Artist
English Teacher
Leeds, United Kingdom • Formed 2020
English Teacher is a music group from Leeds, United Kingdom, active since 2020. Their discography on Gatefold includes 6 records.
6
Albums tracked
17
In collections
2020
Since
Biography
English Teacher are an indie/post-punk band from Leeds, United Kingdom. With their inspired lyricism and indie sensibilities, they are the quartet steadily rising to the top of the class. Made up of Lily Fontaine (vocals, rhythm guitar, synth), Douglas Frost (drums), Nicholas Eden (bass) and Lewis Whiting (lead guitar, synth), English Teacher are no strangers to self-deprecation. Formed in 2020 after meeting at Leeds Conservatoire, their brand of indie is more kitchen sink drama than straight-to-the-chorus smash.
The Arc of English Teacher
The pivots — what forced English Teacher to reinvent.
The Leeds Basement Jams and Speedy Wunderground
They cut their teeth in the DIY circuit around the Brudenell Social Club before dropping the Polyawkward EP on Nice Swan. Dan Carey captured their early nervous energy on tape with the single 'R&B', a razor-sharp track written in direct response to Fontaine being told what kind of music a Black frontwoman ought to make. The early sound was fast, caustic, and rooted in angular post-punk guitar stabs.
The Salogni Sessions and Mercury Gold
Signing to Island Records could have neutered them, but hiring Marta Salogni as producer prevented the major-label polish trap. Tracking This Could Be Texas meant leaning into odd time signatures, cellos, ambient tape loops, and intricate piano arrangements. The resulting record snagged the 2024 Mercury Prize, proving a northern indie band could write ambitious art-rock without losing their edge.
Influences
- Slint — Fontaine has cited Spiderland as a massive structural influence on their songwriting dynamics. You hear it immediately in the quiet-loud dynamic shifts and the stark, spoken-word storytelling over clean arpeggios on tracks like 'The World's Biggest Paving Slab'.
- The Fall — Mark E. Smith's sardonic, northern-rooted social critique laid the groundwork for Fontaine's lyrical bite. The deadpan, rhythmic delivery across their early single 'R&B' draws a straight line back to early Rough Trade 7-inches.
- Kate Bush — Fontaine consistently references The Dreaming and Hounds of Love when discussing her vocal approach and willingness to get theatrical. You hear it when she abandons talk-singing to push her head voice into operatic, dramatic registers on 'Albert Road'.
- Life Without Buildings — Sue Tompkins' frantic, poetic, word-association vocal phrasing is a direct antecedent to English Teacher's rhythmic cadence. The staccato repetition and fragmented phrasing throughout the Polyawkward EP mirror Any Other City note for note.
- Arctic Monkeys — Alex Turner's hyper-specific, mundane Yorkshire lyricism on Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not was a foundational text for Fontaine's writing about northern towns. You catch that same observant, kitchen-sink realism running through 'This Could Be Texas'.
Discography
Their records — most-collected first.
Related artists
Around the web
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