The band recounts their early transformations and creative pivots

Transmission 213: Interview with Pop Will Eat Itself

Pop Will Eat Itself are an English band formed in 1986 in Stourbridge, West Midlands. More information and tour updates are available on their official website. Their music spans electronic rock, post-punk, hip hop, and industrial influences. Originating from the remnants of earlier groups From Eden and Wild and Wandering, the band began under the grebo umbrella before shifting toward sample-heavy production and digital experimentation. Founding members included Clint Mansell, Graham Crabb, Adam Mole, and Richard March, with early recordings incorporating drum machines, punk riffs, and satirical lyrics.

The group gained national attention in 1986 with the independently released single Poppies Say Grrr! and signed to RCA following modest chart success. They released three albums under RCA, including This Is the Day… This Is the Hour… This Is This!, produced by Flood, which marked their transition into denser, loop-based arrangements. During this period, the band toured extensively and achieved their highest UK chart position with Get the Girl! Kill the Baddies! in 1993.

In the 1990s, the band adopted a more overt political stance, releasing Dos Dedos Mis Amigos and collaborating with acts such as Fun-Da-Mental and The Prodigy. Their track Ich Bin Ein Auslander addressed anti-immigration sentiment and gained traction during a politically charged moment in the UK. Signing with Trent Reznor’s Nothing Records in the United States, they toured with Nine Inch Nails and contributed to the Loaded video game soundtrack before disbanding in 1996.

The group has reformed multiple times since 2005, with Graham Crabb at the core of later line-ups. Albums such as New Noise Designed by a Sadist (2011) and Anti-Nasty League (2015) were released independently, alongside protest singles and digital reissues. A near-original formation returned to the stage in 2018, and new music has continued to appear sporadically, including the 2022 single The Poppies Strike Back. A new full-length album is currently in production.

In 2025, Pop Will Eat Itself launched their “Delete Everything” UK tour, their most extensive live run since the mid-1990s. The tour coincides with the release of a new single, “Bruiser,” an electro-punk track now included in their recent setlists. The current lineup includes original members Graham Crabb and Adam Mole, with Mary Byker, Davey Bennett, and Cliff Hewitt.

What memories do you have of the earliest phase of the band, when it transitioned from Wild and Wandering to Pop Will Eat Itself?

Wild and Wandering was a bit of a transitional period from the break up of my previous band with Clint and Graham (From Eden). We enlisted Rich March on bass and did a few gigs featuring From Eden tracks and a few new ones. We named the band in haste after our favourite band (Wasted Youth’s) debut album and released a 12″ e.p called 2000 Light Ales from Home.

We soon realised we wanted to change our slightly glam/goth style to a more short hard hitting fast punkier style… the purchase of a porta-studio and Graham writing and recording bass, guitars, drums and vocals for maybe 7/8 new songs over the course of a week really deviated from our previous style and so we changed the name to Pop Will Eat Itself.

What kind of support—or resistance—did you get from the local scene in your early years?

Very little, within a few weeks we had a new set of maybe 16 tracks all played in less than half an hour and leaving people wanting more. For an encore we sometimes played the whole set again.

On occasion in Europe we had to do this to appease a crowd baying that we were shit cos we didn’t play for long enough…

What led you to start using samplers and electronic equipment—was it curiosity, necessity, or something else?

Quite simply all four of us went to see the Beastie Boys in Birmingham and we were blown away by their brilliance, the excitement and the scene. Outside after the show we agreed as one that PWEI were shit… next day we changed our style, which was a little awkward as we already had a UK tour looming. The shows were not our best as we only had time to change half of the set to our new style.

This sudden transition is reflected on our debut album-Box Frenzy that features a few songs in our old style even though the bulk of the album is drum machine/sample heavy.

When you started touring Europe in 1986, what were the main challenges you ran into—both logistically and with audiences?

As above re: the short set but I guess quite poor attendances. Although we can’t really fault the people that turned up. As I said we often had to play the set twice but this would actually go down really well.

I remember we could buy drinks in bars and clubs much later than in the UK at the time so after the gigs we would go out and hear happening new tunes like Into the Groovey by Ciccone Youth and the new Public Enemy, Schoolly D, Eric B & Rakim and LL Cool J tunes. It definitely helped us evolve.

What kind of environment did Flood create when you recorded This Is the Day…—how different was it from your earlier sessions?

Flood was amazing and taught us a massive amount and helped shape our career in a way. Robert Gordon at Fon in Sheffield helped to initially forge our way with drum machines and sounds but Flood really helped shape sound and we began to build beats and loops not just steal them. By layering snippets of sound or micro moments of noise from tv adverts or film we built beats that would never reveal their source.

Life was great fun with Flood and we had a real camaraderie. His attention to detail was second to none and he had the patience of a saint. I cannot praise him and his production enough… PWEI legend.

How did your appearance on The Prodigy’s Music for the Jilted Generation take shape?

Liam got in touch with our management and asked if we would provide some heavy guitars and vocals for a collaborative song on their next album. I think Clint and maybe Rich had a brief telephone conversation with him and once he set the BPM for the track we went into a studio and recorded the guitars and vocals and posted the tape off along with a cassette including the samples ‘What we’re dealing with here…’ intro from the film ‘Smokey and the Bandit’ and the ‘I am the Law…’ from the film ‘Fried Green Tomatoes’ as we thought they’d fit the storyline a treat… they did, but I think Liam hired someone to mimic the lines so as not to breach copyright!

What do you remember about signing with Nothing Records—did that period offer you more control, or were you still navigating external pressures?

Trent was a gig fan of PWEI and when we were dropped by RCA in Britain it just so coincided with him signing a record deal in America that allowed him to hand pick a couple of his preferred bands to co-exist on his label. PWEI and Marilyn Manson made the cut and we were both invited to share the NIN support slots on their Downward Spiral North American tour. It was unreal and Nothing records allowed us full control of our music.

How did the decision come about to release A Lick of the Old Cassette Box years after its recording—was it about finally closing a chapter or reconnecting with earlier ideas?

This was really just an expansion of the PWEI catalogue released by Cherry Red Records that encompassed half of the completed next album for Nothing Records with some other demos we were working on before we split up as a band. 

What led you to write a track about Cicciolina—was it satire, fascination, or just a symbol that felt relevant to the time?

Cicciolina was a bit of a ‘house-style track that Graham had written that didn’t really fit our style totally but we liked to cross genre our music so we always considered ‘anything goes’ really.

We were struggling a little with writing material for our next album ( Cure For Sanity ) and only really had this one idea as we never wrote songs ‘on the road’ and we’d just finished touring the world and RCA wanted a new album right then.

All we had was this one tune. The 1990 Italian World Cup was on the horizon so we thought we’d be cheeky and release an unofficial England world cup theme. A timely magazine story about a Hungarian born Italian MP involved in the porn industry presented itself as the perfect storm to help push FIFA into the unlikely position to ask Cicciolina to present the trophy to the winning captain rather than Sepp Blatter- the FIFA president. They didn’t take to the idea but we had fun with it anyway.

Do you have any plans to document the band’s history in a more structured way—archives, film, or a book?

The third PWEI book is due to be released in the next few months documenting the band, artwork, memorabilia and unseen photographs. Book 3 concludes the RCA years 1991 to 1993.

A documentary style film is always in mind but ‘up front’ costs and rights for photos, videos and PWEI music make it rather difficult.

Are there plans for a new full-length album, or are you more focused on releasing songs individually as they take shape?

A new PWEI album is very much in the pipeline yes!

Photos courtesy of Pop Will Eat Itself

Matteo Damiani

Matteo Damiani is an Italian photographer and author. Curator of the sites Retrofuturista.com; weirditaly.com; china-underground.com and others