British duo The Boy Least Likely To play children’s music—only it’s meant for adults. Their debut album, The Best Party Ever, has generated a great deal of buzz among indie music bloggers with its playful arrangements adorned with banjo, glockenspiel and recorder melodies; the record will be released in the U.S. on April 4. While The Best Party Ever may sound gleeful, much of it is imbued with sadness and a paralyzing fear of adulthood.
Lyricist and vocalist Jof Owens sat down with The Voice before opening for James Blunt at the 9:30 Club on March 13 to discuss Calvin and Hobbes, the darker themes of his music and the importance of remaining a kid at heart.
So how did you first get into music?
I just started making music when I was young. I just started writing songs when I was about 11. [The songs] are not that far from what we do now, really. I just write the words. That was really my thing, just doing the words. And Pete does the music so we work quite nicely with each other.
What has been people’s reaction to the record? Can people typically get past the outer cuteness (twee sound) of the record to find the deeper messages within the lyrics?
Yeah, most people seem to. Actually some people criticize us for being too twee. I mean, most people get past that, and I think it just takes proper listening to realize that the lyrics are completely not [cutesy]. I mean, that’s what twee is—kind of tongue-in-cheek. I don’t see twee as a bad thing because I like all those twee bands.
You two run a [record] label called Too Young to Die and a lot of your songs deal with adolescent themes and death simultaneously, kind of like the title of the label. What caused these themes to come out in your songs?
I don’t know. It’s just the way that I am—nervous.
Did anything happen in your childhood?
I guess it was kind of different being out in Wendover [Birminghamshire, England]. It’s like this little village and you’re kind of cut off from the rest of the world, and you live in sort of a bubble, really. I often find that people are happy there, but as they grow older the fear of the outside world starts to play with their minds a bit.
Do you associate youth with happiness, then?
Well, I’m quite happy. I haven’t really changed any [at the age of 28]! Well, the way I view the world and my general disposition hasn’t really changed since I was about 10. I’m really just a big 10-year-old. The way I see the world and what’s important to me hasn’t really changed, and the music I love is pretty much the same. The music I make is pretty much the same, too. I guess I just grew up physically, but mentally I really didn’t get that far [laughs].
Kind of off-topic, but what do you mean when you say, “I wanna pick peaches off your cherry tree (lyric from “Be Gentile with Me”)?
I just wanna do something that’s impossible. It’s to accomplish the impossible. It used to be an old punk slogan. That’s just my new, updated classic punk slogan … in a more twee way [laughs].
[The song] “My Tiger My Heart” reminded a lot of people of Calvin and Hobbes, but had you guys read the comic before recording the song?
No, my sister told me about them. I really had no idea. She mentioned Calvin and Hobbes, and I thought she was talking about a hardware store [laughs]. Then she went out and bought the books. I’m really quite embarrassed that I hadn’t heard of it before. I guess we could even soundtrack Disney movies.
