Every night, when My First Time walk out onstage, they have one goal in mind. “We want to whip people into a frenzy,” grins vocalist Isaac Stroud-Allen. They’ve yet to fail so far, thanks to a growing arsenal of rowdy anthems that are perfect for inspiring chaos.
Their 2023 debut single ‘Wind Up Merchant’ immediately revved things up with its snotty guitar riffs and rabble-rousing lyrics (“This world’s gone crazy / This generation are lazy”), while last year’s thundering ‘Man Of Ill Repute’ came after the band tried – and succeeded – in making their post-punk sound “weirder and more horrible”.
The sarcastic takedown of lad culture opened Stroud-Allen’s eyes to all the things he could be writing about after spending his teenage years in sleepy Dorset writing love songs. “It’s way more fun getting a bit gritty and dirty with it,” he notes now. At Brighton’s new music extravaganza The Great Escape earlier this year, he introduced the song by quoting Charlie Chaplin’s speech from 1940 black comedy The Great Dictator. Another crowd in Manchester were treated to a snippet from 2000 blockbuster Gladiator. Entertained? You bet we are.
My First Time met in 2021 while studying at Bristol University. ‘We were all part of the same clinical trial,” grins bassist Naia Jones. She’d love to reveal more about exactly how they bonded over a shared love of music, but her hands are apparently tied due to confidentiality agreements. We’re no medical experts, but the only side effect to the trial seems to be an eclectic pool of influences – guitarist James Mellen grew up on Metallica and My Chemical Romance, drummer Jordanna Forsey loves Twenty One Pilots, and Jones used to be a Directioner. As the band’s conversation with NME unfolds, Sabrina Carpenter, Kraftwerk, Gary Numan, Blood Orange and Kate Bush all get a mention.
Perhaps the biggest collective influence on My First Time, though, is fellow Bristolians Idles. “Not just with the music either – we love what they stand for and the drive that they have with it. We want to embody that in our stuff,” says Jones. “Bristol as a place just breeds creativity as well. People actually want you to do well, which is really motivating.” Growing up in Wells, Somerset (the smallest city in England and the filming location for small-town comedy Hot Fuzz), she was made to feel like a career in music was impossible. “It gave me this venom to prove those people wrong.”
So far, so good. A trio of tracks released this year have not only helped the bassist challenge that attitude, but have also continued My First Time’s journey into unhinged brilliance. ‘Much Better’ is Iggy Pop’s ‘Lust For Life’ meets Yard Act’s ‘Fixer Upper’, the swaggering ‘Brand New’ has Stroud-Allen quoting the band name and delivering tongue-in-cheek lyrics (“I’ve learnt real long words you can’t ascertain”) and ‘Bodybag’ is an LCD Soundsystem-inspired slab of dance punk. It’s loads of fun that manages to dial up the biting social commentary without losing the band’s sarcastic sense of humour.
Then there’s new single ‘Sippy Cup’, which has them rediscovering their roots as a four-piece rock’n’roll band. “It’s about power, corruption and how people are happy to watch the world burn if they’re the ones sitting on a rooftop bar sipping on a Sex On The Beach,” says Stroud-Allen. “It’s all about that power divide and how the ultra-elite exist in such a different world to real life.” After that, they’ve got an arena-sized indie pop banger ready to launch and are already plotting a debut album. They’ve got more than enough songs ready; they just need to sit down and work out what’s going to make the cut.
Already, though, what’s clear is that we can probably expect a surprise or two. “We’ve only been a band for a few years, and part of that time was us finding our sound. I’m a firm believer that if you’re doing something you’re comfortable with, then it’s time to switch things up,” warns Jones. Their vision? “We just want to write shit that’s fun to play live,” says Mellen.
As much as that fun and humour are a vital part of what My First Time are doing, there’s a vicious fury behind all their music. “Deep down, we are a bitter generation. And for good reason,” says Stroud-Allen. All four band members are in their early twenties and spent a formative part of their youth in COVID-enforced lockdown. “We were constantly lectured about the importance of coming together for a greater purpose. Then we were let out into a world that’s fallen to pieces.”
He continues: “Everything that was seen as important, such as human interaction and togetherness, has seemingly been replaced by people just being fucking horrible to one another.” These frenzied times demand frenzied music. “I want people to come to our shows with an awareness that we are just getting fucked over.“
Although My First Time are comfortable with being known as a ‘political band’, they don’t want to tell people how to think. “There’s so much music, film and art that’s just so beige. If we’re fucked off about something, we’ll put that into a song,” says Mellen. “We are ‘Generation Fucked’ but if you think about that for too long, you just get miserable,” he adds, which is why their live shows are so joyful.
“It’s a nice type of escape as well because it’s not so much an ignorance or a neglect for what’s going on, it’s a triumphant acknowledgement that everyone is in on,” adds Jones. “It’s us saying ‘we know how shit this is, but look at how this shit can breed something so positive’.”
“I want people to come to our shows with an awareness that we are just getting fucked over” – Isaac Stroud-Allen
As well as buzzy performances at festivals such as The Great Escape, Dot To Dot and Wilderness, My First Time’s first London headline gig in May saw them pack out Third Man Records, turning its basement into a sweaty mass of bodies. As promised, each of the band’s shows so far has been a frenzy of excitement, catharsis and community. “It’s so validating to see that what we’re building means something to other people,” says Mellen. “We all found community going to gigs when we were younger. It’s sometimes tough to properly explain it, but you do just want to be a part of something.”
This might be their first time, but they’re not afraid of dreaming big. “Because we’re so varied in what we like and what we want to do sonically, I don’t think there’s a ceiling on what we’re capable of,” he adds.
“We’re all very ambitious people,” explains Stroud-Allen, whose dream is to play to a packed audience at Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage. “I’ve been in those crowds, and you can feel the emotion and the energy. To get to that point, you have to be a fucking good, big band, so that’s what we’ll be,” he grins before quoting Shark Tale: “We want to be top of the reef.”
My First Time’s ‘Sippy Cup’ is out on October 10 via Parlophone Records