As a stalwart of the early-noughties indie rock scene, The Zutons are responsible for some of the most recognisable songs of the period. None more so than the titanic ‘Valerie’, originally recorded by the band and covered by Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson in 2007. As the band prepare for their first full tour in 16 years, frontman Dave McCabe sat down with The Mancunion to discuss all that led up to this moment. From addiction to parenthood, he chats openly about the struggles faced by himself and the band, chronicling their efforts to get back in the studio and make another album.
Sixteen years on from the release of their third album, 2008’s You Can Do Anything, The Zutons’ latest effort, The Big Decider, hit record shops in April 2024. McCabe acknowledged the amount of time it took to get back into the studio, and the fact they didn’t remain the same presence they had become in their heyday. “I don’t think we’re just going to walk back in and everybody’s just going to fucking know our name… we’d be cheeky bastards to think that”.
The frontman’s personality is ever-present: when speaking to him, he is unapologetically himself, and not afraid to dig into the reason the band took such a lengthy hiatus. Matter-of-factly, he concedes: “Well, I stopped taking drugs”. McCabe admitted his destructive relationship with drink and drugs was a major factor for the initial breakup of The Zutons in 2008. “I’ve always had a problem; I’ve known that since I was a kid. I was waking up in the middle of the night, and I was shaking and sweating. I was going downstairs and drinking as fast as I could and as much as I could. Enough to get a hit out of it and go back to bed to sleep. I’d be drinking in the day on the sly, I’d be taking the dogs for a walk and put ale in my pocket and come back stinking, and everyone knew.”
As he adjusts to a more serious tone, McCabe admits he had battled with anxious thoughts and overthinking throughout his life, using drinking and drugs as a way to escape those feelings, a way to make himself feel “normal”. The real problem, the frontman conceded, was when he was “doing that, and it didn’t work.” “Years and years of being in a band, and you drink to relax, you drink to have a good time and then all of a sudden, the band’s over. You’ve got a good decade or two there of basically being heartbroken by that, but then the heartbreak goes, and you just become a pisshead and a druggy, which is fun.”
The turning point, McCabe admits, was the arrival of his first child: “When you’re hitting your forties, and you’re having a kid, you don’t want to be one of them dads. If I didn’t [stop] then, I wouldn’t have stopped. I would’ve carried on and I would’ve got worse; I’d probably be dead by now.” Now four years sober, the frontman says his replacement fix is something far more virtual. “Take GTA V; I’ve completed every level, I’ve done it so many times, I’ve done it in all different characters, I know every part of the map, I know how to get the alien spaceship to come out. I’m waiting for the new thing now: GTA VI, the new drug… the one that doesn’t wreck your life.”
Being their first album in almost two decades, in McCabe’s words a “fucking long time”, it was natural that recording The Big Decider wasn’t going to be a completely smooth process. Working with long-time collaborator, and Lighting Seeds frontman Ian Broudie as well as music legend Nile Rogers, the band were able to create an album representative of their collective experiences over their hiatus. Working with Nile Rogers meant the band were able to fully take advantage of the legendary producer and songwriter’s lived experiences when making the record. “He’s just got loads of stories. If you hit a wall, he’ll start telling you stories about Miles Davis, or like Bill Clinton… he’s met everyone! You go into Nile world, and then it’s like ‘okay let’s listen to the song again’.”
“Everyone should just have a hologram of Nile Rogers.”
Looking back on The Zutons’ career, it’s impossible not to acknowledge their prominence within the swathe of indie music that emerged after the millennium. One song, however, has become their calling card: the iconic ‘Valerie’. Taken from their second album Tired of Hanging Around, The Zutons had an initial hit with the song, peaking at number nine in the UK Charts. However, it was a cover by Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson that shot the song stratospheric. In McCabe’s words: “We had a big hit, and now [Amy Winehouse] has immortalised that song. When you’re a kid, and you’re listening to Nirvana, and Guns and Roses, and fucking Pantera and then you get into The Beatles, and you want to be The Beatles, and you get into The Kinks, and you want to be The Kinks. You never think you’re going to write a song that all the aunties get up and sing.”
Naturally, so much attention on Winehouse’s cover of his own song was something that waned on McCabe. “At the time, we didn’t have a song, to be honest that third album we didn’t have any good songs and we weren’t really mates and, you know, the drugs and the distance and drinking all the time, all that had started to happen. So, when you hear about Amy Winehouse’s version it just reminded you of what you kind of weren’t doing yourself.” Nevertheless, McCabe admits the song changed his life. “There’s a lot more to that song than just the chords and the melody, I don’t know what it was, but it just landed at the right time.”
Set to tour the UK in April 2025, the band are preparing for their first album tour since they returned to making music together. Though not nervous for their first full run of gigs in 16 years, McCabe admits playing shows sober is a different experience. “You have to think of all the problems that could happen, so they don’t happen, and I think being sober kind of heightens that a bit. I think it’s better [now he’s sober]. I can see people, I’m not thinking about getting offstage and drinking, I’m not drinking onstage, I’m not saying stupid things down the mic.”
It’s undeniable the impact The Zutons had on the UK’s music scene, whether through their own releases, or other people’s interpretations of their songs. The multi-platinum selling band continue to have a huge effect with 2024’s The Big Decider, an album of huge significance to the band and fans alike. Whilst the music industry continues to change, Dave McCabe, and the rest of The Zutons, attempt to keep up. “The game’s changed. I’m like a little dog paddling in the water and it’s getting deeper all the time”.
Visit The Zutons’ website here to listen to their latest album and purchase tickets to their upcoming tour.
