English Teacher are a class act
It’s a learning process for English Teacher. Simon Rushworth catches up with the indie rockers a year on from their Mercury Music Prize triumph.
For Lewis Whiting it was a surreal experience. A year after breakout Leeds rockers English Teacher pulled off a stunning Mercury Music Prize win, the band was back at the industry’s annual shindig watching local hero Sam Fender scoop the top award in front of a febrile hometown crowd at Newcastle’s Utilita Arena.
“It was really fun,” admits Lewis as he sips on a cup of tea back home at his parents’ home in Preston. It’s the calm before the storm for English Teacher’s guitarist with this month’s headline tour of the UK and Ireland looming large. “I really enjoyed being there. We went there to soak up the night, get back to where things really kicked off for us and experience a packed arena, celebrating great music.
“It felt good. It made me really think about what we’ve achieved during the last 12 months and I found myself in a very reflective mood. The time’s flown by and that made me realise how much I want to focus on the next thing that we’re doing.”
That next thing is the hotly anticipated follow-up to award-winning debut This Could Be Texas. The Island Records release peaked at eight in the UK album charts and, largely due to its Mercury Music Prize gong, continues to open doors and spark opportunities for a band that, in the eyes of many, came out of nowhere this time last year.
“It’s still a learning process for us,” adds Lewis. “It’s crazy to think how far we’ve come in such a short space of time and it’s been non-stop for the last year.
“The Mercury Prize extended the This Could Be Texas album cycle way beyond what we ever imagined. We kept adding more tours and then we came back around to another festival season and suddenly we’ve been on tour for the best part of two years!
“Sitting at this year’s Mercury Prize made me realise how excited I am to write more new music, record more new music and play more new music. I’ll say this now on the record — we’ll be playing as many new songs as we can on this headline tour to get a real feel for what’s to come on the next record.”
That tour stops off at Newcastle’s NX on November 18 and it’ll be a swift return for English Teacher to the city that won widespread acclaim for its hosting of both the Mercury Music Prize and the MOBOs. For Lewis, bringing the music industry’s big ticket events to the regions is vital.
“I think it’s 100% a positive thing,” adds a musician who made his name on the storied Leeds music scene after meeting his band mates at university in the city. “I’m glad that they decided to take the Mercury Prize to Newcastle. The Brits are moving to Manchester and it’s suddenly popular to take these events outside of London.
“It’s great to see things moving up north. The fact that we’re even talking about it — and that, in 2025, it’s still seen as something of a novelty — is daft really. It’s not like nobody who loves music lives outside of London.
“So much amazing music happens in the north of England as well as in Wales, Scotland and Ireland. I just hope the move towards taking the big awards nights to the regions isn’t a token gesture. I’d like to think that it’s the start of a trend. It’s time to reflect the diversity of music in the UK by staging more events in new cities.”
English Teacher are doing their best to cover as much ground as possible between now and January as This Could Be Texas celebrates its final fling. As far as Lewis is concerned, 2026 is all about crafting that remarkably intuitive record’s follow-up.
“This tour feels like we’re finally closing an era of the band,” he adds. “I’m looking forward to it. Since the album was announced we’ve been pretty much non-stop touring but the end’s in sight. In our heads this is the final lap of This Could Be Texas but what that means is it’s the start of an exciting new phase.
“We’ve learned that we need to separate the writing from being on the road. When you’re touring there are the odd times when you can get something down — if something’s just clicked — but it’s hard to find any kind of consistency or routine.
“It’s not an easy scenario. We’re flying here and there, dropping into festivals and doing our thing. On the face of it there’s plenty of downtime when you’re touring but time on planes and buses isn’t time when you can sit down with your instruments and really focus.
“If I’m honest we’ve struggled to find the time to write together. But that’s just the way it goes when you’re in a touring band. We’ve tried to carve out time as and when we can but it’s been a challenge.
“Once we’ve finished the January dates we’ll finds somewhere to get together. One of the consequences of this year is that we’re no longer in the same place most of the time. But we’ll gather and get going on the new album. Making that record is my sole focus next year. It’s the only reason for my existence for the next six months!”
Listening to Lewis and it feels like those English Teacher fans flocking to NX later this month are in for a treat. This is a band fiercely proud of its past but hugely excited by what the future might bring.
The timely release of This Could Be A Remix Album — a star-studded reimagining of the band’s critically acclaimed debut featuring a whole host of big-name collaborators — has only fuelled Lewis’s desire to push the boundaries on album number two.
“It gave me a fresh perspective on some of the things we did for the first record and inspired plenty of new ideas for the next one,” he added. “I’ve got a few thoughts on how we can approach things moving forward.
“One of the things I love most about remixes is that you condense the song to the core before building it up again. It’s a case of boiling things down until you’re left with the really good bits and I’m keen to apply those ‘good bits’ to the next record. There are ideas that we had floating around for the second album that have been crystalised thanks to the work we did on the remixes.
“Pulling together This Could Be A Remix Album was a really fun process. When you play songs over and over again it’s inevitable that they’ll eventually feel a little tired. Reimagining those songs with friends and artists who you really admire is a weird and wonderful process. It was hugely rewarding and it’s given me an extra incentive to get stuck into the next record in the New Year.”
English Teacher play NX on November 18. Tickets are available here This Could Be A Remix Album is out now.