Arctic Monkeys Won’t Make Another Album Like Their Debut

Some bands stick to the same formula when they’re churning out album after album. They follow the rule of “if it’s not broken, why fix it?” Arctic Monkeys don’t believe in that philosophy and never plan to revisit their debut release, ‘Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not.’

Arctic Monkeys are currently on the road throughout North America to support the Black Keys. The U.K. rockers have grown up a lot since their first album and can’t see themselves re-hashing the same disc.

“For us, it seems obvious to do something different when you make a new record,” drummer Matt Helders tells the Calgary Herald. “I know that bands can successfully carry on by having a similar sound forever, can have a full career out of it. Obviously many do and that works. It’s just that I don’t think we’d ever want to do that. We couldn’t make a record like our first record again. It would sound a bit fake.”

‘Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not’ was released to critical and commercial fanfare. Fueled by the hit single, ‘I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor,’ the record sold 350,000 copies in its first week in the U.K. and went on to become quadruple platinum in their home country. Still, the band doesn’t want all that success to influence their creativity.

“We’ve never really thought that we can let expectation dictate what kind of music we make,” Helders says. “I think it’s important that we make a record that we think is good and hopefully people share that opinion. Since that first record, we’ve all changed, and hopefully the people that were into us have changed as well, grown up with us.”

Arctic Monkeys will wrap up their current run with the Black Keys this week before playing at Metallica‘s Orion Music and More festival on June 23.