Sam and Milkie Way from Wargasm have been through a major label, gone independent, and landed with an indie that can actually send out records. Album two is recorded, it’s relentless start to finish, and it’s almost ready. Almost.

Words & photo by Alia Thomas (@aliathomasphoto) | April 11, 2026

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This is Wargasm’s Takedown Festival debut. What were you particularly excited about playing this festival?

Sam: So I’ve actually been here before, I was in a different band and the first show we played was a competition to play at Takedown Festival, because our thought process was we didn’t have any friends or fans but everyone else would bring all of their friends and fans to try win, which meant that we just got to play to like the biggest crowd of people and then we won. So I’ve played Takedown twice before in another band. I’m as old as time and I have been ever present in this scene.

Milkie Way: I’ve never been here before. This is my first time, and well, we’re in a navy town right, and that means like lots of sexy sailors in theory.

S: That’s what makes you excited? There you go. She likes the navy men.

You’re on stage before President this evening. What kind of energy are you bringing to this set?

M: Well we’ve only got 40 minutes so it’s gonna have to be something good.

S: We’re about to go into like, new album stuff, so I think we’re just trying to see off some of the tracks that aren’t going to be played live for a while the best way possible, but we just do our thing wherever we go and that’s the energy.

What makes a perfect Wargasm crowd from your perspective?

M: Feral motherfuckers doing weird shit. I always find little sects of crowd. I remember really vividly that one show we did in Montreal when it was like the sick little queer punks down at the front and then a group of like beardy biker guys on this side, and then loads of like really sexy older ladies here and then like middle-aged dudes wearing like Glassjaw t-shirts in the middle, and then they all kind of came together in a weird Canadian cacophony and that’s kind of like my ideal Wargasm crowd.

You’ve got a European tour coming up over summer along with some incredible festival slots. How do European crowds differ to those at home in the UK?

S: Well they’re smaller.

M: Speak different languages. Usually colder.

S: These shows that we’re doing are kind of like again just getting some like little club stuff out the way to fill some gaps be nice and intimate and kind of, I guess like the punk angle of the thing, and then later on in the year we’ll flip to the “let’s go big and have production and all that.” I like the European crowds.

M: I mean but even inside Europe they all differ because you know Germany is different to Poland is different to Prague, it’s different to France.

S: Prague’s the best.

M: Poland is the best.

Last year you announced you’d gone independent. When was the moment you realised you wanted to go in this direction?

S: Well at the start, always.

M: About 10 minutes after we signed the major label deal.

S: But we’re not independent anymore, we’ve gone with an indie label. It wasn’t about like, you know, be independent, do it on your own. It was about finding the right way to do it, and for us, the people we were with, it just wasn’t gelling, you know?

Has being with the indie label changed how you approach creating and releasing music?

M: It hasn’t changed how we approach creating music because that doesn’t really change with whoever is doing it.

S: I think it’s changed the release.

M: Hopefully it’ll actually happen this time.

S: If someone actually sent out the records that we sold that’d be sick. So I think that’s going to happen this time. That was kind of like the main thing we were looking for in a record label, is one that can release a record.

You’ve shared that Album 2 has now been recorded. What can we expect from this one?

M: No ballads.

S: …You all right?

M: Yeah that’s it, no ballads, it’s just relentless start to finish. Or at least my track listing of it is.

S: We’re going with my tracklist.

M: Yeah we’ll see about that.

Where do you get most of your inspiration from for your songs?

S: Honestly, walking back from Tesco’s to the flat.

M: Where were you when you had the SPIT idea in your head?

S: I was walking back from work. I worked at a pub in Paddington called the Bridge House and everyone was pissing me off that day and the news was really bad, so I just did the thing the songwriters sometimes do, see, where you write your feelings on a bit of paper, add chords behind it, and I call it a song.

M: And look where we are now.

How has your sound evolved over time and has this been a conscious creative decision or a natural evolution?

M: I don’t think any kind of progression of sound is a conscious decision. Well maybe you say I want to sound more like this. I want to steal more bits from this person. I want to steal more bits from that person. But it kind of happens just more as a natural response to, you know, as you get older. I feel like as I get older the things I listen to are getting more eclectic. Sounds like you disagree.

S: Yeah massively. I think when I’m making it, when I’m like cooking up the beats and like the riffs for this new shit, I think when you do your the next album and the one after, you’re streamlining, you’re taking the bits you like. You know, if you make a pasta sauce for dinner and you’re like, I didn’t like this one ingredient in it, you don’t put it in again the next time do you? I think it’s definitely conscious because you’re always just trying to protect the bits that you did enjoy, and there’s always definitely some bits that you’re like “that bit was cool, can I follow that road a little bit more?” You know what I mean? Like I guess you could say that happens on autopilot.

M: That’s what I mean yeah.

S: But there’s definitely been like a bunch of tracks to this record that I’ve made then deleted and made then deleted, and just like totally thrown away, and others that I’ve just thought I’m gonna keep hammering this one for a year until it goes somewhere I want it to, you know.

What’s one of your songs that nearly didn’t make the cut to be released but now you’re glad it did?

S: Spit.

M: Yeah, Sam didn’t want to release that song. Everyone else was like, “this is not a single. This is weird. It’s two songs in one song.” And I was like, you’re all crazy. First of all. Second of all, we’re releasing this song.

S: I thought it was a practice run. The new album, some days I love it and then some days I wake up… Well, I love it now, but there was definitely like a year long period of “I’m going to delete everything and start again.” Quite a lot. So honestly, if it comes out, it’ll be a miracle. Someone else has the files now actually, but when I had the files, it was a bit hit and miss.

M: They’re going to release it whether you like it or not.

Do you think heavy music is becoming more experimental right now?

S: No, I think it’s becoming an absolute fucking cop out. Like half the shit they call heavy is… Oh my god, confrontational… But you know, everyone knows exactly where I’m going on this. Half the shit they’re calling it, it’s fine to like stuff, but half the stuff they’re calling heavy is pop with a seven string guitar. Like that’s what it is. There’s no bile, there’s no venom, there’s no bite in it. There’s none of that. I like the macho attitude and that doesn’t just include the blokes. You know, like Alyssa from Arch Enemy definitely has a macho attitude. You know, like she’s definitely swinging bollocks and like screaming into the mic.

M: I wouldn’t describe it as experimental.

S: Anymore. It could be. I mean, people aren’t like going around burning churches and stabbing each other anymore.

M: Focus by Hocus Pocus. Now that’s experimental. They were yodeling in a chorus and they put it on top of the pops.

S: I made a cover of that on the Amount of Life and Death, the 2006 album. It’s pretty cool.

M: I haven’t heard it.

S: It’s kind of better.

M: I’ll be the judge of that.

What’s the most chaotic show you’ve ever played?

M: We did that wee show in Fighting Cocks. It was like an album release show for Venom. And there was just way too many people in that room. It was, can’t have been much bigger than this room. Chaotic.

S: Prague was good, because I was on the roof a bit, and then all the kids saw that I was on the roof. So they started going on the roof, but I’m not sure anyone was meant to be on the roof. Like on like, you know, those beams they have. That was quite fun.

S: Leicester.

M: Yeah. That was a good one. Was that the one when the kid bit your mic?

S: Yeah. Someone ate my mic.

M: Mic cable.

S: Bit the cable off.

M: Bit through it. Stole a bit of the cable.

S: And then tried to be like, “if I give this back, can I have guestlist to other shows?”

M: And I said yes, and he showed up to shows with the thing and he’s like, “but they said it’s okay” and I’m just like, ah, let him in haha.

S: Yeah, he doesn’t talk to me.

M: He just knows that I’m the soft touch here.