“It’s a punch in the face – in a good way”: Why Coach Party’s new album Caramel hits the sweet spot

Coach Party stood open-mouthed and stared at Josh Homme.

The band – singer/bassist Jess Eastwood, guitarists Joe Perry and Steph Norris, and drummer/producer Guy Page – had been picked to support Queens Of The Stone Age’s European tour. But only now, watching Queens crush their headline performance, did it dawn on them exactly what that involved.

“We had a great time,” says Joe. “But it was also like getting taken to school.”

“Josh Homme gives you everything you need to know about being a rock star,” concurs Jess. “He’s rock star 101. I remember being like, ‘How are we going to open for these guys every night?’ I thought we were pretty good, but this is ridiculous!”

Fortunately, the experience lit a fire under the band. By the time they played their last QOTSA show, in a beautiful amphitheatre in Lyon, France, they felt like they belonged – “We deserve to be here and we can have a good time!” as Joe puts it.

Moreover, the band brought that spirit into sessions for brilliant second album, Caramel. Coach Party’s debut, Killjoy, took them around the world but – given the quality of songs like Micro Aggression and Born Leader, and the chaotic joy of their live shows – the band somehow remained resolutely under the radar.

What Mr. Homme might call the lost art of keeping their secret, however, is surely about to blow up. Caramel delivers 10 succinct, unstoppable alt.rock bangers (“No skips is our motto!” laughs Jess), dripping with ambitious intent. Not for nothing did the album’s lead single, Girls!, feature the rallying cry of, ‘Where the fuck are my girls?’ – a slogan destined to be screamed at festivals and plastered on T-shirts.

“It’s a punch in the face – in a good way,” declares Jess. “It’s important right-wingers don’t make their way into our show and destroy the feeling of oneness we’re trying to create. Girls! represents the way we want people to feel in the room: we’re all friends, in there together. For that hour, irrespective of gender, we’re all my girls.”

The rest of the record also means business. Heavier, in every sense, than Killjoy, it sees all four band members contributing their experiences to the lyrics, leaving Jess to articulate the emotional wreckage.

“For a while I didn’t like it,” she admits. “Then I had a grown-up chat with myself like, ‘I’ve got to do these songs justice, because this is what they’re feeling.’ Although I also get sad when I listen to them. I’m in a band with the saddest individuals, including myself.”

Musically, however, Coach Party are on confident, life-affirming form. From Black Honey’s cameo on dancefloor anthem Disco Dream, to the delightfully simple pop of I Really Like You, it’s the sound of a band impatient to go places.

Yet Coach Party – who formed in 2016, and released a debut EP in 2020 – still find themselves sporadically working day jobs (album opener Do It For Love sounds like a love song, but actually addresses how tough band life is these days).

At home on the island, Jess and Joe quip about how people should see Blackgang Chine – one of the Isle Of Wight’s quirkiest tourist attractions – before the area’s regular landslips see it fall into the sea. And there should be a similar sense of urgency around raising Coach Party to must-see status. Luckily, fellow islanders Wet Leg have shown them that it can be done…

“It feels bizarre because it’s just your friends, but they’re suddenly known worldwide,” says Joe. “But you know that door is there if you can find it, and the island isn’t just this little cut-off place.”

Need some feelsad hits for your (late) summer? Time to get on board with Coach Party…

Caramel is released September 26 via Chess Club Records.

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