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Feb 06, 2025 Web Exclusive By Mark Redfern Photography by Harrison Fishman

My Firsts is our email interview series where we ask musicians to tell us about their first life experiences, be it early childhood ones (first word, first concert, etc.) or their first tastes of being a musician (first band, first tour, etc.). For this My Firsts we talk to Ollie Judge of Squid.

The British experimental post-punk five-piece are releasing a new album, Cowards, tomorrow via Warp. Cowards is Squid’s third album and the follow-up to 2023’s O Monolith and 2001’s debut album, Bright Green Field. Squid features Judge, Louis Borlase, Arthur Leadbetter, Laurie Nankivell, and Anton Pearson.

Cowards was recorded at Church Studios in Crouch End, London with Mercury prize winning producer Marta Salogni and Grace Banks. Longtime collaborator Dan Carey, who recorded the band’s first two albums, provided additional production. John McEntire (of Tortoise) mixed the album and Heba Kadry mastered it.

Of the new album, Borlase says in a press release announcing it: “We were thinking of an album of great songwriting. Simple ideas that resonate in a very different way to O Monolith, which was dense and complex.”

Judge adds: “Touring fed into this record in a way that I didn’t initially realize. Every song has a specific place anchored to it, places that all five of us have visited together, like New York, Tokyo, and Eastern Europe.”

Nankivell explains that Cowards is a culmination of the band’s years of collaboration. “It’s fucking difficult, it takes many years to figure out a collective language you can share with five of us, and we have managed that musically, to feed off each other,” the bassist/cornetist says.

Read on as Judge discusses his first best friend, David Lynch, crushing on a Pixie, and how his dad was often proven right.

First best friend?

My first true best friend was Harry Reddick and still is to this day! We grew up in a small town called Chippenham which was fine but not that rich in culture. He was my first friend that I felt a kinship with in terms of music, we’d stay up late playing video games and torrenting stuff we’d find on online forums and NME. He moved to Bristol and we both got more into electronic music in our late teens, sometimes I’d tag along to a club night with a borrowed ID, but not that often because I was and still am a bit of a goodie-two-shoes. I still love chatting music and nonsense with Harry. He’s had fantastic radio shows on NTS (https://www.nts.live/shows/self-other) and also a regular slot on Amsterdams Echobox Radio (https://www.echobox.radio/shows/when-do-you-sprout). If you’re interested in what music I like then it’s a no brainer to check out what my soulmate Harry listens to as well.

First TV show you were obsessed with?

Definitely Twin Peaks. It holds such a special place in my life, so much so that the only tattoo I have is of twin mountains on my ankle, which my friend Katie did drunk in the hot Brighton sun, probably around 1 p.m. on a Tuesday (oh to be a student again). My friend Alex Kurunis (who is a fantastic photographer btw) gave me the boxset at lunchtime in the secret smoking area at our school and said “I think you’ll like this,” and I’ve been obsessed ever since. It’s dark but so comforting, I watch the whole thing at least once a year. David Lynch’s passing hit me quite hard, through his work I think he’s taught me to carry myself more positively and enjoy the process of creation. I stayed up until 2 a.m. to watch the two hour premiere of Twin Peaks: The Return in 2017 and I’d trade in every Christmas and New Year’s I’ve ever had to feel what I felt when I did that. Giddiness doesn’t even come close.

First album you bought?

I think Arctic Monkeys’ Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not was the first album I bought with my own money from WHSmith. Still a fantastic album! Fortunately for me my parents are big music fans and we always had a shedload of CDs knocking about. I remember listening to a burned copy of Dear Catastrophe Waitress by Belle and Sebastian quite a lot in my room. I think I’d dance around the room to “Step Into My Office, Baby” whilst shaking my booty.

First musician you had a crush on?

Probably Kim Deal. I had the DVD of the Pixies show at London’s Town and Country Club and I watched it over and over and over. Kim Deal just seemed so cool without even trying. Her huge grin, massive baggy T-shirt, and a ciggy hanging out of her mouth I just thought, “Wow I’d do anything to be like her.” I’ve got a really vivid memory of my mum showing me the CD inner of Surfa Rosa, which had pictures of the band in it, and her saying how normal they all looked. I really liked that for some reason. I luckily got to see Kim play with Pixies at V Festival in 2004 and was excited to support The Breeders last year with Squid, but we had to cancel because Louis shut his finger in a door and it went the size of a really massive grape. I’ll meet ya one day Kim!

First time you got drunk?

I got drunk at Harry Reddick’s (see first best friend question) family’s leaving party when they were moving to Bristol. I drank some vodka, professed my love to someone at school on Harry’s 3.2 megapixel camera, and insistently tried to sing the lyrics to [Daft Punk’s] “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” word for word. Awful. Truly Awful.

First job you had?

I stuck up skittles for the old blokes (including my dad) at the local sports club. I’d get paid 16 quid in pound coins for three hours work and it was a total back breaker. I’d bring my iPod classic and load it with tunes to listen to whilst I was sticking up. I distinctly remember listening to In Rainbows by Radiohead and Beat Pyramid by These New Puritans on one shift and it kind of changed my tastes from rubbish indie boy-bands to cool indie boy-bands.

First music festival you went to?

I went to a lot of festivals with my parents growing up so it’s hard to remember. I used to have a little gang of friends at school and we’d go to festivals, our favourite was Big Chill, which was great. I saw Kanye West as he was teetering on becoming the nasty piece of shit he is today, but I have to say, it was an amazing show. I was too young to buy alcohol or cigarettes but I remember finding a full pack of squashed ciggies on the ground at the Kanye show, I shared them out with my friends and we all smoked these comically flat cigarettes for the rest of the weekend.

First record your parents played for you?

I remember being really into Foals and my dad hearing it and saying, “Check out Black Sea by XTC if you like this!” I thought it was lame old people’s music at first but eventually realized that like most things, my dad was right. The one record I’ve really taken with me throughout my life that my parents showed me is an album by Simple Kid called 1. He’s kinda like Ireland’s answer to Beck, with some T. Rex thrown in for good measure. Really great, funny, heartbreaking catchy tunes by a proper cult enigma.

First time your heart was broken?

Natalie Whiteland broke up with me part-way through my third year at uni. I was absolutely devastated and spent a lot of time listening to the saddest music I could find and going to the pub a little bit too much. Luckily we got back together a few months later and are coming up to 10 years of legendary companionship. Love ya Nats!

First major disappointment?

Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. I seriously want to know why the fuck George Lucas thought kids would be interested in intergalactic trade embargos.

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