When a band decides to venture back to the studio where it all began, it can be often tempting to frame it as an act of nostalgia. There is, after all, an almost poetic symmetry in a group returning to the same barn in Banbury that they recorded their self-titled debut over a decade ago. But for Nothing But Thieves – vocalist Conor Mason, guitarists Joe Langridge-Brown and Dominic Craik, bassist Philip Blake, and drummer James Price – the reality of returning to the historic Angelic Studios to record new music was less sentimental.

“Walking in, you almost remember it being bigger,” Dominic Craik muses. “We’d never been to a residential studio back then… we just thought we’d won the lottery. We were like, ‘This will be the first and last album we ever made, so just enjoy the ride.’ To go back there and do your fifth album was this kind of full-circle moment.”

If the 20-somethings that first walked through those doors were focused on experimentation as a means of self-discovery, this iteration of Nothing But Thieves arrived with a sense of clarity, bolstered by the road-tested skills of a global headline act.

Since forming in 2012, the five-piece have amassed a fiercely dedicated global fanbase, translating into billions of streams, 1.2 million album sales and multiple gold and platinum records around the world. 2025 marked a decade since the release of their self-titled debut, and with four top-ten albums under their belt, including their first UK Number One with 2023’s Dead Club City, their live footprint has grown to match their chart momentum. Having played thousands of shows globally, their last UK tour saw them cement their arena status, culminating in two landmark, sold-out nights at Wembley Arena and Amsterdam’s Ziggo Dome. Stepping into Angelic Studios, the intention was to apply that same technical mastery that they had honed on arena stages in a space that they finally understood.

“A lot of the way we write is very reactionary to what we’ve just done,” explains Joe Langridge-Brown. “We sat down and we said we wanted to write something a bit more raw and organic and a bit chaotic. Dead Club City was very concept-led, futuristic, shiny and much stricter-sounding. This was the complete opposite.”

New single, ‘Evolution’ serves as a visceral statement of intent. Built around the physical mechanics of the band’s live energy, the track opens with a sparse, driving guitar riff and Mason’s urgent vocal delivery:

“Come, bury me in motion / A feral kind of war / In trying to be human / That’s not my fault / That’s evolution / That’s getting off the floor”

These themes of transformation quickly become more literal as Mason turns his attention to the Essex coastal scene where the band first cut their teeth. An explicit nod to formative Southend venue Chinnerys transforms a local memory into a lens for Nothing But Thieves’ wider evolution.

“There’s, something in me stirring / A memory away / Saw it down Chinnerys / In Halcyon days”

The vocals hang on a tight wire of restraint before detonating into a roaring wall of sound.

As Nothing But Thieves prepare to take their new music into the arena settings that have helped shape them, there is a sense that they are operating with a renewed sense of purpose.

“We’ve always been childlike with the creation of it,” Mason concludes. “It’s just about how it makes us feel. If it’s exciting or adventurous or emotional. You can’t lose that. You can’t make songs just to sell shit. A lot of people get to that stage. We’ve always just been about how it makes us feel.”

By returning to the physical space of the residential studio barn where it all began, Nothing But Thieves have produced new music that is tangible, raw and honest. It is the sound of a band that has found a place in a very real world of their own.