Confidence Man begin their new album with a seductive, if confusing, invitation: “Meet me on the corner of Mare Street and Ridley Road.” The opening lyric of the Aussie dance freaks’ third album ‘3am (La La La)’ would baffle even the most knowledgeable black cab driver – because this mysterious east London intersection doesn’t actually exist.
“It’s basically like your wildest dreams – if you can find it,” teases Sugar Bones, who with fellow vocalist Janet Planet is calling NME from a train carriage-shaped hotel room in Chattanooga, Tennessee. “It exists in everyone, somewhere. It’s the intersection in your heart.” Planet jumps in, kicking off the first of many back-and-forths. “Like The Wizard of Oz!”
After dropping their second album ‘Tilt’ in 2022, Confidence Man – completed by elusive veiled members Reggie Goodchild and Clarence McGuffie – followed the yellow brick road to their own Emerald City: London. Besides needing a more logical base for the extensive global touring that Con Man’s success now demands, the quartet had to admit it: they’d outgrown Australia.
“Australia’s a bit too small for our personalities, our egos,” says Planet, half-joking. “You just hang around with kangaroos – they don’t care.” You can only imagine how their flamboyant personas coexist inside the Dalston flat they all share, where the initial seeds of ‘3am…’ were sown. After extensively touring ‘Tilt’, the group hardly stopped for a breather – they remained obscenely busy while writing the record, whether it was opening up for New Order or playing DJ sets all around the UK.
If the dance-pop bravado of ‘Tilt’ was a step up from their witty 2018 debut ‘Confident Music For Confident People’, ‘3am…’ is Confidence Man’s nosedive into the rave. Embracing the club-focused era they teased through 2023 collaborations with Daniel Avery and DJ Seinfeld, the album lives and breathes its ’90s rave influences, through sprinklings of Underworld, The Prodigy and their heroes The KLF.
The album feels ready-made for deep, psychotic afterparties instead of sunny festival stages, so it’s unsurprising that the late-night process behind it was equally unhinged. Drunken writing sessions teetered on the brink of insanity until the magic revealed itself, usually around 3am, which crowned the album with a natural title. “Pushing yourself to that crazy point where you completely lose your mind, and you might ruin your life,” Bones told NME earlier this year. “That’s the sweet spot.”
“Australia’s a bit too small for our personalities, our egos. You just hang around with kangaroos – they don’t care” – Janet Planet
Within their Dalston microcosm, Con Man combined trips to Pony Studios with places and routines that became integral to the songwriting process. “We miss Mare Street, writing lyrics there,” reflects Planet, reeling off these newfound home comforts (including the overpriced margaritas of “rubbish” cocktail bar Silk Stockings). In an age when many artists are embracing sobriety and ditching rock’n’roll hedonism, Confidence Man went – actively, strategically – in the opposite direction.
“It’s [about] picking your battles,” Bones tells NME. “There’s a perfect schedule for drunk writing. You can’t handle Monday to Friday… it might destroy your life – disclaimer for everyone out there. You’ve got to do it in a smart way, recover and attach all the pieces together.” “Do not try this at home!” adds Planet. “If you do [sessions] too close together, your brain just goes around in circles. You need, maybe, two weeks in between sessions.”
Perhaps the perfect formula, but one they exhausted while beating ‘3am…’ into shape. “We’re gonna be fucked for the fourth album. We’ve used everything we have in this one,” jokes Planet. “We were very aligned on things, taking the music in a certain direction,” continues Bones, though he barely remembers his intoxicated vocal take for ‘Janet’, an on-the-nose pop number about the duo’s dynamic. “He was absolutely trollied. He had no idea what we were asking him to do,” confirms Planet.
Trippy underground stomper ‘Sicko’ drags you along for six minutes of mischief, while jungle-infused drums and “pretty, dreamy” flute melodies collide on ‘Far Out’ – a track which began during the ‘Tilt’ days. “Sugar and Clarence had popped out to get some more drinks, because we’d run out,” explains Planet. “We were doing mushrooms, and Reggie had this beat – it kind of sounds like a mushroom melody. The boys came back, and then it took on its own life from there.”
Crucially, Confidence Man knew the exact sound they were chasing at the start of the process – the challenge was getting there. “When we made [2021 single] ‘Holiday’, we didn’t know if we were allowed to do that kind of music. ‘Holiday’ is still silly pop, but I suppose it just has the rave background to it,” explains Planet. “‘Holiday’ [represented] finding that sound for the first time, during ‘Tilt’,” continues Bones. “With this album, we’ve had time to really go in detail on those sounds.” ‘Control’ – an acid-house firecracker with a quintessentially wonky pop hook – feels like a successor to ‘Holiday’, which continues to serve as their euphoric set closer.
“There’s a perfect schedule for drunk writing. You can’t handle Monday to Friday… it might destroy your life” – Sugar Bones
Con Man’s slick, swashbuckling live show is old news to many; they won over Glastonbury and then the whole wild world in 2022. But, just like the album, it’s been powered up to new heights, with the aid of Madonna’s production designer Rob Sinclair and more dauntless choreography. There are also fresh outfits on the rack, which Planet still personally designs. Her iconic light-up cone bra, too, persists into the new era. “Because I’m being flipped all the time, my swing teacher said ‘no high heels’!”
They made another triumphant return to Worthy Farm this year, drawing another enormous Friday afternoon crowd on the Other Stage, where a flag in the crowd reading ‘SIBLINGS OR DATING?’ – one of Confidence Man’s forever unanswered mysteries – went viral on TikTok (“Mum wasn’t happy about it,” jokes Planet). They’d play a total of four sets over the weekend; at the Greenpeace stage, their Active Scenes club night was shut down for being too rowdy. “I do think Con Man suits Glastonbury down to a T,” declares Bones.
Confidence Man seem to have something of an evergreen Midas touch – their ‘moment’ doesn’t seem to have an end in sight. Their ‘3am…’ victory lap will start with a trip home to tour Australia, ahead of an extended UK run culminating with two sold-out nights at Brixton Academy – and they’re already itching to get back in the studio. “I think the world isn’t gonna be ready for a Shygirl-” Planet abruptly stops herself from giving too much away. “We’ve got some sexy little collab options,” teases Bones, as the duo briefly bicker over the correct way to pronounce ‘collab’.
That said, Confidence Man are finally blessed with some rare downtime in the new year, when they’ll head to Rio de Janeiro… together. “If Janet’s going, I want to go!” Bones exclaims. “It seems like one fucking amazing, big, colourful, sexy party. Dancing, sexy girls. The girls [are] for Janet, I’m more of a cultural guy,” he smirks. Planet rolls her eyes.
Time will tell if Rio’s world-famous carnival can cope with the unfiltered joy and eternal euphoria of Confidence Man. Long may their party continue: as their new album will remind you, it’s always 3am somewhere.
Confidence Man’s ‘3am (La La La)’ is out October 18 via Polydor/I OH YOU