Once a month, Consequence proudly highlights an artist who’s poised for the big time with our CoSign accolade. For April 2024, that title goes to the Leeds quartet English Teacher and their remarkable debut album This Could Be Texas.
When the chorus of “The Worlds Biggest Paving Slab” hits, English Teacher do not sound like a meager four piece rock band hailing from Leeds, UK. They sound humongous, like a monolith, impossible to place or pin down, completely fluent in their own sonic language.
English Teacher’s debut album, This Could Be Texas, is full of moments where the group segues into something almost shocking followed by a section of unfettered beauty and elegance. Across 13 tracks, English Teacher span from fiery, intricate post-punk to majestic, sweeping folk.
It’s intentional that their music falls all over the map. The group — comprised of vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Lily Fontaine, guitarist Lewis Whiting, bassist Nicholas Eden, and drummer Douglas Frost — pride themselves on their disparate taste backgrounds. “We joke that there are very, very few bands that we all agree on,” Whiting tells me over a video call before running through a list of the band’s individual influences: Alex Turner, Pulp, Stereolab, The Smiths, Caroline Polachek, and Fontaines D.C., to name a few.
Despite their varied musical backgrounds, however, one thing is abundantly clear when listening to English Teacher: These folks can play. “Nearly Daffodils” is an odyssey that features a couple full-band explosions, rapid-fire drumming, and surreal lyrics that make the concept of inevitable change feel like a revelation. “I’m Not Crying, You’re Crying” is a riveting, hypnotic number that strikes the balance between curdled rage and apathy. The grandiose “Sideboob” is hauntingly gorgeous, and ends with the lyrics “And as the sun sets on your sideboob/ So I fall for you.” These songs live by their arrangements; the pushing and pulling between widescreen and intimate is something each member can instinctually pull off.
Get English Teacher Tickets Here
Balance is a huge aspect to English Teacher’s process, and both Whiting and Fontaine feel it’s intuitive. Whiting recalls joining the band years ago after befriending Fontaine at university in Leeds, and according to the guitarist, it just “clicked.” “There was a bit of a name change, a rearranging of Lily’s previous band… I had an idea of what kind of music Lily’s other bands were into at the time, especially with the peak of the South London ‘Windmill’ wave of bands, which was inspiring for all of us.”