Nothing But Thieves Embrace Imperfection on Introspective Fifth Album ‘Stray Dogs’

Nothing But Thieves have opened up to NME about their fifth studio album, Stray Dogs, and its closing single ‘#5’, reflecting on a decade-long career defined by sharp left turns and a renewed focus on community. Released today via RCA/Sony Music, the record follows 2023’s Dead Club City and finds the Southend quintet leaning into themes of introspection, gratitude, and the quiet realization that their strongest asset is the collective orbiting them.

Written across five months on the road, the album saw frontman Conor Mason and the band return to the very studio where they recorded their 2015 self-titled debut. They adopted a DIY ethos, stripping away external expectations to center the songwriting on appreciation for their crew, families, and fanbase. The project was preceded by singles ‘Evolution’, ‘Baby Kool (Evelyn)’, ‘A Different Kind Of Happiness’, and the title track, alongside a campaign of intimate gigs, online Easter eggs, and secret shows designed to celebrate their core audience.

“As the band has got bigger, strangely, the thing that feels most important is the smaller thing underneath it,” the band tells NME, explaining the drive to honor their community. “It’s five people in a room. No one plays or sounds the same as when the five of us play in the same room. Then it’s the crew who bet on us and everyone who has found something in the songs. There’s something quite comforting about that idea. You spend so much of your life trying to define yourself as an individual, and eventually you realise most of the good stuff happens because you found the right people or as a result of some dumb decision along the way. The record became a bit of a refuge in that sense: finding your people, finding the pack. We’re grateful for it.”

With Stray Dogs now released alongside the final single ‘#5’—which the group describes as the “cornerstone for the album”—the band discusses subverting expectations, revisiting their roots, championing grassroots venues, and preparing for their largest headline tour to date in 2027.

NME: Hi, Nothing But Thieves. You’re back with your first album since 2023. Tell us about the inspiration behind this record? It seems like there has been a sense of reflection going on in the band…

Nothing But Thieves: “I think we reached a point where we’d made four records and suddenly there was enough distance to actually look back at what had happened to us. Not in a nostalgic way. More like, what’s still true? What’s real in this world we’ve created? To be blunt, what’s in it for us? There can be a lot of outside noise. Stray Dogs came from trying to strip things back to instinct again. Following the thing that felt true, rather than just something that felt like it would get us into a bigger venue.”

Where did the title ‘Stray Dogs’ come from? What does that term represent to you?

“It started to describe us before it described the album. There’s something I like about the imagery of a stray dog. Slightly battered, hungry, working on instinct. A stray is often looking for somewhere to belong. That felt more honest than presenting ourselves as some perfectly engineered band 10 years into a career. We’re still making it up. Nothing seems clear until the moment has passed.”

What was it like to record in the same space where you made your debut album? Was your mindset different now compared to back then?

“The first time we went there we didn’t know how to make a record. We’d write the songs, but were then very reliant on others to put them onto wax. We beat ourselves up for a good few years about things we’d change on that record. On all the records, really. Now our thinking is that mistakes are often the bits that define an arrangement or are at least more human. That’s an ever more valuable commodity, I’ve heard. The other side of that coin is if you know too much about how something ‘should’ sound, that can get boring quick. It’s a balance.”

Looking back at that period, how do you see the music from that time? You’ve obviously come a long way since then…

“Our music or all music? Let’s go for all music. People were telling us rock music was dead. In fact, they have been for most of our time in music. I feel like I am much more comfortable saying how great other bands are now than back then. Fontaines D.C., Amyl & The Sniffers, Bad Nerves, Geese, Fat Dog… there’s so much great stuff around. I’m not sure we would have talked like that 10 years ago. But maybe that says more about us at the time than the music.”

You’re at a point now where you could go all out and add all the bells and whistles, but instead you spent those five months making the album cohesive, stripped back and all very purposeful. Why did that approach feel like the right one?

“I feel like we’re a band that takes left turns. ‘Trip Switch’ [2015] doesn’t sound like ‘Amsterdam’ [2017], which doesn’t sound like ‘Is Everybody Going Crazy?’ [2020], which definitely doesn’t sound like ‘Welcome To The DCC’ [2023]. This time, subverting expectations felt like making something smaller and noisy. We wanted this record to be the one you’d want in your collection.

“It’s still got scale in terms of theme. It’s designed to be like a dream state Nothing But Thieves gig. Songs bleed into each other in the way we would live. We took crowd noise from our shows and manipulated it into transitions. The record actually opens that way. I love that the fans are physically on the album. Moments that we’d discover after a year on the road we tried to find in the room. It gives the album its own colour.”

Tell us about new single ‘#5’. What does it mean to you?

“The title is a punchline really. I can’t believe it has taken five albums to realise some things about myself or ourselves. A few months off touring and some much-delayed therapy will do that.

“Recording wise, I feel like it’s a cornerstone for the album. The ethos was – write a great song and record it well. Don’t decorate it in production so you can’t see it anymore. Tom Petty logic.”

Going back to your connection with fans, how has it been getting back into grassroots venues for intimate shows? It must feel different to how it was when you first started out there…

“I feel like we really own those spaces. You’re not wrestling with the disconnect of distance at smaller shows; it’s less to think about, and I think simply easier to reach people. You can react in real time. I completely stacked it at the Underworld in London; it’s never happened before. Only the front few rows could see. In an arena that would be on YouTube a few thousand times the next day. What a blessing.”

Why was it important for you to head back to these spaces? Obviously it’s an amazing experience for fans, but it also feels like these local venues need support from big names now more than ever…

“They’re where bands learn how to be bands. You can’t fake it. So many of the venues we grew up playing either aren’t there anymore or are under pressure. Our local one relies on tribute bands. And once those rooms disappear, you don’t immediately notice what you’ve lost. You notice 10, 15 years later when there’s nowhere for the next generation to get good. It’s easy for bands to celebrate grassroots venues once they no longer need them. It probably means more to actually go back and use them.”

Now you’re going from some of your most intimate shows into your biggest headline tour to date next year. How does it feel, and what can fans expect from the gigs?

“We want to bring some of that small room feeling with us. Use the scale but close some of the distance, really bring the audience in. Sometimes when you play bigger shows it’s easy to polish out the interesting bits. Things can get a bit automated. I’m not interested in bringing a West End show around the world.

“Obviously the production can become more ambitious, and it will, but I think what we’ve learnt recently is that spectacle only really works if there’s still some human beings in the middle of it who might fuck something up.”

Stray Dogs is out now via RCA/Sony Music. Nothing But Thieves’ UK, European and North American headline tour kicks off in January 2027 – visit here for tickets.

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