‘Whether it was alcohol or drugs, I did it all to the full’

The Wombats have built on their indie roots to become arena-playing TikTok stars. Frontman Murph talks LA wildfires, hedonism and a new album with Mark Beaumont

- Mark Beaumont

Here he comes now, dashing between the twinkling fairy lights, chic bars and Harry Potter stores of Liverpool's Albert Dock towards our coffee shop date, that forgotten ex who waltzed back onto our timelines looking more and more like The One that got away. Back then, almost 20 years ago now, Matthew “Murph” Murphy was the anxiety-riddled frontman of cartoonish indie-pop trio The Wombats, bouncing around 2007 entreating us to dancefloor catharsis in “Let’s Dance to Joy Division” where “everything is going wrong but we’re so happy!” It might have felt like a delirious but brief fling for many, but in the intervening years, and over five hit albums, Murph’s band have become TikTok sensations, Gen Z heroes, a streaming phenomenon, chart-topping arena stars. Why the hell not give him a second chance?

As he bustles into the bar, impeccably turned out in boho overcoat and rockstar shirt, the green flags stack up. Though tousled and tired from a week of intense rehearsals with his bandmates Dan Haggis (drums) and Tord Øverland Knudsen (bass), Murphy’s small talk is friendly and tea-ful. There’s a dash of nostalgia at being back in his home city, where The Wombats have convened from homes in the US, Norway and Liverpool to perfect songs from their new sixth album Oh! The Ocean for a forthcoming arena tour. He reminisces about how one emotional Valentine’s Day massacre in his youth inspired the band’s debut single and first Top 20 hit “Moving to New York”. His date declined further drinks in favour of an early night, only for Murph to later spot her in a Liverpool bar “murdered off her face”.

“She was shitfaced and making out with someone,” he says, baggage long since shed. “I got really jealous and wrote that song.”