It’s The New Thing

ITNT: Your only influence on myspace is Talking Heads, is there a mutual
love for them in the band? How much have they influenced your sound?

FOF: Yes it is deffinatly a very mutual love. Aside from David Byrne having one of the best voices in music they are so inspiring in the way they can tap into so many sounds and styles. They are a true fusion band in that there songs have parts of electro in them, parts of brazilian music and still maintain a very poppy edge. Rythmically they were very inovative especially on the album Remain In Light where they use all kinds of strange polyrythmic patterns and we try and look at things like that. We love to bring elements of all genre’s into our music which I think seperates us from a lot of bands out there. We would NOT classify ourselves as indie and i think people that do just aren’t listening carefully. Parts of our music sounds closer to Iron Maiden than it does to The Strokes or something.

ITNT: Have you been offered any deals in terms of signing to a label?
Would you rather an indie label than a major one?

FOF: At the moment we would be happy from anyone or anything to be honest. Seems there is no room for bands like us. Part of me wants to recreate ourselves with a new name somthing like “I Eat Bares Not Porridge” and pretend we are 15 yeas old and from Stokholm. Then we would probably get signed without anyone listening to our music. We will see what happens in the next month but we have been working so hard for no rewards as of yet. I

ITNT: Are any of the lyrics in your songs autobiographical? Three’s A Crowd maybe?

FOF: Certainly not Three’s A Crowd. But yes most of the others somehow relate to something i have been through. I am Charles by the way and write the lyrics and play bass and do backing vocals. Its nice having somone else sing my lyrics because then I dont feel so self indulgent and “tortured”. I would start to bore people if I talked about what the lyrics are all about. They are very farfeched stories about made up characters but at the same time…partially true stories about people we know…

ITNT: You have played a lot of Way Out West nights and underage shows. Do
you prefer playing to younger audiences? If so, why?

FOF: Young audiences are like cocaine or somthing. It gives you a kick because their inhibitions are still very low and they dont really care whats going on musically as long as they can have a good dance and punch to it. Thats fine but a band is not going to be able to play to young audiences forever…kids grow up…go to school and stuff. So I would say our ideal audience would be a room of 45 year old ex musicians who nod there heads and smirk at our musical charm. Dont get me wrong though Way Out West was a wonderful and charitable way of giving somthing very special for young kids to do. I wish it had been around when i was young.

ITNT: Up to now you have only released Routemaster and Three’s A Crowd
on 7” through Young And Lost Club. What can we expect for the near
future?

FOF: Depends. If we get a record deal then an amazing album. If not then nothing apart from a few demos we give away for free when we have to quit.

ITNT: In nearly all of your songs you use vocal harmonies: do you find
this a useful trait to have in terms of experimenting with songs?

FOF: We just love the sound of voices singing like that when its done well, (we dont always do it too well). We find, because live we can only really play three instruments, that it helps thicken the texture of the songs. It also sounds very 80s which we like.

ITNT: What music have you been listening to recently?

FOF: UUUUUUUM.I suppose i can only tell you what I personally have been listening to. The new Arcade Fire album, Buena Vista Social Club, Talk Talk, Megadeth.

Mp3: Three’s A Crowd
Mp3: Forget-Me-Nots