The Souls’ Jay Messerli on tour and new album, The Whippet Inn

The day before their supporting gig at the Bristol O2 Academy on Thursday, I caught up with lead singer of The Souls, Jay Messerli, who was already in Bristol seeing a few sights. The Souls are supporting Scouting for Girls on their nationwide tour of Ireland and UK, covering 23 gigs in a little over a month. I asked about their exhausting schedule and how they coped.

The key is in the chemistry of the band. We have known one another for 20 years, we look after one another. We stay physically and psychologically fit. At the same time, we are having a great time, which makes it easier. We are having a lot of fun with Scouting (For Girls), they are really supportive of their support acts.

They actively encourage their audience to come early to hear the support acts, Roy (Stride), [Scouting lead singer], has actually created track lists to feature our music.

We’ve also supported 1975, Kodaline, Lenny Kravitz. When you open up for another band it is a great opportunity to get your music out in front of new people and to build your own audiences.

The Souls formed back in 2010 in Bern Switzerland and are well travelled outfit with over 450 gigs behind them. With that level of experience what can we expect from your gigs, and how do Irish/UK audiences compare with the Swiss?

Well, the Swiss crowds can be more reserved especially at the start, but Irish and UK crowds are engaged straight away. So, you’re gonna see a lot of energy in the shows, we like the audience to join in. The UK has always been a huge influence on our music. We fell in love with honesty of the rock here. You can hear it in the new album.

Jay is referring to their new album The Whippet Inn, released 20 February, recorded at the Eastcote studios in London in 2023. I ask about the delay between making and releasing the album.

We wanted everything to be right with the album. We took time with every decision. It took a lot of time figuring out where we wanted to go. We built a new team. Then the opportunity to tour with Scouting came up and we decided to make things coincide with that.

The producers on The Whippet Inn, Andy Wright and Gavin Goldberg, have worked with some big names including Simple Minds, Simply Red, Neil Young. How did that collaboration came about, and what impact has it had?

Yes, it’s our first time with them. We were connected with Andy and we were friends from the first second. We knew straight away we would be on a longer journey with them. They have influenced our music and also our approach. With them, we kept the album raw and energetic. It was a case of plug in and play and let the music do the talking.

And what about the name of the album?

Yeah, that’s pretty funny. It’s named after a pub in London. When we came over to make the album, we were in an Airbnb and The Whippet Inn was the first place we went in, and we knew it was the pub for us. We went there every day after recording and even started having breakfast there. 

Favourite pint?

Camden Lager!

Back to the gigs, what songs really get the crowd going?

Well, Bangladesh is the obvious one, it really gets the crowd going, with them singing back to us. We released it as our first single - it’s a tough decision which to release first - but we just had a gut feeling about it and we wanted to see how people react, but it has become a crowd favorite. Personally, Walk on is my favorite, even though it nearly didn’t make it onto the album.

So, what other gigs have you got lined up, what’s next for The Souls?

Well, we have the rest of this tour. Brighton and Bournemouth were great venues, and we have Bristol tomorrow (5 March). We are really looking forward to The Roundhouse in London. Then we have the album release show back in our hometown Bern later in April, then some festivals over the summer. Really, we want to do the whole world! We want to be the first Swiss band to fill Wembley!

So, what are the plans for Bristol sightseeing, have you been before?

Yeah, we came to Bristol years ago, but we came and went in a day, so we saw nothing. We were touring back in 2011, doing open mic gigs and clubs, and playing in front of nobody. What do you recommend for Bristol?

Being a music nerd, all I could think of was Thekla. I hope Jay went.