Laurie Vincent launches Big Truck: “In Soft Play it feels like I’m cosplaying my 18-year-old self – this

Laurie Vincent has spoken to NME about stepping out of the shadow of Soft Play with a newfound confidence to launch new band Big Truck.

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As one half of the Tunbridge Wells punk duo, Vincent helped set the course for the UK rock scene with Soft Play (formerly Slaves), culminating in 2024’s ‘Heavy Jelly’ being their most acclaimed and highest charting album of their career.

When a heavy tour schedule was complete, his bandmate Isaac Holman busied himself with making a new record as solo project Baby Dave. With the creative itch, he took his huge bank of demos to drummer Sam Coppin (formerly of Lady Bird) who saw promise in the songs and offered to form a new band.

Together with guitarist Asa Thallon and keyboardist Justin Myles, Big Truck was born – taking in their influences of indie, punk, jazz, soul, metal and R&B to create the album ‘Midday At The Middleway’.

Released last week (Friday August 28), it’s a fully-formed and considered debut that’s contains flourishes of The Cure, The Smiths, Pixies and The War On Drugs.

The sense of purpose behind the album was also driven by Vincent stepping up in his duties for Soft Play’s last record.

Check out the rest of our interview with Vincent before, where he talked to us about creativity, Buddhism, sobriety, and the beauty of new bands doing it the old school way.

NME: Hello Laurie. Becoming a frontman is a whole new mentality. When did you realise that you’d reached that.

Laurie Vincent: “There was a really important part of forming Big Truck, which was that we went out and did gigs before we recorded. We practiced and treated it like we were in a real band.

It was like being a kid, putting your gig back on your back and going round your friend’s house to make music when it would have been a lot easier to stay at home.

Did anything about that process take you by surprise.

Has opening up that new side of yourself changed you in day-to-day life.

What would you say the sonic touch-points of the record are.

How would you describe the character of the album.

Finding yourself as a frontman is enough of a challenge, but then there’s finding yourself as a lyricist.

The song ‘Surf The Suffering’ is particularly profound in your journey to find peace from “the ugly side” of life. Have you found any answers.

Themes of Buddhism and gratitude seem to pop up through the record a lot.

What else have you gleaned from Buddhism.

That must come easier too with Big Truck being a new band in a very old-school way.

Soft Play came up on the precipice of the social media age become a hateful inferno of doom. How do you feel about new bands having to compete within that.

Do you foresee this being more than a side project.

What’s next in the arc for Big Truck then.

Have there been discussions about the future of Soft Play.

Anything you can tell us about that half a record, or is it quite early days.

SEPTEMBER 3 – Brighton, Resident 16 – Hamburg, Reeperbahn Festival.

OCTOBER 17 – Manchester, Neighbourhood Festival.

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