A Life That Might Inspire Others: Modern Nature Discuss 'The Heat Warps'
Tuesday, 30 September 2025
Written by Jeremy Blackmore
Photo: Michael Stasiak
Modern Nature’s latest album ‘The Heat Warps’ opens to the sound of dual guitars echoing, weaving, dancing around each other. It’s a world away from the impressionistic, abstract approach of the alternative rock band’s previous albums and finds them adopting a less-is-more philosophy.
While 2023’s ‘No Fixed Point In Space’ embraced free-jazz and the avant-garde, ‘The Heat Warps’ is the sound of a tight four-piece band, influenced instead by the simpatico playing of guitarists Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd on Television’s iconic 1977 debut ‘Marquee Moon’.
It is, in every way, the antithesis of their previous modus operandi. In its place is something more direct, more succinct, while retaining a playful energy. The shift back towards something more structured began during the last tour as they pulled away from the open-ended approach of the album they were then promoting.
“It felt like it had gotten so loose it couldn't really have gone any further while still being song based,” says Jack Cooper, the band’s main creative force. “I think something changed within me and within the group dynamic that we were just starting to play more rhythmic stuff and enjoying it. One of the big aims of this new album, and especially the way we recorded it live and on tape, was to capture the interplay that goes on between you. With four of you, you can hear it a lot better because there’s less people.”
Recruiting guitarist Tara Cunningham unlocked the new direction. Always drawn to bands where two guitarists work as a unit to move around and colour the rhythm section, Cooper had been listening to the demos Television recorded with Brian Eno before playing with Cunningham at an improvised show in London.
“We played together one time, and we had an exchange playing guitar that was really interesting and cool,” he says. “The last couple of records had leaned more into orchestration and different instruments, and I’d been playing guitar a lot more. I’ve been playing since I was 13. It’s the only instrument I can really express something on. So, I started thinking more about the records being more guitar-focused.”
“What we do is mirrored; a symmetry on either side of what Jim [Wallis – drums] and Jeff [Tobias – bass] are doing in the rhythm section,” he continues. “We’ve played with lots of amazing musicians who continue to orbit around what we do, but Tara joining the band felt like finding the other side to the square. Previous records have been performed by upwards of 15 people, but it was apparent the four of us could achieve something more powerful and more direct.”
The newly-minted quartet played two shows to try out the new material in a live setting directly before studio sessions began for ‘The Heat Warps’. “It's very much an antithesis of how we’ve done the last couple of records because they were very, very thought out and structured,” Cooper says. “And this was still quite loose in terms of the arrangements. Those records were logistically much more complicated to make and I think I realised one of the things I was trying to do with those records was to manufacture a kind of ‘organicness’. Having a band, like a smaller combo, is a bit wilder. It just has an energy.”
Touring with his friend Andrew Savage from Parquet Courts also caused Cooper to reevaluate, to reflect on the music he enjoyed making and influenced the songs he wrote for ‘The Heat Warps’. “Andrew has a very idiosyncratic approach to songwriting,” he says. “I really enjoyed having a set that was very varied and just feeding off the responses of people singing along. There was just something about that experience that has fed into this chapter of Modern Nature. Part of that was, it was the first time I'd done any proper touring, really, since Ultimate Painting [Cooper’s previous band]. We’d toured a lot and Modern Nature hadn't done that much because of Covid and I’d become a parent.
“You kind of see yourself from the outside a little bit and maybe start to kind of reevaluate what it is you’re good at, or who that person was who enjoyed writing a specific type of song. So, I started writing in a slightly different way, and it was very infectious. Because when you write a song, it’s a buzz when you know you've done something good. I think, maybe, the songs on the last record, they hold up if you play them, but I was more focused on how they were framed, really, than the tune.”
Lyrically, his new songs tackle some heavy subject matter, but Cooper was determined to “double down on optimism” too. He welcomes the opportunity to share ideas and start a conversation through music and is passionate about the need for artists to expand upon the ideas behind their songs in interviews. Lead single Pharaoh has an emotional connection with the late Andrew Weatherall, who had played Modern Nature on his NTS show.
Thrilled he liked them, Cooper set out to make a record Weatherall might have played to his friends at night. His motto, “Fail we may, sail we must”, is what the Can-esque track is about. “It’s difficult to stay aware of the world around you without becoming despondent,” says Cooper. “Pharoah makes the case for finding a personal philosophy and trying to live a life that might inspire others or at the very least not hurt them.”
Source, meanwhile, was written last year but sadly remains topical. Addressing the riots and protests against asylum seekers, it’s something Cooper finds both fascinating and sickening. He points to a backdrop of divisive politics, hate speech and vitriol. “It seems to have had this huge resurgence,” he says. “And there’s Brexit, all of this stuff has been leading up to this point. It’s difficult not to sing about it or to talk about it, because it's so present with us. Once there was the tragedy in Southport, it felt like things were boiling up to the point where someone’s going to try and capitalise on this. And that's exactly what happened.
“I think the thing that sparked the song was how distressing it was to see aspects of working-class communities behaving like that, behaving so hatefully to asylum seekers. You can condemn them and say what they’re doing is terrible and inexcusable, but these are communities that have suffered deprivation over the last few decades.
“The working-class communities, especially in the north of England, seaside towns, they’ve been hung out to dry by a stream of governments, and they’ve been told it’s these people’s fault. You know, the reason why your life isn’t as good as it was, the reason why your community has been decimated, the reason why you’ve got no money is because of these people who are coming over. It’s so sad to see people who come from communities that maybe you did, or your family do, behaving like that.”
Despite its dark subject matter, the song is almost anthemic in the style of The Beta Band, with a very literal chorus: ‘Standing in the riot’. “That could have been me quite easily, if I’d have maybe not got interested in music,” he says. “I have people on the edges of my family, that do think like that. So, there has to be a certain level of humility as well, where you’re like, ‘Well, there but for the grace of God.”
Other singles, Alpenglow and Totality, meanwhile, were both born out of Cooper’s experiences touring America with Savage, particularly travelling through New Mexico — they explore fervent territory for Cooper in his relationship with the natural world. “Alpenglow is a diary of a day,” he explains. “It was a really interesting drive, because you're really close to the Mexican border, so you see drones in the sky patrolling. It felt really quite dystopian but the landscape’s so beautiful.
“Totality was [from] the same few days. That was about the full eclipse they experienced there. It was like everyone, everywhere we would go, was so excited about the eclipse. At the same time, they were going through the primaries for the next election, and there was so much turmoil and vitriol in the press. But people were so excited about this cosmic event. Sometimes life presents you with very tidy analogies. It was amazing, seeing all these people stop by the road, from all walks of life, looking up to the sky.”
Modern Nature’s ‘The Heat Warps’ is out now on Bella Union.
Modern Nature Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Tue September 30 2025 - YORK Crescent
Wed October 01 2025 - SUNDERLAND Pop Recs
Thu October 02 2025 - LIVERPOOL Rough Trade
Fri October 03 2025 - SHEFFIELD Sidney & Matilda
Sat October 04 2025 - NORWICH Holloway
Sun October 05 2025 - COVENTRY Just Dropped In Records
Mon October 06 2025 - LONDON St Matthias Church
Wed October 08 2025 - BRIGHTON Alphabet
Thu October 09 2025 - IPSWICH Smokehouse
Fri October 10 2025 - WENDOVER British Legion
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