New Rules Talks Tik Tok, Songwriting, and Touring

We caught up with the English-Irish pop band New Rules following their debut mixtape, "Go the Distance."

Photo: Jordan Curtis Hughes

This month you guys released your debut mixtape "Go the Distance" with Elektra Records! What do you hope listeners will take away from this project?

New Rules: We’re so happy to have these songs out. We want people to feel like they can really dive into a bigger body of work from us and get more of a sense of what New Rules is: three musicians and writers telling stories through songs (and having a lot of fun doing it). We’ve also been making an effort to “Go the Distance” to where fans want

us the most. Our fans are incredible – so getting to share live experiences and play

the songs for them around the world is the main reason we do it.

You guys have a pretty significant social media presence. How does this affect your connection to fans and the promotion of your work?

New Rules: Social media is an amazing tool for getting our music heard by people, but more than that, it’s a place for us to talk to our fans and build a community. We love the

family feel we have in our fan base. During Covid we weren’t able to tour so online

was the only place we could interact with them. We spend a lot of time on TikTok

but we always try to bring it back to the music. A lot of people discovered us for our

“name song” series on there where we’d turn fans’ names into songs. When we find

crossovers into music like that, that’s where we have the most fun with it.

You went on tour for the first time in the U.S. How was the experience? What was your most memorable show?

New Rules: We had a great time in the States last month. These were our first headline shows in LA, New York, and Chicago and it definitely felt like a long time coming in light of the last year or so. We’ve had fans asking us to come out and see them for the best

part of three years so it was lovely to finally meet them all in person after chatting for

so long on social media. It’s difficult to choose, but if we had to, we’d say Chicago

was our most memorable date because while we’d spent time in LA and NY before

this was our first time visiting Chicago and we really didn’t know what to expect. It

was also the show with the highest capacity, which was a little scary at first…we

were sitting in the green room after soundcheck and our videographer came in to show us this video of the queue she’d taken – it was wrapped around the block with people

either from Chicago or who had driven/flown in to see us. So that definitely sticks

out as being really special to us. And of course, nothing beats a US crowd singing

“Pasta”…because they say it funny.

We know that every artist creates differently. What is your ideal scenario for writing songs? Take us through where you are and what's the vibe.

New Rules: To be honest, we spend so much time together and our guitars are never too far away, so we tend to just jump on ideas and get lost in it when they come – even if it’s just a word or melody one of us mumbles during the "Love Island" commercial

break. There’s definitely a bit of magic when the three of us are just riffing off each

other and starting ideas. It’s why we knew we had to be a band when we first met.

We recently spent some time in Nashville studios writing with friends and we love

that way of working too. We enjoy collaborating and learn a lot working with some

super talented people and bringing them in on our project and vision.

We've always wanted to know the story behind the band's name...why "New Rules?"

New Rules: Honestly, picking a band name is impossible. We tried all the online name

generators and sat about for hours thinking about it, but in the end “New Rules” was

a name we pulled off a list of suggestions friends had given us. We’re pretty sure

the inspiration came from the Dua Lipa song and we kind of liked it for that because

it was memorable. Hardly anyone makes the connection now, but we’ll always be

Dua stans (pls notice us Dua!).

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Make sure to follow MUD on Instagram and check out the latest releases by New Rules on Spotify and all streaming platforms.