Courting's Got A Lust For Life

Like other musical hubs in the U.K., Liverpool is known for churning out rock talent (you may have heard of a few of its bands). Courting is a rising force in the indie space, poised on the brink of a breakout after a particularly stacked year. Between two albums, a European tour, and a handful of shows stateside—including touring with Geese back in June—there’s been no slowing their roll.

 

 

How to Thread the Needle and Come Out the Other Side to Tell the Other Story (or just Lust For Life for short) is the record that defines this career-shaping moment. The deluxe version, released this past October, builds on the band’s signature experimental yet melodic sensibility, pushing it into new—but familiar—terrain. The result is a genre-blurring, exploratory body of work: a cataclysmic symphony that both scratches and soothes the brain in all the right ways.

TEETH tapped lead singer Sean Murphy-O’Neill to unravel the layers of the Lust For Life’s deluxe redux, unpacking the new tracks, the band’s restless evolution, and how they’re riding their current momentum.

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From the initial release of Lust for Life to the extended version, what journey has the album taken as it continues to take shape in new ways? We love how you blended the energetic essence of indie pop rock with the raw, electronic undercurrents in the deluxe edition.

Honestly, we had always planned to expand this record into a deluxe because it made sense thematically. I think it’s fun to give yourself a chance to experiment with songs that you’ve already released because the pressure is completely off. The RXKNephew feature, for example, is pure self-indulgence for us; it was just something that we really wanted to hear. 

That being said, I try to close the page on a song as soon as it’s completed—you can look back on past work in a correctional sense forever, and I prefer to be somewhat ignorant to that.

 

Any music lover has their own associations with “Lust for Life,” and you’ve definitely put your own spin on it in the album name. Were any cues taken from Iggy Pop’s album, and what does the phrase mean to the band?

The title was a bit of a dare—the idea of taking a phrase so storied within rock-n-roll history and adding our own flair to it (being somewhat tongue in cheek) with the incredibly long second part of the album title. I think we decided to stick with it after we’d written the second half of “Stealth Rollback,” which is formed almost like a mantra, or an announcement of some sorts.

 

Building on that, were there any particular sonic inspirations that guided the expanded versions, remixes, and live cuts this time around?

I think that “Rollback Freestyle” is just us pushing everything to 10, as much as possible. The live versions reflect how the songs have shifted since we recorded them in 2024. For example, how we’ve changed the outro section on “Likely place for them to be.” Apart from that, we wanted to embrace being a little more collaborative as I feel like we’ve been doing our own thing for a while.

 

Right now, there’s a duality in music: on one hand, artists get pigeonholed into algorithm-driven sounds; on the other, some are experimenting across genres and really making it their own. We’re also in a time defined by nostalgia bait, where mainstream reinvention feels rare—even though there’s a whole community whose M.O. is pushing boundaries. How do you play with and twist different genres, and how do you navigate creating a new sound that feels both authentic and boundary-pushing?

I try not to think about the latter part too hard—I think that if you’re solely writing music with the intention of pushing boundaries and standing out from your contemporaries, then you’re probably not having too much fun. For me, creating something that is true to yourself comes from having a serious interest in music and art. If you only listen to Oasis, you’ll probably make music that sounds like Oasis. And if your first album performed well? You’ll probably make it again. 

I think the fun for us is constantly finding new things that we love, and therefore want to try. Instinctually, it feels like you’re then making something new—stitched together from all the little different influences that you find, whether they’re musical, in a written format, or from an advert or something. Whether or not that becomes boundary pushing? I’m not sure, but it definitely makes it more exciting for us.

 

Looking at the stitching of demos, remixes, and live recordings, what do these alternate versions reveal about who you were when you made the original record versus who you are now? And once you began revisiting and reshaping the material, what themes rose to the surface most clearly?

I think since we recorded this, it still holds up for me. I think what always comes to the surface is that no matter how seriously you take your art,  it is really important to still use it as a release. Playing these songs again in the studio felt great to see how tight we were as a live band, something that can only happen organically, which gave us something to be proud of— a recorded example of how we were playing in 2025 together.

 

As this year’s chapter comes to a close, how do you feel this album—both the core release and the deluxe edition—sets the tone for the band’s next evolution? With this period of reinvention now documented, what direction or risks are you most excited to pursue next, whether in sound or in how you operate as a band?

I think hopefully it wipes the slate clean. In my head, it is somewhat of an amalgamation of everything we have been working on up until this year. Hopefully the album’s brevity leaves people wanting just a little bit more. The biggest risk that we’re going to take in the next year is taking a break, and seeing what happens.

 

Any favorite albums at the moment, whether it’s a new release or an oldie you’re revisiting?

Diamond Jubilee – Cindy Lee

The Whitey Album – Sonic Youth

Raw Power – The Stooges

Emotional Rescue – The Rolling Stones

London’s Saviour – Fakemink

Vanity – Isabella Lovestory 

Pure Phase – Spiritualized 

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Stay up to date with Courting through their website and Instagram, and catch them on tour with The Cribs in early 2026.