Everything Must Make Sense! The Sherlocks on track for Tramlines and UK tour with new album

On the inspiration for the name of his band’s fifth album, The Sherlocks’ Kiaran Crook says: “A lot of things are crazy in the world today.”

But he adds that whatever else is happening, the Yorkshire four-piece can be relied upon to have some cracking songs on their UK tour in May and on their new record, which is released on 16 May, writes Richard Derbyshire.

Fans in Europe have already had a preview of new material as the band have just finished dates in Berlin, Hamburg, Amsterdam and Paris.

Frontman Kiaran, his brother and drummer Brandon, lead guitarist Alex Procter and bassist Trent Jackson will play 11 UK dates.

They have lined up Newcastle NX (2 May), Leeds Stylus (3 May), Keele University (9 May), Birmingham O2 Institute (10 May), Bristol SWX (16 May), Nottingham Rock City (17 May), London Electric Ballroom (23 May), Southampton Engine Rooms (24 May), Buckley Tivoli (25 May), Glasgow SWG3 (30 May) before Albert Hall in Manchester (31 May). Face value ticket prices for The Sherlocks UK tour are between £20 and £25.

BUY TICKETS: Visit www.thesherlocksmusic.co.uk.

Then they appear on the main stage at Tramlines alongside Kasabian, Scouting For Girls, The Last Dinner Party, The Lathums, Sigrid, CMAT and more on Sunday, July 27 - info and tickets availability at tramlines.org.uk.

The band also has a set of live in-store appearances in May, including Yorkshire dates at Vinyl Tap Huddersfield (18 May daytime), Beartree Sheffield at The Foundry (19 May evening) and The Vinyl Whistle in Leeds (19 May daytime).

With three top ten albums under their belt, including 2023’s People Like Me and You and their 2017 debut Live For The Moment, The Sherlocks have had success on a record label and also, since 2020, as an independent band.

Brandon told us that changes to the UK charts rules and the weighting given to streaming, which benefits major label acts, mean it is getting harder for DIY outfits to compete for the top spot.

“The landscape is changing,” he said.

“It is impossible to compete with major artists who can have a million streams counted as the equivalent to a thousand physical album sales, and the chart has also cracked down on combining album and instore gig ticket bundles that make them less commercially viable to put on.

“It is like we are a Football League club up against a Premier League side in the FA cup final, but the fact that we are competing is already a win for us.

“When people ask, ‘why do so few bands break through?’, these are some of the reasons. Our best chance of competing now is if everyone gets behind the band as they have before.”

Last year, The Sherlocks began their own podcast which has featured guests such as Rick Witter from Shed Seven and their debut album producer, Gavin Monaghan - watch podcast below - or click here.

“It’s a good way for us to catch up as a band as well as with fans,” said Brandon. “And listeners can learn a little bit more about us as people. I never thought we would do something like that, but we enjoy it.”

This July will see The Sherlocks return to Tramlines main stage in Sheffield, the first time since 2021 when the band made their live debut with Alex on lead guitar and Trent on bass.

“There was a lot riding on that set,” laughed Kiaran. “It was mad that our first ever gig together with a new line-up was in front of 40,000 people.

“Ordinarily, we would have done some small warm-up shows, but instead, due to Covid restrictions, it turned out to be at our biggest gig of the year.”

Their appearances on the Sarah Nulty main stage are a world away from their first Tramlines fringe appearance at The Harrison 1854 bar in Broomhall more than ten years ago.

Kiaran said: “Tramlines is special to us. You cannot get any lower than where we started, playing three sets in a day across the city. It is festival we have managed to climb up the ladder each time.

“We would like to become big enough to headline it one day.”

Last year, legendary act The Cure announced their first new album for 16 years. With their fifth record out this month, The Sherlocks run rate for new music is closer to 16 months.

“Recording five albums at our age is crazy when you think about it,” said Brandon.

“Kiaran and I have been in this band for 15 years, recorded five albums and are both aged around 30. We have put in the work, but I know we are fortunate to still be going strong when so many musicians we have known have fallen by the wayside.

“People must see us as a constant. We are always there and pushing on. You see a lot of new bands arrive for two or three years and then you never see them again. Arriving is an achievement, but staying and making a living as an independent band is another one.”

Everything Must Make Sense was recorded in Manchester with producer David Radhad-Jones, who the band says, “brought a lot to the table,” while nights out, “spending a fortune,” were in the Northern Quarter of the city.

On making music Kiaran says that sometimes “the cheapest guitar in the room” can create what everyone is after.

He added: “The opening to Man on the Loose is from my black Fender, which I have had for over ten years, and it wasn’t even miked up properly. I recorded it on my iPhone.

“We tried repeating it with a better guitar and microphones, but there was something about the acoustics on the original recording that captured the character of the song and could not be repeated.”

The lead singer says The Sherlocks’ latest offering has something for everyone.

“Our single Bones feels like drum ’n’ bass to me,” he explained. “There is only a rhythm guitar surviving from my original demo, my acoustic and then Alex's lead guitar. It is not really ‘tracked up’ and it is synth that is driving it.

“Another tune, Tough Times Don’t Last, sounds like an early track by The Enemy, moody but uplifting. It does not drag its feet, and it has an upbeat message.”

For the title track, the band chose Everything Must Make Sense! which Kiaran says is a statement “everyone can take something from,” while its sound is influenced by a fusion of “Johnny Marr, scratchy Strokes guitars plus U2 in the melodies.”

Meanwhile, Brandon said final album track Here Comes The Rain is a “monster tune” that everyone around the band is raving about, while Kiaran adds that one called 28 “opens up into something huge” after “an emotional beginning.”

He adds: “It is a quieter moment on the record, and, for me, that is the tune that turns a collection of songs into an album.”

At their practice studio in Leeds, the band also reworked an old song called Bedlam Town that was written before their debut record in 2017.

“We still haven’t run out of songs that old yet, but we are getting close,” explained Kiaran.” We had tried to record it before, but this was the first time it sounded how we wanted.

On this tour, The Sherlocks will be supported by fifteen up-and-coming acts they chose themselves, including Cusp, The Denabys, The Manatees, Crystal Tides, Pentire and Alex Spencer.

Kiaran said: “Support slots are really important, We remember supporting The Enemy at the start of our career and how massive that was for us. It is still the same now when we got on tour with bands like Kaiser Chiefs, Shed Seven and Keane, who we really appreciate.”

The Sherlocks album Everything Must Make Sense! is released Friday, May 16.

They appear in the UK in May at:

Headline UK tour:

Newcastle NX (2 May)

Leeds, Stylus (3 May)

Keele University (9 May)

Birmingham O2 Institute (10 May)

Bristol, SWX (16 May)

Nottingham, Rock City (17 May)

London, Electric Ballroom (23 May)

Southampton, Engine Rooms (24 May)

Buckley, Tivoli (25 May)

Glasgow, SWG3 (30 May)

Albert Hall, Manchester (31 May)

Instore appearances at:

Kingston-upon-Thames, Banquet Records (15 May, evening)

Bristol, Rough Trade (16 May, daytime)

Nottingham, Rough Trade (17 May, daytime)

Huddersfield, Vinyl Tap (Northern Quarter) (18 May, daytime)

Preston, Action Records (Blitz) (18 May, evening)

Leeds, The Vinyl Whistle (19 May, daytime)

Sheffield, Beartree (at The Foundry) (19 May, evening)

Manchester, HMV (20 May, daytime)

Liverpool, Jacaranda (20 May evening)

Brighton, Resident (21 May, evening)

Gosport, A Slice of Vinyl, (22 May daytime)

More at www.thesherlocksmusic.co.uk.

WATCH:The official video for new single Man on the Loose filmed at Don Valley Bowl.

Everything Must Make Sense! track list

Everything Must Make Sense

Man On The Loose

How Are You Feeling?

Death Of Me

Bones

28

Bedlam Town

Tough Times Don’t Last

Better Alone

Here Comes The Rain

READ MORE: The Sherlocks announce 2025 headline tour dates and new album