Long Read // “You’ve been offered the alternative, but the alternative’s even worse”: SOAPBOX talk politics, punk, and their latest EP ‘LOCK IN’
We caught up with SOAPBOX frontman Tom Rowan at The Great Escape 2025, covering everything from the band’s Glaswegian roots and international touring plans, to an increasingly right-wing Labour Party and the inclusive origins of the Skinhead.
When we first lay eyes on him, SOAPBOX frontman Tom Rowan is quite literally swinging from the ceiling. Clad in a classic white vest and clinging precariously to a lightbulb, he’s in a kind of punkish flow state, having surrendered himself to the primal vitality the performance demands. “You just need to go as hard as you can, as often as you can, and just give them the best show that your body’s willing to give”, he tells us later as we sit at a table just outside end-of-pier bar Horatios, overlooking the sea.
Previous pier-end punks include SOFT PLAY and Kneecap, so it’s fair to say that the location of their Great Escape debut puts SOAPBOX in good stead. “It’s where all the cool people play, evidently”, he smiles. Playing raucous punk music at the end of Brighton Pier is not without its perils, however. “It’s wild, isn’t it? 100 meters out to sea and I’m jumping up and down, thinking ‘how hard do I need to go before I go straight through to the fucking water?'", he laughs. Luckily, no one plummeted to the ocean below, and SOAPBOX were able to safely deliver an exhilarating set that showcased their latest EP ‘LOCK IN’, which has been warmly received by fans. “The reception’s been great, people are really into the new stuff that we’re doing which is nice”, Rowan reflects. "It's been great to get those songs out, because we kept them to ourselves for so long before we released them, which we’d never done before”.
This newfound secrecy paid off, culminating in a triumphant headline at the 500-capacity Glasgow School of Art in April. “That gig was honestly incredible, seeing that room and the energy in it was just unbelievable”, he marvels. “It was the biggest headline we’ve done by quite a mile. It’d been a year since our last hometown show, so it was about twice as many as the last headline we did, just absolutely wild”. As Rowan talks, it becomes increasingly clear that Glasgow is not just his home city, but an integral piece of the SOAPBOX puzzle. “Coming from Glasgow, I’ve seen a lot of gigs, a lot of touring bands that come and say, ‘we love to play Glasgow, this is the place to be’, and you think that they say that everywhere”, he muses. “But having now been about a bit, I actually think that Glasgow crowds are just so game man, we’re super appreciative up there”.
It’s this passion for performance which helped SOAPBOX establish a strong local following in their early days. “I’ve been playing in bands in Glasgow since 2017 when I was at school, and then Aidan [bass], he moved to Glasgow in 2021/2022, so he’d seen what the Glaswegian scene was like, and he wanted to start a band”, recounts Rowan. “Through a friend of a friend we met up and discussed what we wanted to do. We had the same ideas musically and politically, which led to us starting a punk band, and then we picked up Jenna [drums] and Angus [guitar] as well, and got things moving”.
You can say that again. In just three short years, SOAPBOX have taken their dedicated local following and used it to carve out a place in the punk scene both nationwide and internationally, supporting the likes of Kid Kapichi, Dead Pony, and SNAYX. “Everyone has been incredible, obviously when we toured with Dead Pony we had a previous working relationship with [Dead Pony guitarist] Blair Crichton - he’d produced all our singles up to that point - but the SNAYX guys were so inviting, they would welcome us into their dressing room, they wanted to accommodate us which is so nice”, remembers Rowan. “And then the Kapichi boys were the same, they were just like ‘yeah, come and be comfortable’. They’re also two bands that have been in the same position as us, and they don’t forget how the small things really add up, especially when you’re running to go to shows at a loss and opening in early slots, they know that everything they can do to help is really appreciated”.
Is this supportiveness simply part and parcel of the punk community? “I’d say especially in the punk scene that I’ve seen, everyone’s been so great. No one’s making enough money to act like a dick”, he notes. “Some people are making money, but no one’s making enough to be a dickhead, so everyone's been super accommodating”. This sentiment extends to former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who reached out to the band as he fought to keep his Islington North seat as an independent candidate during last year’s General Election. “The first time we ever went to London, there was a guy also called Tom who was one of his aides during the last elections. He came to see us at the Omera, and we’d released a song called ‘Private Public Transport’ that was about how private companies being in control of something that’s a public service is not a good thing, and he said ‘look, I work with Jeremy and I’d love to take a t-shirt to give him’, so we gave him one”, Rowan explains.
“We went to meet [Corbyn] the next day up in Islington North, but it was the day of the election, so Jeremy and Tom said ‘come along, we’ll try and fit you in’, and we drove up to meet them. We were waiting in this cafe, and then Tom said to us ‘look, [left-leaning news outlet] Al Jazeera have turned up and they want an interview’, so to get knocked down the pegging order by Al Jazeera, it’s like, fair play”, he laughs. Not all the band’s endorsements have been so flattering, though. In early 2024 SOAPBOX were championed by Gavin McInnes, the founder of American far-right extremist group The Proud Boys. Oblivious to the fact that the band stand firmly against everything they believe in, McInnes presumably saw a skinhead shouting, and assumed that Rowan and co. supported his far-right rhetoric.
Is it inevitable that left-wing skinheads will always be misconstrued as racist thugs? “I think you’re always going to run that risk, as the image sort of perpetuates that, but it all came from the dancehall scene, and the ska and dub scene in the North of England, that was then appropriated by The National Front”, Rowan clarifies. “It came from a place of tolerance, from the mainly Caribbean immigrant communities within the UK, but then The National Front co-opted that, and from there you’ve ended up at the point where skinheads are supposed to be Nazis, or right-wing or whatever, which isn’t true, but you always run the risk of that, especially in punk music”, he admits. “I think all you can do is be vigilant, and be very clear about your messaging”.
SOAPBOX could never be accused of muddying their message. With songs condemning privatisation (‘Private Public Transport’), greedy energy companies (Meter Made) and hypocritical bigots (Fascist Bob), the band are as leftist as they come, and in 2025, that means calling out the Labour Party, too. “There’s so many people that we know that think ‘oh well, Labour means left-wing and that must mean everything’s going to be okay again’, and that’s been proven wrong, like with the new legislation on rights for trans people, and the Prime Minister quoting Enoch Powell in his speech”, sighs Rowan. “They could really consolidate a left-wing base, but they’ve decided to chase this part of the country that’s never going to vote for them. Before it was frustration, it was people you didn’t agree with in power. But now there’s a lot of people who think you’re supposed to be on their side”, he despairs. “You’ve been offered the alternative, but the alternative's even worse”.
It’s this deep disillusionment with the mainstream ‘left’ which has fuelled the harsher, heavier sound of ‘LOCK IN’. “They’re accelerating things towards an even more authoritarian state, and maybe that’s where some of the heavier music comes from”, reflects Rowan. Touring with bands like Kapichi has also influenced the sonic development of SOAPBOX, both in the studio and on stage. “Seeing how they make that sound so full - ‘cause we’re one guitar and one bass - it’s like, when you go and play a bigger room, it’s hard to really give it that impact, so the heavier riffs have been part of just playing with those bands who are amazing at doing that”.
Not that SOAPBOX are planning to confine themselves to a singular style. “Obviously we’re labelled a punk band, but we’ve been doing some heavier stuff and some weirder stuff. We’ve still got a lot of different stuff in the locker as well, we wanna do some more dancey tunes and that next”, reveals Rowan. A debut EP of oi punk, a follow up full of heavy punk - could EP No.3 be dedicated to dance-punk? Or will SOAPBOX deliver a debut album encompassing all three? “If someone’s willing to fucking pay for it man!”, he grins. “It’s hard to get the funding, but we're focused on live shows at the moment. We're a live band first, we love to play". And crowds love to watch them. SOAPBOX embarked on their first proper string of European dates a couple of weeks ago, and this international recognition is still hard for Rowan to wrap his head around.
“The goal I had was to play a venue called King Tuts Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow, I wanted to do a headliner there and maybe sell it out, and we’ve done that twice now”, he recalls. “I never expected to have that kind of crossover with people from other countries, and even in England I’m just like ‘this is class’. We went over and played our first European show in Italy at the end of January, and they were singing the lyrics, and it’s like ‘how do you fucking understand what I’m saying?’”, he laughs. “I’m just so excited and so grateful that people are into it and want to support it, ‘cause at the end of the day it’s a daft dream to have”.
That may be true, but if anyone has the gritty determination required to make it a reality, it’s SOAPBOX.
Words by Ben Left
