Wild Beasts: Arrogance is important

Wild Beasts' Tom Fleming thinks arrogance is important

Wild Beasts' Tom Fleming has admitted that he thinks it's important for bands to have "a certain amount of arrogance" in order to be successful.

Wild Beast's Tom Fleming says bands have to have a "certain amount of arrogance" to be successful.

The band released their first single 'Brave Bulging Buoyant Clairvoyants' in 2006 but became better known after being nominated for a Mercury Prize for their 2009 album 'Two Dancers', and bassist Tom Fleming thinks bands have to be slightly arrogant in order to do well.

He said: "I don't think the world has got to be any fairer or better a place since we've been making music but I think we still feel - as any good band or artist should feel - that it is you against the world.

"You have to have a certain amount of arrogance mixed with absolute terror that it may or may not work. But that's the good part, that's the exciting part."

Tom and his bandmates' - Hayden Thorpe, Ben Little and Chris Talbot - other albums include their 2008 debut 'Limbo Panto', 2011's 'Smother' and 'Present Tense', which was released last month, and he claims they've never been a "yeah, oh baby" kind of band because their lyrics are important to them.

He told XFM Radio: "I think a lot of our favourite songwriters are lyricists as well. I think lyrics are an instrument. They are supposed to add to a whole - whether those lyrics sound appropriate or inappropriate - lyrics are supposed to have a musical aspect to them too rather than just being words that mean something."