Meet The NONE, the punk stalwarts with a ‘noisy and disgusting’ new project
Formed from members of Bloc Party, Cassels, Frauds and more, this band’s sound – carved out at their furious live shows – is a brilliant industrial racket
Gordon Moakes has been in bands for over two decades, but found himself unusually without one when moving back to London from Austin, Texas after the pandemic. It was an itch that the former Bloc Party and Young Legionnaire bassist needed to scratch, and so he called Jim Beck, guitarist of UK rock band Cassels, hoping to start “something relentless and noisy”.
At the start of 2023, they recruited Frauds’ Chris Francombe on drums, and set about recruiting a vocalist. Kaila Whyte – singer in Blue Ruth and Young Man – was the first person mentioned as an ideal frontperson, but they figured that the Birmingham-based singer would “never be up for it”.
“Cut to September 2023,” Beck tells Rolling Stone UK, “and we’ve tried to audition singers, and it’s not gone well. Like, I remember a really desperate text from Gordie in the group chat being like, ‘Are we ever gonna find anyone?’ I said, ‘Fuck it, I’ll just message Kai.’ Within 20 minutes, they were like, ‘Yeah, I’m in’.
What resulted is The NONE, a furious and intense new band who honed their sound over a series of hype-building live shows in 2024 and return with new EP CARE this month (February 14). Inspired by Moakes’ love of hardcore stalwarts Pissed Jeans and USA Nails, their sound is an uncompromising, sludgy one which has found its perfect mouthpiece in the articulate, energetic Whyte.
In our Play Next interview, the band discuss their formation, why Whyte was the missing piece of the jigsaw and why they’re only releasing music on Bandcamp.
Did recruiting Kai feel like the last piece of the jigsaw for the band?
Jim: The first EP was recorded when we’d only done three or four practices with them.
Kai: The good thing about you all looking for a vocalist for so long was that you had some really solid instrumental tracks for me to slap some vocals on.
Jim: You say loads, I think we just had the four we recorded!
What excited you about the music the band had written?
Kai: I was like, ‘This is it – this is what I wanted and it’s right up my street.’ I’ve always been in bands where I’ve played an instrument and I’ve not really got the the chops for it. To just be a vocalist, I can really express myself with this. Lyrically and vocally, I’m really conscious of some of my influences and whatever’s going on at the time. It wasn’t necessarily that the music inspired something in me, it’s just that the music and the lyrics came together at that time. I wanted to have something really noisy and disgusting, but still with a lot of melody. The discordant nature and relentlessness of this music really allows me to scream in tune.
How has the band progressed from those early songs to now, and your new EP, CARE?
Jim: We recorded that [first] EP in like October [2023], and then we just booked a tour. We hadn’t played on a stage together before those first show we did. It all immediately felt pretty good. I hadn’t realised that point that, Kai, you hadn’t even ever just sung on stage before, which is pretty nuts because you took to that fucking duck to water.
I think you learn how to play off each other a little bit better, particularly in a live context. Everything we do is live, and it’s all about that performance element. Even when we record, we purposefully wanted everything in the room at the same time. On the first EP, Kai’s vocals were recorded, through a guitar amp in the room. Kai now being more involved in the process has changed things, and our process has expanded a bit. We all know that we can add contributions here and there, or put ideas out there that other people don’t like and feel secure in them saying, ‘This isn’t good’.
You played your first gigs with no music out and very little public information shared about the band – was that deliberate, and why did you make the choice?
Jim: I’ve always thought that first tour was like a research and development trip. We didn’t know how it was all going to go down. There wasn’t ever some master plan. Maybe we were holding things back, but honestly because we didn’t have that much to say – we’re just a new band. We have some shows coming up. That straightforwardness has carried through and we’ve all agreed that the live thing is where we enjoy doing this band most. Everything has been focused on just playing cool shows, and the releases around that are all set up to support those cool shows.
Your music has been released only on Bandcamp so far – is that a firm ethical standpoint, and if so what does it mean to you?
Jim: We’ve all been doing this a while, and there are a lot of aspects of being in a band, whether that be chasing Spotify playlists, TikTok, ‘likes’ and all that stuff, that we’re not all that interested in. We’re quite realistic and pragmatic about what we need to do to be able to get out there and play.
Gordon: It’s annoying, isn’t it? Because I’m seeing a lot of people, especially this week [after Donald Trump’s inauguration], talking about how they want to get off these platforms. I’m not talking about artists, I’m talking about people who are following what’s happening in politics, and seeing what Spotify are spending their money on, and who the people in charge of these platforms are backing, but it’s a reality. We’re all in that mess of, ‘How do you reach people in a way that’s not just playing in everyone’s home?’ I’d like to hope that something better than even Bandcamp comes along, but we just don’t know.
How do you see your sound developing, and what are your plans for the rest of 2025?
Jim: We’ve got a tour in February and March, and then trying to write an album in May. As we enjoy writing together so much, it’d be really nice to have some really protected time where we could just get in a space and just do that for a bit. The album will be the next thing for us.
And is your creative process so far – everything recorded live together in a room – one you think will last as long as the band does?
I think so, until it isn’t what we want to do anymore. At the moment, we’re still committed to this live sound, and having it really raw. It can sound really good, too. It’s not like the ‘70s where everything’s gonna sound fuzzy. Technology’s great, you can do all sorts and I don’t think it’s actually restriction – it just adds to the vibe.