At Maid of Stone Festival, Ginger Wildheart is riding a wave of momentum. Just weeks after speaking to eonmusic at Download Festival, the Wildhearts frontman is buoyed by a run of triumphant live shows and the growing positivity surrounding the band. As he looks ahead to the long-awaited release of 'Northern Spirit', Ginger exclusively reveals several of the album's song titles, reflects on the philosophy and pride that inspired the record, and, in a surprise twist, confirms he has already written the next Wildhearts album.. Speaking with honesty, humour and optimism, he discusses defying expectations, the power of community, and why, for him, fear and bravery are often one and the same. Satanic rites; Eamon O'Neill
Photo: Louise Philips
Hi Ginger, how are you doing?
I'm doing fantastic. I'm having a great time. Every single day gets a bit better.
It's only a few weeks since I last spoke to you at Download festival, but a lot's happened since then.
Things are just going great. We're getting lots and lots of gigs in. We've just got some offers for South America, which is a place I've always wanted to go. I've never been. It just seems like the positivity that we're spreading as a band is actually working.
And I don't want to dig too much into your health because we talked about that before, but suffice to say, it's had a really positive effect on your mental health, hasn't it?
Yeah, and that positive effect on your mental health has a physical effect on your body, on a molecular level. Your head really does govern how well your body's doing, so my health is just at a high. You know, I've been keen on the booze lately. I need to get back in the gym for a bit, but I'm still strong. I'm still healthy. I'm defying the laws of cancer.
Interestingly, on this very day, seven years ago, I was interviewing the Wildhearts in this very field, at Ramblin' Man Fair.
No way! That was seven years ago today? Synchronicity, it's always there.
So much has happened since then. There's band line-up changes, but you came out fighting the other side, didn't you?
Well, there was a time where everyone had given up on me, and it was literally like, "that's it, he's over", and there was a point where I thought; "can I do this by myself? Is it possible?" And so that first step is that fear and bravery are exactly the same feeling, and so I went with the bravery and started by myself. And there was so much conflict. People didn't want me to do this without the other guys in the band who didn't want to do this. They didn't want to continue, but I mean, this is my life, motherfucker! But anyway, we did it, and the album came out and it shut up all of the critics, and every now and again, you get one like a mosquito, you know what I mean? But for the most part, it shut the critics up because it's about the music, but it's mostly about the community. The Wildhearts has always been about the community, and this is proof. The band are absolutely astounding, but it's the vibe that we get that goes into the audience, and this positivity is self-generating. It goes round like a fucking tsunami.
The Wildhearts have been through challenges before, for example; 'Endless, Nameless' [1997], and the end of that period.
Jesus, that was that much worse than any of this! We were all junkies. We were all just absolutely, really, really fucked up. We hadn't got a clue what was going on. There was no one guiding us. We didn't have management guiding us. We were absolutely a speeding train on fire with no brakes. It's not going to work out, is it?
It had a unique sound, that album.
I was into a lot of industrial dance at the time, or just noisy albums in general, like Atari Teenage Riot, Flaming Lips' 'Clouds Taste Metallic', where it just sounds wrong, but so right, and that's what I wanted to do with 'Endless, Nameless' was make an artistic statement and not a commercial effort. And we did, and it didn't go very well commercially, obviously, but it still stands up. People still talk about it now.
It's got one of my favourite Wildhearts songs on it, which is 'Urge'.
Yeah, I've always loved that song. I've always been very fond of that album. You know, it's not always understood. For a lot of people, it just sounds like noise, and I get that. But I love Nails, and wherever I play Nails, everyone says; "that just sounds like a noise", or there's a band called The Body that I love that is, again. just a weird noise. I just love the fact that someone will just have such little regard, such contempt for sales, for recognition, for competing, for comparing yourself; just fuck it all. This is what we want to see, and that's what 'Endless, Nameless' means to me.
You have a new album coming out, 'Northern Spirit'; what can you tell us about the album?
Right, the new release date is supposed to be October [2026]. I hope that's going to be you know the truth. Could be November, whatever. The album is about being proud of who you are, where you come from. I'm obviously from the north, so that's why it's called 'Northern Spirit', but that Northern Spirit is with you wherever you feel proud of where you are—not even the place you're from, just the place you live. You love it. You want to shout it out. I'm in a great place. That's where the spirit is, and mine's obviously Newcastle and Glasgow, the nearest place; that border there, are neighbours. I've always felt Scottish, so the Northern Spirit is about my relationship with Newcastle and Scotland, but it's in everyone. That's just the geography of my story.
And have you any song titles you can share with us?
The first song I think that comes out will be called 'Motherfucker in the Sky', which is about people's relationship to God and what God is. There's one called 'Just Make It to Bedtime', which is all about depression, and dealing with depression. There is a song called 'Gorilla Zen', that is just real noisy, and the song 'Northern Spirit' is a bit different because it's very celebratory and grand, but it's got the ugliest riff that I've ever seen in my life.
In my head, I was thinking 'Northern Spirit' would be a 'Geordie in Wonderland' type song.
No, no, no, no. It's just horrible! It's just this horrible, really horrible, dark riff, and the most joyous chorus I've ever written in my life.
Earlier we were chatting about places you're connected to, and weirdly, I found myself living in Belsize Park, North London in the early 2000s'.
NW3! There's no coincidence. I don't believe that there is coincidence. I think that everything is joined in some weird way, and it didn't get revealed to right at the end, where the story is complete. That's what I think. We are stories. I've wrote a new album for the Wildhearts since waiting for this one to come out, and one of the songs is called 'Stories', and it's all about how all we are is the story of our life. And some people don't make any stories. They don't do anything. Make a story. Live the life that you would be impressed by reading about.
And you have had quite a story. Give me your top three Wildhearts albums. Can you do that?
'Endless, Nameless' has to be in there, the new one, because we really bonded as a band, and 'Earth Vs.' because it started all off. It has
What's coming up next for you?
We're going to be promoting the new album, but it feels like a film, you're talking to actors, and they did the film five years ago, but they're all excited about it, and that's what it's going to feel like doing the 'Northern Spirit' promotion. We've got this other album, but that would be the next thing, just letting people listen to it and finding out if is as good as we think it is.
I'm doing fantastic. I'm having a great time. Every single day gets a bit better.
It's only a few weeks since I last spoke to you at Download festival, but a lot's happened since then.
Things are just going great. We're getting lots and lots of gigs in. We've just got some offers for South America, which is a place I've always wanted to go. I've never been. It just seems like the positivity that we're spreading as a band is actually working.
And I don't want to dig too much into your health because we talked about that before, but suffice to say, it's had a really positive effect on your mental health, hasn't it?
Yeah, and that positive effect on your mental health has a physical effect on your body, on a molecular level. Your head really does govern how well your body's doing, so my health is just at a high. You know, I've been keen on the booze lately. I need to get back in the gym for a bit, but I'm still strong. I'm still healthy. I'm defying the laws of cancer.
Interestingly, on this very day, seven years ago, I was interviewing the Wildhearts in this very field, at Ramblin' Man Fair.
No way! That was seven years ago today? Synchronicity, it's always there.
So much has happened since then. There's band line-up changes, but you came out fighting the other side, didn't you?
Well, there was a time where everyone had given up on me, and it was literally like, "that's it, he's over", and there was a point where I thought; "can I do this by myself? Is it possible?" And so that first step is that fear and bravery are exactly the same feeling, and so I went with the bravery and started by myself. And there was so much conflict. People didn't want me to do this without the other guys in the band who didn't want to do this. They didn't want to continue, but I mean, this is my life, motherfucker! But anyway, we did it, and the album came out and it shut up all of the critics, and every now and again, you get one like a mosquito, you know what I mean? But for the most part, it shut the critics up because it's about the music, but it's mostly about the community. The Wildhearts has always been about the community, and this is proof. The band are absolutely astounding, but it's the vibe that we get that goes into the audience, and this positivity is self-generating. It goes round like a fucking tsunami.
The Wildhearts have been through challenges before, for example; 'Endless, Nameless' [1997], and the end of that period.
Jesus, that was that much worse than any of this! We were all junkies. We were all just absolutely, really, really fucked up. We hadn't got a clue what was going on. There was no one guiding us. We didn't have management guiding us. We were absolutely a speeding train on fire with no brakes. It's not going to work out, is it?
It had a unique sound, that album.
I was into a lot of industrial dance at the time, or just noisy albums in general, like Atari Teenage Riot, Flaming Lips' 'Clouds Taste Metallic', where it just sounds wrong, but so right, and that's what I wanted to do with 'Endless, Nameless' was make an artistic statement and not a commercial effort. And we did, and it didn't go very well commercially, obviously, but it still stands up. People still talk about it now.
It's got one of my favourite Wildhearts songs on it, which is 'Urge'.
Yeah, I've always loved that song. I've always been very fond of that album. You know, it's not always understood. For a lot of people, it just sounds like noise, and I get that. But I love Nails, and wherever I play Nails, everyone says; "that just sounds like a noise", or there's a band called The Body that I love that is, again. just a weird noise. I just love the fact that someone will just have such little regard, such contempt for sales, for recognition, for competing, for comparing yourself; just fuck it all. This is what we want to see, and that's what 'Endless, Nameless' means to me.
You have a new album coming out, 'Northern Spirit'; what can you tell us about the album?
Right, the new release date is supposed to be October [2026]. I hope that's going to be you know the truth. Could be November, whatever. The album is about being proud of who you are, where you come from. I'm obviously from the north, so that's why it's called 'Northern Spirit', but that Northern Spirit is with you wherever you feel proud of where you are—not even the place you're from, just the place you live. You love it. You want to shout it out. I'm in a great place. That's where the spirit is, and mine's obviously Newcastle and Glasgow, the nearest place; that border there, are neighbours. I've always felt Scottish, so the Northern Spirit is about my relationship with Newcastle and Scotland, but it's in everyone. That's just the geography of my story.
And have you any song titles you can share with us?
The first song I think that comes out will be called 'Motherfucker in the Sky', which is about people's relationship to God and what God is. There's one called 'Just Make It to Bedtime', which is all about depression, and dealing with depression. There is a song called 'Gorilla Zen', that is just real noisy, and the song 'Northern Spirit' is a bit different because it's very celebratory and grand, but it's got the ugliest riff that I've ever seen in my life.
In my head, I was thinking 'Northern Spirit' would be a 'Geordie in Wonderland' type song.
No, no, no, no. It's just horrible! It's just this horrible, really horrible, dark riff, and the most joyous chorus I've ever written in my life.
Earlier we were chatting about places you're connected to, and weirdly, I found myself living in Belsize Park, North London in the early 2000s'.
NW3! There's no coincidence. I don't believe that there is coincidence. I think that everything is joined in some weird way, and it didn't get revealed to right at the end, where the story is complete. That's what I think. We are stories. I've wrote a new album for the Wildhearts since waiting for this one to come out, and one of the songs is called 'Stories', and it's all about how all we are is the story of our life. And some people don't make any stories. They don't do anything. Make a story. Live the life that you would be impressed by reading about.
And you have had quite a story. Give me your top three Wildhearts albums. Can you do that?
'Endless, Nameless' has to be in there, the new one, because we really bonded as a band, and 'Earth Vs.' because it started all off. It has
What's coming up next for you?
We're going to be promoting the new album, but it feels like a film, you're talking to actors, and they did the film five years ago, but they're all excited about it, and that's what it's going to feel like doing the 'Northern Spirit' promotion. We've got this other album, but that would be the next thing, just letting people listen to it and finding out if is as good as we think it is.
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