Interviews (250)

• April 29, 2026
• Colleen Johnson
• 3
• 0

---

Last night, I headed out to Brighton Music Hall in Boston to chat with Fran Doran and Tom Williams of Red Rum Club,  just a few hours before they kicked off their current North American run. Fresh off their flight the day before, the band told me about the spots they make sure to go to in Boston, and Boston isn’t the only place the band feels they’ve figured out their surroundings in and around the US. The band has steadily toured the States for the past few years, and that effort is paying off.

We chatted about their current US run, the effect that their time in America had on their latest album, Buck, and much more. We were also on-site to catch the show, a photo gallery from the show will be going live soon as well!

---

New England Sounds: You were last in town with the Wombats in November, so not that long ago, but this is your first headline run in, I believe, two years. How are you feeling about the run, this first show? I think your last headliner here was at Sonia’s in Cambridge. 

Fran: Really excited, we fell in love with it the last couple of times we came (Boston). It feels like home. When we start on the West Coast, it’s really hard to get a Guinness, and we see Boston as like the light at the end of the tunnel. There’s a lot of British over here, a lot of Guinness over here in this city. So it’s always like a highlight of the tour. 

Tom: We love to spend some time here as well. The way the tour dates fell last time, we got two days off, and we went to a Boston College game. We really took in the culture; we went to Southie. 

Fran: Went to Southie, yeah. 

Tom: It was nice. A lot of Guinness out around there, to be fair. At Whitey’s in Southie. 

NES: You know all the places, you’re so familiar with Boston now. It’s like old hat now. 

Fran: We nearly had a fight in Whitey’s. We got cheated out of a pool game. 

NES: Then you’ve toured the US now multiple times—the longer drives, different places, etc. 

Fran: Yeah, I think we’re all kind of used to these things now. Do you feel?

Tom: I mean, yeah, the novelty hasn’t worn off yet, of coming over here. So like, it’s still a surprise, we still meet new people. See new tourist attractions. 

Fran: Yeah, we’re going to Milwaukee for the first time. So every time we come, there seems to be a new city, a new state. I think we’ve done nearly 38?

Tom: Yeah, or at least drove through 38. 

NES: That counts. What was the most interesting state? Did you go through the Dakotas or anything like that? 

Fran: South Dakota, yeah, we went to the Badlands—Nebraska, very flat, very straight roads. 

Tom: Went to Hawaii at one point. 

Fran: Hawaii. 

NES: Did you go to Hawaii? 

Tom: No, we’ve never been. We wish. 

NES: Just a one-off gig. 

Fran: Never leave. 

Tom: Yeah, we loved like Wyoming and South Dakota, that was lovely. 

NES: Then Buck did come out in September, but this is your first headlining run since the album came out. And obviously a lot of anthemic songs and big rock and roll songs. You probably don’t want to share a lot about the rest of the tour, but this first night, how have you been planning these sets considering the album is still relatively new? 

Fran: Yeah, yeah, it feels quite old now, the album. When you’ve released the album, you’ve already been listening to it for six months before it’s come out. You’ve been writing it for the six months before that. And when it comes out, it feels old, then you go play loads of shows. It gives it this new energy, with all the new songs. It’s definitely Buck-heavy now, this set. The set, this tour. And this album was very much inspired by our time in America. Our trips to America have definitely impacted some of the sounds, some of the themes on the album, so it’s only right that we tell some stories tonight about how the US has infiltrated our psyche. 

NES: I mean, you even have the song, “American Nights & English Mornings.”

Fran: That one, and “Crush, TX.” 

Tom: Or in “Someone’s Baby Isn’t Coming Home.” That’s pretty real. We’re not playing it tonight because it’s quite depressing. It makes us think of America a lot on the album. 

NES: You’ve been doing this band for ten years. I know you do a lot of the songwriting (Tom), but in terms of the songwriting process, does it still change for the band now that you’re used to each other? 

Fran: It’s sort of streamlined. 

Tom: We know everyone’s process, so one of us will bring something in that’s almost a finished product, or it’s like a whole song, just maybe on acoustic. Then everyone kind of adds the meat to the bone, and then it becomes a Red Rum Club song. That’s always the end goal. I mean, they’re written in different ways sometimes, a riff first, or a bass line maybe, but that’s usually the way it goes these days, and it hasn’t really changed. 

Fran: It’s streamlined. We used to dwell on songs and try to make songs and really work at them. Now it’s really sleek; we just write the songs. 

NES: If something doesn’t feel like it’s working, you just move on from it? 

Fran: Yeah, or just let it be itself. If it’s like okay, this is weird, it sounds different, then we’re just like okay, let’s just write it differently. 

Tom: There’s a song on the last album, the song “Wish I Was Here,” we couldn’t find the place for it. It felt very left-field, to what we had done in the past, and we just kind of embraced it. We were like, we like the song, so let’s just put it on the record. Again, every album, there’s one or two of them that are random, kind of left-field. 

NES: Then, bringing it back to touring, I know we’re getting close to doors now. But you’ve been touring pretty steadily in America since the world reopened, since music came back. And obviously, the touring industry is very different from it used to be. Is there something you really like about the touring industry? I know it’s very expensive; unfortunately, that hasn’t changed.

Tom: All we know is kind of post-COVID, so we kind of tricked ourselves when we went the first time. We got invited to SXSW in Texas, and then we got offered this support tour alongside it. So we needed to get visas for the tour, and we were like, “That could be fun.” And then we went out there, played all these shows, and it was great. And then we were like, “Oh, we’re going to have to get visas again.” 

Fran: Yeah, like every twelve months, so we were like oh we’re going to have to go do another tour to make the most of what we had spent. 

Tom: To make it worth all the money we had spent. So we did another tour, and that was a long one, like eighteen dates or something. We were like, “Oh, we’re going to have to go back”, even though we weren’t selling too many tickets at the time, but we had invested so much time and money. So let’s go back, and then every year now, it’s like, we love it here, so we come back every year. 

Fran: It’s getting to a point now where it’s like our second homes. In each city, we’ve got our local bars we go to, we’ve even got friends here now. 

NES: That you met at those first few shows? 

Fran: Like in town, and last night we went out with a couple of people we know here. 

NES: That’s so good, you’re already making the friendships. 

Tom: It’s nice to see familiar people in a new country. 

Fran: Like friends that have stumbled upon us, that have seen us play shows, they’ve become friends. We stay in touch when we’re not on tour and stuff, so it’s cool. 

NES: That’s great! Then I know it may seem cheesy, and I’m sure there are some things you can’t talk about, like writing and stuff. Because, like we’ve said, Buck probably feels like it’s been out for so long for you. It may sound cheesy, but you have this whole tour. Maybe hopes or goals for the band on this run or in the next few months? 

Tom: I just want to enjoy it, to be honest. In the past, we’ve put too much pressure on the shows. Of selling this many tickets or having a certain reaction or whatever, but lately, we’ve been like, let’s just go out and have a good time. Which could be dangerous. 

Fran: It’s confidence in ourselves, you know what I mean. We know that we’re going to go to Milwaukee, there’s going to be people who don’t know us, but we’ve got an hour to win them over. And we’re willing to do that. There’s no sort of egoes here; it’s not like, “Oh, why are we doing this? Why aren’t we playing arenas,” that sort of thing. It’s not like that, it’s faith in ourselves, and we go and have a good time and hope the people do too. And we build it, just in terms of fan base/community sort of thing. 

NES: Well, it’s all about the natural progression. I know Sonia holds like 300; this is like 600 or so. So, it’s just kind of that natural progression. I interviewed The Wombats, for example, several times in the early days when they were playing like The Middle East, and then it took time. They’re not playing arenas in the States, but it’s still like 2,500 at the House of Blues. 

Tom: That’s all anyone says to us. When we went into it, we knew it kind of takes time. You’ve got to keep coming and coming, winning people over. So that’s what we’re willing to do. We’re enjoying it. Doesn’t feel like a chore to us. 

Fran: And the people in the US, the fans in the US, the people here, they really do get behind you in the sense of that when we’re in town, it’s a date in the calendar for people. Our efforts of paying for a visa and getting on flights, people return the favor. To be like, “We got to cancel our old plans,” when we’re in town. That kind of thing which is good. 

NES: They’re like, plans have changed. 

—

The band kicked off their current North American run last night in Boston, and all remaining dates for the run can be found here, as well as anything Red Rum Club!

Featured Image by: John Hutchings