English Teacher on their Mercury Prize nod: “It’s worth pushing through the hard times”

nme.com:

English Teacher have spoken to NME about being shortlisted for the Mercury Prize, their ‘rivalry’ with Beyoncé and progress on their second album.The Leeds indie upstarts received the Mercury nod yesterday (Thursday July 25), with the former NME cover stars‘ acclaimed debut ‘This Could Be Texas’ being shortlisted alongside records by the likes of Charli XCX, CMAT, Ghetts, The Last Dinner Party, Corinne Bailey Rae, Beth Gibbons, Barry Can’t Swim and more.Asked by NME about what it meant to be nominated, frontwoman Lily Fontaine described it as “mental” and called this year’s nominees as “the best year yet.

Not just because we’re on it!”Quizzed on what ‘This Could Be Texas’ tells us about life in 2024, guitarist Lewis Whiting said that it aimed to capture the idea “that places are often far apart are often eerily similar”.A post shared by NME (@nmemagazine)For a band who have been very vocal about how difficult it is for artists to survive and thrive in the current climate, English Teacher said that the honour felt all the more profound.“There’s a lot of temptation to not continue making music because you physically can’t,” Fontaine admitted. “We had to push through so much stuff to actually make the album.

It’s paid off in this weird culturally-recognised way, so it’s worth pushing through the hard times.”Saying that they’d likely spend the £25,000 prize money on recording equipment (not “drugs” as they joked as part of their ‘Brat’ summer), the band revealed that work was well underway on their next album.“One of the songs that we’ve written is actually better than all of this album,” admitted Fontaine, before Whiting added: “We’re kind of in the middle of it at the minute.