English Teacher on Returning to The Great Escape and the Band’s Next Chapter: ‘We’re Deep in Writing Mode’

In July 2020, on the brink of a major life change, English Teacher’s Lily Fontaine laid down a statement of purpose for the journey that lay ahead. “It is less than three weeks until I move back to Leeds to try and become a rock musician,” she wrote in an edition of indie magazine Come Play With Me. “I hope that if I succeed, a young Black girl might see me and think she can be [successful] too one day.”

Having recently graduated from Leeds Conservatoire, where the Colne-raised songwriter met her future bandmates, these were the words of a young woman ready to transform the way she envisioned her life. Within four years, she and the rest of English Teacher would go on to experience a watershed moment at the iconic Abbey Road Studios, where the group scooped the prestigious Mercury Prize last September for its richly charismatic debut album This Could Be Texas.

“We just thought we’d make a band,” said Fontaine during the band’s acceptance speech, lost for words at the magnitude of the accolade. The four-piece thanked the venues and charities that had supported during their early days in Leeds, struggling to find the words to express their gratitude. It was a deeply affecting moment, one that speaks to the tenacity, talent and passion that has fueled them to these heights. 

“I can barely think about the [Mercury Prize] night without getting emotional,” says guitarist Lewis Whiting, speaking to Billboard UK via Zoom. “We could barely speak when we won. Maybe we should just keep up our own trend of never having a winners’ speech at the ready!”

Winning the Mercury Prize may have helped English Teacher sail to the forefront of the next wave of British guitar music, but its the uniform strength of their impassioned live show that has made them breakout stars. The band will kick off a summer of touring – including appearances at Glastonbury and Green Man – by topping the bill of Billboard U.K.’s Live experience on May 16. Headlining The Deep End venue, Brighton, as part of The Great Escape 2025, it will be joined by a series of rising artists, including Westside Cowboy, the latter for whom Whiting has recently worked with as a producer.

Following an appearance in the 2021 virtual edition of The Great Escape due to COVID restrictions, English Teacher performed at the weekender the following year in support of its Polyawkward EP. Around this time, the outfit’s quirky, lightly rumbustious songs began to resonate across British press and radio; accessible while containing a marked dose of strangeness, Fontaine’s songwriting – at once emotionally raw and witty – boasted a strong multi-generational appeal.

That EP invited a bigger audience into English Teacher’s world, preceding an inexorable rise. Now, having earned first BRIT Award nomination and bagged Fontaines D.C. support slots this year, Whiting discusses how it feels for the band to be playing to increasingly frenzied crowds while working on “tighter and more focused” new music in the background.

You have a storied history with The Great Escape. Looking back at those earlier gigs, how does it feel to think about the band that you were then?

There wasn’t a single part of me that thought we’d be anywhere near where we are now as a band. Those early gigs feel like a different lifetime, for sure – a lot has changed since those early appearances at The Great Escape. I remember the 2022 edition of the festival felt like quite a significant kind of turning point for us. At the time, it felt like things had started falling together for us, and we were like, “D–n, people are actually coming to our shows, something is happening here!”

What memories do you have of the festival over the years?

When we first went to The Great Escape, I think there was a collective kind of giddiness among the band. At that point, we’d never properly experienced a festival like that, so we were pretty over the moon with the response we got from the crowds there. We made some friends along the way, including [the band] Sprints, who we are still close with now. A lot of my memories from The Great Escape revolve around bumping into people around Brighton; it often feels like you’re walking past you know every two minutes!

Since you won the Mercury Prize, have you been surprised by anything that’s changed in your life?

Last year was absolutely huge for us, which is something I am still adjusting to. So many elements of our lives have changed: there’s been an extra layer of public attention on us, which we obviously have never experienced before. It all still feels quite alien, but 2024 was one of the best years of my life. Looking back, it feels like something new happened for us each week.

Given that it’s been a pretty mental 12 months, I think as a band, we’ve been making more of a conscious effort to check in and see where everyone’s at [mentally]. All our lives are now so different, more chaotic and busy, so it’s been really important to keep tabs on each others’ well-being – especially as we are on the road far more often.

How has touring extensively impacted your sources of inspiration for writing the next album?

This has definitely been a big thing for us. A lot of the first album was about the idea of home and all of the emotions that come entangled with that. There’s still a lot of the second album to still be written but we’ve all been through so many changes – and so many new experiences gained through travelling and touring – that I feel will definitely feed into the music too. We’re in a very different place to where we were at for the debut.

Has the meaning of some of your older material changed for you over time?

100%, which is actually a really nice feeling. It’s interesting — because I’m not the lyricist for the band, but as we’ve been on tour, I’ve found that my personal meanings of some of the songs have changed quite a bit. “Mastermind Specialism” is one that really stands out, as it’s a song about indecision; when we play it, I find that I start thinking about all the little decisions that have led us up to this point as a band. “Nearly Daffodils” is another one, as it’s about a relationship that could have been, and all the changes you can go through in life in quite quick succession.

Which song have you written that still gives you goosebumps?

“Albert Road” has really taken on a new significance, however – it’s become sadder! Sometimes, in a live setting, it gets me good. It makes me think of home and I end up feeling reflective about our journey so far. There’s definitely been a couple of pivotal moments over the last year, where we have all looked at each other on stage and started welling up.

How did it feel to walk your first major red carpet at The BRIT Awards this year?

The whole experience was so ridiculous and surreal that I found it really entertaining. It was an honour to be f-king nominated for a BRIT in the first place, that was crazy and something I never, ever expected. It was mad, too, seeing all these celebrities walking around. We got chatting to JADE, she’s so sound. We very briefly said hi to Louis Theroux, too; I felt really shy in his presence — as he is so cool, I almost felt like I had no business talking to him!

You recently worked with Westside Cowboy, who will be joining us at Billboard U.K.’s Live experience at The Great Escape. What attracted you to working with them?

I love everything about that band. Sonically, they’re very much on my street and I really like the confidence with which they approach their songwriter. I admire how they don’t overcomplicate things. They’re fans of Big Thief, but I also feel as though there are elements of Lou Reed, Pavement and The Velvet Underground in their music; they write really concise, strong songs, which is super refreshing.

I first met them when they were playing a gig at Soup Kitchen in Manchester. I became a fan immediately and just knew I had to find a way to work with them. They have some brilliant material in the pipeline which really shows off the range of what they can do together as a band.

How does production allow you to use your skills differently?

It’s still an ongoing journey but one that I have really enjoyed. I’ve always been in bands, and  I’ve engineered plenty of demos, but I have never really dived into being a producer in my own right until now. It’s something I would love to do more of in the future, and it’s also nice to take a step outside [of being in English Teacher] and build the confidence to forge a different creative outlet for myself. It feels like opening a different part of your brain, it’s very rewarding.

With dozens of live dates in the pipeline, what mindset are you approaching the rest of the year with?

The main aim is to start road-testing some new songs at festivals. We’re deep in writing mode at the moment, it has been non-stop for us. The [creative] process has been great, if a little fragmented; we all don’t really live in the same city anymore, and we are still figuring out what we want some of this album to sound like. Overall, however, I am feeling really positive.

Personally, I think I’m going to be more happy with the second album than the first one. They’re still in the early stages, but we’ve had a couple of ideas that we perhaps intended to make work in the past, though they feel a little more refined. For me, that’s what I want to get out of the second album: for the first record, we threw a lot of things at the wall, but I like the idea of these songs being a little tighter and more focused. It’s like a puzzle: when you figure out the way the pieces should fit together, it’s so satisfying. That feeling is what keeps you going.

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