Only The Poets in Zurich @ Plaza Klub

Another day, another concert – and another interview. Last week we got to see and interview Only The Poets in Zurich. Getting to interview Only The Poets was a real treat—they were fun to talk to, refreshingly down-to-earth, and shared some great insights into their world as a band.

Ahead of their high-energy live show, they gave us a glimpse into their music, their creativity and their journey so far. Later that night, they brought it all to life. Delivering a performance full of catchy tunes and a powerful connection with the crowd. But back to the interview, if you want to know who messes up the most, keep reading 🙂

Interview with Only The Poets in Zurich

Hi guys! So nice to meet you. Thanks for taking the time to do this and welcome to Switzerland. Did you have some time to explore the city all?
Tommy: In Zurich? Yeah. Not really. I mean, we went to a little coffee shop this morning when we got off the bus, but since then it’s just been kind of rolling to the venue and getting ready for the show.

Oh, I ran down to the big river, which is beautiful. Ran down to the river with a view of all the hills. That was lovely. That was nice, yeah.

So for the people who don’t know you, how would you describe your music without using indie or pop?
Marcus: Haha! Love that!

T: Oh… Energetic. Energetic! Okay yeah! Energetic, catchy tunes.

Yeah, that’s pretty close, I guess.

So you’ve been on tour with big names, Louis Tomlinson and Yung lud, which has exposed you to probably different kinds of crowds too. Is there anything from their performances that you try to incorporate into yours or that you’ve been influenced with?
T: I mean, when we went on tour with Louis’ band, that show was very impressive and the musicianship was incredible.

I think that was quite inspiring for us to see. He’s such a big artist with such an amazing light show and production that I think you always watch that as a smaller band. You think, wow, we’d love to get to that level one day and do the arenas and things.

And I think with Dom, I mean, his energy blew us all away, didn’t it? And the way he holds an audience. Showmanship. Actually took us back a little bit with just how good it was. And certainly for me, as the singer of this band. I took away from that: like wow, that’s kind of the level you’ve got to be at to really make some noise. So that was inspiring.

I just think it’s really intimate. Tonight’s venue’s going to be pretty packed, which is exciting.

So your own shows have been getting a little bit bigger over the last years. This one’s a little smaller though…
T: We’re excited about that, though.

Are you? Is it still like nice for you to like take a “step back”?
T: I just think it’s really intimate. Tonight’s venue’s going to be pretty packed, which is exciting.

Roo: We do love a little sweaty show.

Cool. Are you still going to go into the crowd, even though it’s really small?
T: Yeah, of course.

Nice! So with social media and TikTok being a big part of the music industry now, it’s become important to have an online presence. Your single “I keep on messing it up” has gotten some traction on TikTok. And you yourself are very active an put out great content… How do you come up with all the content that you produce? Because there’s a lot of funny videos on Reels, TikTok.
Clem: There’s a lot of brainstorming…

T: There’s other brains that come into it as well. Our creative guy and us come up with them all, and our manager as well. It is really fun to do that.

I think with the title, I keep on messing it up… Conceptually, the song is quite specific about something to us, but you can play on that title quite a lot with messing anything up. Do you know what I mean? So we’ve been able to play with it and make it fun because we kept on saying that the song has got quite a serious undertone, but we wanted it to feel hopeful, fun, and energetic too. So we wanted the content to kind of match that as well and not be too serious.

Yeah, there’s a couple of really funny videos out there. So which one of you messes up the most? During the show or just in general, in life.
T: Oooh well I fu… Wait can I swear?

Yeah, no problem… Haha
T: Well I made a lot of fucking mistakes in my time. I think we all have bad days on stage as well. Who do you think messes up the most on stage Clem?

C: I hear some absolute blunders from Roo, bless him. I do have to say it though. It’s really noticeable as well because it’s the bass. It’s so obvious when you hear a bad note.

I guess it really always is the bass player that messes up…
M: I think it’s the drums though… If you miss one note on the drums, you can really notice. I’ve been doing a few this tour.

T: I don’t really hear many mistakes from any of you, to be honest. I think you’re all very good. I went through a phase. Do you guys remember in the space of two days, I did something that I’ve never done before. So, I forgot the lyrics two days running.

I was like, uh-oh, is this a new thing that I’m going to have to deal with? I was lucky because the song wasn’t out.

So nobody really noticed?
T: No but I knew, and the boys knew…

R: In Copenhagen you forgot an old song as well!

T: Oh, actually, I did. It’s nice of you to bring that up…

M: What was it? Waking in the Dark?

T: Oh, yeah. I did, yeah. On the first night of tour. I really felt that, actually. I basically sang half the second verse, and went straight in and Clem just shaking his head. Like, no, no, no, this is wrong.

M: It’s all for the content.

T: Of course, yeah.

That was all planned, for sure… So you’ve been singing another unreleased track, Saké… Can you tell us anything about that?
T: Yeah, I mean, it was a very fun song for us to kind of create, really, because it definitely feels one of the most brave… wouldn’t you say, lads…

‘everyone agreed’

Like sonically. I think we’ve definitely found a more kind of commercial sound.

It’s a little different than your other songs, right?
T: Well, yes, compared to everything thus far.

And I think with us working on the record, I think Sake opened the door in all our minds a little bit to kind of how far we might be able to take things. And the song is about when I went on a date and was judged by the fact I didn’t like this particular drink, Sake. So it’s quite tongue-in-cheek and quite sarcastic and just playful on a situation that was quite random.

So we love playing it live as well. It’s just really fun to play live. And the crowd’s already singing it back to us, which is fun! It’s a pretty earwormy song. I think you kind of get it after the first chorus. So, yeah, really enjoying it.

So the new single is coming out on the 25th of April.

All right, cool. You did announce a new single yesterday. You Hate that i’?m in love! when is it coming out?
T: I have no idea. Oh.

*I turn around to the label people/management: Well, when is it coming out?

25th of April.

T: Let’s do that again. So the new single is coming out on the 25th of April.
(sorry, this was too funny, I did not want to cut that out 😀)

So if you could tell someone that doesn’t know you to listen to one song to catch your vibe and know what you’re all about, which song would you choose?
T: From any song that is currently out.

Yeah.
T: Ooh.

R: When Hey That I’m In Love comes out, I’d say that one.

T: Yeah, that’s a good one. The new single is a good one for that.

M: Yeah. But it’s not out yet. Right now…. Right…

C: Right now, I’d say Keep Messing Up, just because it feels like it’s setting the tone where musically I think we’re heading.

T: 100%.

Okay. Cool. So during my interviews, we always have a couple of fans send in questions. So I’ve got three for you.

Kareen: Are there any collabs planned for, like, upcoming songs, new songs?
T: I mean, that would be so great. If the opportunity comes, we will take that.

Is there someone in particular you would want to work with?
T: Sabrina Carpenter .

Everyone laughs, including me…

Okay. Why not? I mean, anything can happen…
T: There’s an artist we love from London called Humble The Great. He has this incredible kind of, like, R&B soul. He’s incredible. We all listen to him, and, yeah, that would be kind of fun to do a track with him. But, yeah, there’s loads of artists we’d love to work with. I feel like there’s so many amazing up-and-coming artists in the scene in London at the minute.

M: Victor Ray. Victor Ray’s got great music.

T: Or, actually, the guy who’s supporting us on tour currently, Kerr, has got the most unbelievable singing voice we’ve ever heard. So that could be fun. Get him, because he’s going to be massive one day.

Concert Photos: Kerr Mercer in Zurich

Gina: Who’s the biggest softie in the band?
T: Softie? We’re all softies.

You don’t come across as, like, the uber-softies, though.
T: Really? Oh, I’m as soft as they come. I mean, what does softie mean to you? Do you mean, like, emotional?

Not sure what Gina meant, but I would say on an emotional level, when it comes to, maybe even lyrics…
T: We sometimes even cry on stage.

R: I’d say it’s probably Tom.

T: I think honesty as well in our kind of art, I think, is what people like about our songs. They’re all written about experiences. There’s no real, like, made-up scenario. It’s from the kind of experiences we’ve been through as human beings, so I feel like that in itself is quite soft. But I feel like people like that because it’s honesty. It’s real, exactly, so… Yeah.

M: I’d say it’s Tom.

So it’s still you then. Tom?
T: I am incredibly emotional…

All right, let’s see if we’re going to have some tears tonight.

Andrea: What was the sweetest or craziest fan gift you’ve ever received?
All of them together: Oh, we’ve received so many. People do drawings of us. Amazing drawings, yeah.

T: Yeah. We’ve got some amazing paintings and drawings that they’ve done of us, and that’s probably the sweetest gift. Yeah.

C: We get a lot of really amazing gifts. They crochet little, like… Well, yeah, there’s quite a few fans where they have got really good crocheting skills, and a lot of them crochet us as little dolls.

T: My mum and sister do it, and when I took the first one home, they were like, that is unbelievably difficult to do. That’s crazy. They were like, that’s, like, serious talent. I have about ten of them.

R: I also must add that we got a book that was basically every gig we’ve ever done in, like, picture form and, like, little reviews on each one of them.

T: Like in a magazine.

R: All the fans have written messages from each one of the shows. Actually… We’ve got two. It’s like a hardback book that’s probably this thick, and we got two of them now. We’ve got so many fan experiences.

R: Because, obviously, we have this amazing journey, but it’s so hard to, other than what’s on Instagram and on our calendar, it’s like, being able to see it all in one place, it’s like, oh, my God, we’ve done all these things. Yeah. So that’s really amazing to get a gift like that.

T: I’ve got quite a soft story about that. We whipped that out at Christmas in my family, and it all got a bit emotional, actually, reading through that for me. I was reading through it after a couple of glasses of the old red, and I was like, oh, this is an emotional time.

We’ve been through a lot. Because, like Roo said, so much happens in our life. Social media is really good, and pics on your smartphone. When you see messages in all the shows, it is quite emotional to look at.

R: I think sometimes we almost forget that.

T: Yeah, 100%.

R: Just because there’s so much stuff that we get up to. We’re always touring, on the road.

It’s hard to remember everything, so when someone actually literally puts it in a book in front of you. It’s like: You did all that. You go, oh, that’s actually crazy to think about.

Quick Fire Round!

So, we’re coming to our last part, quick fire round. Just a couple of random questions or sentences that you have to end or decide what to say.

Best snacks before a show?
M: Banana.

T: Yes, I’m on the bananas now, yeah. Banana is great, because your body breaks it down very fast, hence why tennis players have it. There used to be tequila in pineapple juice, and now it’s bananas.

What happened? Rock and roll is really dead?
M: Rock and roll is dead.

T: It’s a bit of a drier tour now for us. We’re taking it a bit more seriously.

Burger or pizza?
R: Pizza!

T, C, M: Burger. Burger!

Oh, you’re the odd one out *pointing at Roo*.
R: They’re just saying that, they meant pizza.

*everyone else shaking their heads*

I’m with you on that, always Pizza, so…
Who is the most chaotic in the band?
R, C, M: Tommy!

Ok, so you are the softie and chaotic one, okay…
T: Well, ADHD is a thing of chaos in my head. That makes sense. My version at least.

Yeah, realistically, I normally go and take a piss.

When I get off stage, the first thing I do is…
M: Drink 0% beer. Or drink one.

T: That is the one time that actually really hits, like a regular one, straight off stage.

M: If you interview us again in six months, it’ll probably be a normal beer, but we’re trying to be really good.

T: Yeah. Trying to be really good right now. What do you guys do? *looking at Clem and Roo*

R: Sit down.

C: Well, yeah, I sit down and drink a beer.

R: Yeah, realistically, I normally go and take a piss.

M: I can’t believe you said that.

R: Maybe make a sandwich.

T: Yeah. Make a sandwich.

M: I get post-show hunger, so I probably have something to eat.

T: He smokes a cigarette.

R: Yeah, get a cigarette.

T: Why didn’t you say it?

R: I don’t know if I’ve had one during the show. Sometimes I would actually have one while we’re on stage.

Ok, last one…

The best thing about Switzerland is?
T: Scenery.

M: Chocolate

C: The scenery. We’ve done this for years, and the best experience, when we drove through the Alps from Italy and it was like the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen.

T: It was like a constant postcard.

C: It was unbelievable, the scenery.

T: And also, everyone’s really nice. Everyone’s really sweet. The fans here are lovely. M: And the chocolate’s good

And the cheese? Have you had any cheese while you’ve been here?
M: I had some cheese this morning.

T: We should do a cheese tasting.

All right. You should do a cheese tasting while in Switzerland.
Someone asked: do you any?

Uuuhm no, I don’t usually carry cheese with me hahaha
T: The only cheese I’ve had today is a Babybel.

No, that’s not even real cheese. That’s like, ew. NO! Can we get them some cheese, please? Some real cheese.

And that was it…

Don’t think I’ve ever ended an interview with Babybel as a topic, but here we are. So, if any of the OTP fans read this, please bring the boys some real swiss cheese next time 🙂