"But overall, it's mostly just a separation thing. Do your thing, that's cool. But we want to do our thing."

This has been a breakout year for the quintet. Their second album, A Great Day in Newcastle, was released in May and has been shortlisted for the 2026 Mercury Prize alongside Sir Paul McCartney, Olivia Dean and RAYE. Woodward and King David Ike-Elechi, both 23, are the "driving heart" of Knats having met at school and the inventiveness of their record is punctuated by occasional spoken-word poetry from Cooper Robson.

Woodward and Robson are here, in an anachronistic Civic Centre meeting room, to model Newcastle United's new adidas Originals range. The city and its club is patently held dear and Robson, "a Heaton lad 'til I die" with a thick ginger mullet and beard, becomes animated as he recalls his first experience of St. James' Park. "I was actually a big Phil Jagielka fan, right," he says, committing such musings to the record for perhaps the first time. "Honestly. I had three of his kits when I was a kid. I was a die-hard Jagielka fan." When a season ticket-holding friend couldn't make a game against Everton at home, he took his place. "I was blown away by the atmosphere and how fun it was."

He bought his own tickets after that but retained a predilection for niche defenders; a prized later investment was a shirt bearing Kevin Mbabu's name and number. Woodward, from the west end ("a proper Geordie") with a sharp buzz cut, grew up near St. James' and worked matchdays at the Earl of Pitt Street as a teenager. He is less ardent than Robson now but went to The Den, near where he now lives in London, to watch United's 1-0 Carabao Cup win over Millwall last month.

The idea of home is prevalent on the record, which Woodward wanted to be "more of a full, rounded perspective of Newcastle, rather than just, 'it's the best!'." The best, to him, is "this northern optimism, community aspect of it, which makes people feel at home even through struggle and hard times. The community's so strong." He talks about watching archive footage from the mines where his grandad worked for a time, and writing instrumental stuff "inspired by walking through the Bigg Market or whatever."

The music itself is influenced by their studies at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. "But overall, it's about the toon, you know what I mean? I wanted to talk about Newcastle." He was present in the capital but nostalgia gnawed at him. "That whole time, I missed home so much. I was dreaming of moving back which obviously massively influenced the music. All I thought about was Newcastle and everything that came out was Newcastle. It was a very organic and the music was just pouring out."

There were no words at that point. He looks at Robson. "And then he came in, and it actually became a thing."

"I'm just a scruff poet who writes in his bedroom, right," begins Robson. "It started as a coping mechanism over lockdown. Feeling crap, I'm watching This Morning, and they recommend journalling."

It started with a few lines and became eight sides of A4. His mental health improved but he missed the craft of it. "When stuff's not going well for you, you try anything. I didn't have a writing background, I didn't do particularly well in English at school, but the act of putting words on paper… I really enjoy that. What is that, now? I'm not verbally talented enough to rap. I can’t sing. 'OK, I’m a poet'. That's just how it arrived."

The pair were already acquaintances. Friends of friends, they had seen each other at gigs and Robson opened for Knats at their first album launch in February 2025. Woodward was taken with Robson's work and coaxed him into doing a set to music. Their worlds came together. "I get a text off Stan saying, 'do you want to write about the toon?' Belter - I've already got a really good poem about this. But it was pure, rose-tinted optimism. I couldn't say a bad thing about the toon.

"Stan was like, 'I want to discuss some of the pros and cons', right, as there is with everything. I went away with that mission and bullet point, to cover heavy industry, alcoholism, football culture - things that, in a one-dimensional sense, would be an image of a non-Geordie's view of Newcastle. I went away and put it into wordplay and rhyme and built this semi-narrative. It was super fun."

Woodward loves the structure of the record, which was recorded in London. "It definitely feels coherent as a whole, as a concept. You could put all the poems back-to-back and it would have a narrative throughout."

"It introduces itself as a character - the 'young lad down the way' - and it ends with Farewell Johnny Miner," Robson adds. "The final word is, literally, farewell. It says hello, it says goodbye, and everything in the middle is Geordie."

His interspersed poetry contains references to United. A "mosaic" of mini-poems formed the lyrics to the first track, Seven Bridges to Burn, in which there are nods to Shearer, 'the Ashley era', 'Come on the Mags/Howay the Lads' and 'Fifty-two thousand make the ground shake'. "There's explicitly and overtly a Newcastle theme. So to not include Newcastle United would be ridiculous, right?" says Robson. "We're talking about coal miners and we're talking about stotties. That's the holy trinity, man. It's a lot easier that I am a fan.

"In between being asked to write the poem and finishing the poem, we won the Carabao Cup. I'd done a gig somewhere, got the bus back. I was crying as I wrote it. Most of it got scrapped, because it was far too much. But those lines that remain, that was stuff that went in. The Magpies bit at the end…"

There was uncertainty on Robson's part about tying his words to music at first but now Woodward says, clasping his hands together, "we're a proper band. There's a sense of theatre. Everybody knows what they're doing."

Robson must be glad of that? "Course I am man! Obviously! I'm in an office job, come on. I'm a data analyst for the NHS. I’m sat away, logging patients' data, and I get a text, like, 'do you fancy coming to New York in January?' Aye, aye, go on then. That sounds good to me."

Woodward turns to tell Robson about a recent radio interview he did to promote a gig in Paris. "The guy said, 'I don't know anything about Newcastle, but I found this very relatable - I connected with it a lot'. His favourite track was Farewell Johnny Miner," he says of their closing lament. "He loved Johnny Miner. I think the topics are universal enough to be accessible by everyone."

On Thursday, 22nd October, the Mercury Prize ceremony takes place at the Utilita Arena. Woodward, Robson and the rest of the band will be in esteemed company. "Yeah, Paul, I think," Woodward laughs. It is The Beatles icon McCartney's first nomination for the award too, though he is not currently scheduled to perform live at the event. Florence and the Machine, Dave, JADE and Suede are among the other acts on the shortlist. "Olivia Dean. RAYE. All crazy." What does that feel like? "You become desensitised to it the more you see it. At first, I sat down with me mam, listening through all the records, and I was just like, 'this is mental'. You become number and number over time but it’s crazy, man. An honour."

"I still don't think it's landed for me to be honest," says Robson. "I see the list, and I respond to things by taking the ****. So I'm being like, 'I'm going to get a secret handshake with Paul McCartney'. I'm just saying things like this, and obviously that's not going to happen - as soon as I see them I'm going to go silent, blush, and I might **** my pants. I don't really know what will happen."

Woodward is more measured. "It might not set in until we're at the Arena the day before rehearsing and then we're going to be like, 'oh my God'. It was the same for Later… with Jools Holland when we did that. As soon as we were stood there next to Sam Smith and Angine de Poitrine and Shania Twain and all those people, I was like, 'oh, OK - this is actually terrifying'."

But they will be there as equals. "And anybody could walk home with it," he nods. "Let's see what happens."

Is it more special, for them, that this is happening where it is? "Of course, man! Obviously! Come on," says Robson. "We’re going to have the 12th man, you know what I mean? That's a nice feeling."

Woodward: "That feeling of walking out and they're hearing Wor Jackie live in the Arena… we're talking about Jackie Milburn, the history of Newcastle, in Newcastle, in the Arena. It's going to be mad. How has it got so on-the-nose? It's crazy."

A Great Day in Newcastle's cover art shows Knats surrounded by family, nurses, artists, dog walkers - "people who make up the community," Woodward explains. The image of them all in front of a mural of the Tyne Bridge is a hat tip to A Great Day in Harlem, a 1958 Art Kane portrait of some iconic jazz musicians. "But it's more just about having all these important people in one place, everybody smiling, it's a community. It just felt like a perfect album cover, for me. It wraps it all up in one package."

Dressed in the dark green zip-up track top, a tribute to some classic sportswear bearing a 1980s Magpies crest, Woodward ponders if it could double as his new gym outfit while Robson has taken a shine to the hoodie. He shelled out for the United adidas Terrace Icons track top he is pictured in on the album cover and holds out hope of a freebie. "As a ginger man," he says, "the green goes well…"

Knats are pictured in the new adidas Originals range. Shop the collection here.