felt going into the studio this time? Did you feel more pressure?

Yeah, a little bit because obviously you've become better so you need to keep that quality. You need to keep that standard of creativity up, which you can do, but it takes such a lot out of you in such a small space of time.

You've said of the new album: ‘It's not just in your face. You have to really put your glasses on to look at the ingredients.’ I'm taking that to mean there's more going on in the mixes on this album.

Yeah, there is, there's loads more. And it's gonna go over people's heads a little bit, or maybe not. But there's a lot going on in there. There isn't just the old formula of speed and me ranting. It's something I would like to think people are going to take time with.

One of the tracks with more ‘ingredients’ is the third teaser track, ‘Bad Santa’. It feels like a bit of a departure.

‘Bad Santa’ was done at Abbey Road. It was originally a finger-picking acoustic guitar idea I'd sent to Andrew [Fearn]. But as Andrew started to roll out this morbid, insular landscape of water-coloured, acoustic tones, I put these lyrics to it. [The song’s about] the ever-present sort of now energy of these authoritarian figures that are ruling the world. So yeah, when we finished ‘Bad Santa’, I was really impressed with it.

“It's really unsettling because what Andrew Fearn does is something I wouldn't do, something I don't necessarily like, but then you're like, okay, it clicks.” — Jason Williamson

You mentioned recording at Abbey Road. That's obviously a legendary studio. What was it like working there?

Yeah, brilliant. It's like an old warehouse. It's like an old factory, a knitwear factory. Yeah, it's very prestigious in the middle of St. John's Wood. Obviously its reputation goes before it, with the Beatles and everyone else, and all the other early 60s stars that recorded down there — not to mention the classic film soundtracks they've done. Yeah, it was great. It really was. Very traditional, you know, there's people there that really love music and look about 85 years old.

I understand the way you collaborated with Andrew Fearn changed on this album. Before he was much more on the engineering side of things. But this time you had an assistant engineer on board, so Andrew was able to work a bit more on production. It must be quite something to bring in the bare bones of a song and, as you described with ‘Bad Santa’, see him slowly carve out a sonic landscape with it. Do you have any input at that stage?

It's really unsettling because what he does is something I wouldn't do, something I don't necessarily like, but then you're like, okay, it clicks. It's like, this actually works! It's important to let your ego go, which is pretty impossible a lot of the time, but when it comes to collaborating, you can't be stamping your shit over everything. It's just gonna destroy it. You have to let them come in. And with Andrew, he starts slowly and it slowly builds. It's neither here nor there, and then it will be there, and then it will be here, and then it will meet and make complete and utter sense. It's almost like he's putting two fingers up to the idea of what punk is.

From the outside Andrew seems like a really lovely guy to collaborate with because he's got a really gentle way about him. Is he like that when you're working together?

Yeah, totally. He's not aggressive, he's not abrasive. I mean, we've all got quirks, haven't we? But he's really easy to work with. And he doesn't forget anything you've said to him. It's almost insane.

“People criticise you for this, that and the other and you're like, your music's fucking pony! It's like, when you can achieve what we have, then you can come to the table, but until then, forget about it.” — Jason Williamson

Some of your lyrics are really funny. One of my favourites is ‘I Claudius’ from UK Grim: ‘I saw Santa Claus with a bag of chips… does he eat, Dad?’ It's funny and poignant and says so much in a handful of words. Is the humour in your lyrics intentional?

Yeah, totally. You get sick of your own voice moaning and you need to put some comedy in there, because that's the justification for your existence almost. I can be quite an annoying person but I think if you've got this ability to install comedy into your music, it almost justifies you. There's an art to comedy. If you can manage to achieve that, I think you are, for want of a better word, untouchable.

People criticise you for this, that and the other and you're like, your music's fucking pony! It's like, when you can achieve what we have, then you can come to the table, but until then, forget about it. Being able to laugh at yourself and being able to make other people laugh in your creativity is a sign you've succeeded.

You're often asked about politics in interviews; sometimes there are more questions about politics than there are about your music. And I understand why. You write about politics, after all. But first and foremost you're artists, you make music and you perform. Do you feel frustrated that you get so many political questions?

Yeah, I think people sometimes mistake the ability to articulate your surroundings and circumstances for some otherworldly introspection into politics, you know what I mean? There are a lot more people that I know that dedicate their days to being affiliated with what's going on in the political landscape. They understand it far better than I do. Sometimes it's not that hard to describe what's going on because modern politics has become so transparently depressing. But, I'm interested in expressing my own experiences in the best way I can. That's where my interest is. And to be asked why the Labour Party are currently hated is, you know… you feel like you're almost making up bullshit. It's like sometimes it's hard to articulate yourself in an interview. But when it comes to songs, obviously that's different.

That makes me think of something Elvis Costello once said. He was asked to explain what one of his lyrics meant, and he said if he wanted to say it any other way, he would've written a different lyric.

Ha!

One last question. Do you have a music recommendation for the readers of State of Sound?

Jason: [The artist] keiyaA. There's a capital A at the end. Everything else is lowercase. The album’s called Hooke’s Law. It’s a great album. I’m real sucker for good fucking soul music, whatever you wanna call this.

Okay great, thank you for that. So Jason, good luck with this album. I can't wait to hear it. And good luck with your upcoming tour.

Thank you, take care.

You can pre-order Sleaford Mods’ new album The Demise of Planet X here.