An Intimate Evening with "New Rules"

Just a few days after releasing an extended and acoustic version of ‘Go The Distance’ and a series of sold-out US dates, we met up with London-based trio New Rules ahead of their very special intimate sold out evening at London’s Bush Hall.

‘Go The Distance’ - the collection by Alec McGarry [vocals, guitar], Nathan Lambert [vocals, guitar], and Ryan Meaney [vocals, guitar] came together from working on music at home in London and includes six brand-new offerings in addition to the previously released title track plus longtime fan-favorite single “Pasta" which we discussed about during our chat.

Ryan, Alec and Nathan told us all about the new mixtape, their traveling experience and what is next for the trio backstage at London's Bush Hall.

What has been the highlight so far?

Alec: Gosh, it's a good question. There's a lot to remember. But I mean, we just released the mixtape. And it's kind of the first body of work we've released in that in that format. Seeing the reaction from the fans has been great. It's definitely been a highlight for us and it's something that we want to keep doing. Keep putting out loads of music, and then also just playing shows.

Ryan: The traveling. Getting to go to places that never would have gotten near to play, we've been to the Philippines, we've been to Mexico

Favourite place?

Ryan: Ireland is my favourite place, because I'm from there. But I think I maybe miss Mexico the most. I want to go back to Mexico.

Nathan: Yeah, Mexico is fun. We went to see a wrestling event in Mexico. Yeah. And that was probably my highlight.

Go The Distance (Extended Version). Why releasing it now?

Ryan: We just wrote a lot of music over lock down and felt like we had a lot of good music that I think our fans are quite impatient for. They want a lot of music, so instead of, you know, teasing them for so long we thought "ok, let's give them something tolive with for a while".

Alec: The acoustic is something we wanted to do as well. Like, it was just a bit of fun for us. Because like, they're quite different from the original records. We recorded them at home ourselves. And it was really fun to just change them and play around.

Two sold out intimate shows Dublin and London. What is London going to be like tonight?

Ryan: it's a very personal show. I think we kind of missed the fans, because we haven't played in a long time like that. The last time we played was with bigger rooms. We actually missed, you know, the more intimate and the interaction

between them

Alec: We spent some time in the States. Just we spent some time in June, playing shows in Chicago, LA, New York, and those would be more intimate and we loved the setup. We loved how it sounded. We loved being in a small room. Our fans here were a bit jealous of the the US. So they said, bring the show back here. So we wanted to do the same shows, we've been looking for an excuse to do small shows in London.

How did you spend the pandemic?

Alec: The same as any artist, I think during that time, it was just very weird, a lot of uncertainty. But, we just kept writing, kept rolling between the three of us. So in terms of creativity that didn't really die down. And then the minute we could get back playing shows we went full on. And we're really happy to do so. Obviously, it wasn't great as a time period. But you know, we're back now and trying to forget about that.

"Pasta" is one of your most streamed songs. What is it about?

Alec: So it is kind of about pasta. It's about a bit more than that. It's about accepting who you are. It's about body positivity, loving yourself and saying to yourself " I want to one day have a bowl of pasta salad. I'm going to do so".

Nathan: It's quite a niche topic or reference. But that kind of speaks for a much bigger subject. A lot of fans come to us and they DM us and they messages all the time and they actually open up to us about things they're struggling with. It's nice to see we played it on tour for the first time. That's sometimes what we like to do. We play new songs on tour and just see how they go down. But they saw the name "Pasta" and they laughed but then live they see the difference.

What is next for "New Rules" now?

Alec: A lot more music we've been working on. Obviously, we just put the mixtape out so we will focus on that too.

Nathan: And a lot more shows as well. I mean, we did our first few headline shows in the States recently. And we were excited to get back over there and do some more places we've never played before. Reach out to a bigger audience eventually.

Go The Distance is out now.

Follow New Rules and their journey HERE.

Photos by: Federica Burelli