Eight years ago four wannabe musos started rehearsing at a youth project in their hometown of Sunderland, England. After three months of learning to bash out chords and jangly distorted rhythms they performed their first gig – four charming punk-rock ditties in the anorexic time-frame of seven minutes.
It mightn’t have been a well attended debut, but it was enough for The Futureheads (then David ‘Jaff’ Craig, Barry Hyde, Ross Millard and Peter Brewis ) to flail their hands around and show the world they existed (Brewis would later leave the band for indie pop-rock outfit Field Music and be replaced by Hyde’s younger brother Dave on drums).
“When we started getting involved in the music scene in Sunderland it was quite innocent and virgin,” says vocalist Barry. “I wouldn’t say at the time there was an identifiable Sunderland sound or anything. Everyone had a different music history or lineage. Influences varied from band to band. I guess though, it was more of a punk rock scene. We kind of set that scene on fire, making other bands hate us – no one had really come from Sunderland and gone on to get a record deal or anything.”
In 2004 the band inked contracts with Warner Brothers subsidiary 679 Recordings and released their debut self-titled album featuring a cover of Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love. The single number jumped to number eight on the UK charts in its first week, and was named by UK mag New Musical Express as best single of 2005. After releasing their second album News and Tributes in 2006 and touring with the likes of The Foo Fighters, The Pixies and Snow Patrol, it seemed like The Futureheads had achieved success with the speed and ease of activating a clap light.
Unfortunately, things went belly-up later that year, when a cash-starved 679 couldn’t afford to keep the band without first cheapening their record deal. When the group shook heads instead of hands, they were dropped from the label and found themselves in a world of nervous uncertainty. “We got offered record deals from other labels, but didn’t really see the point in signing up to another major label, because the music business is in an absolute mess,” explains Hyde. “We thought we were just going to fall prey to the same problems if we signed to say…Sony or something.”
So the band started its own label Nul Records and in May this year released their third album This is Not the World, produced by Martin ‘Youth’ Glover (Primal Scream, Depeche Mode, Crowded House). The first single The Beginning of the Twist stitches together furious guitar clobberings and ‘80s Britpop with its catchy four-part harmonies and silky basslines. It received regular airplay on UK radio and was the third most played track on Triple J last March. The song’s lyrics are a microcosm of what the entire album is about: “It’s time to wake up/It’s time to change/Let’s get it started/I feel like there’s so much to rearrange.”
“We’re essentially writing our own biography of how we got through quite a difficult time as a band and this album allowed us to do that,” Hyde elaborates. “It was a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. We’re a bunch of people who want to be in a better position, who want to see change come about and the only way of us doing that is by writing better songs.”
For Hyde, part of writing better tunes is not succumbing to the temptations of unnecessary instrumentation. “It’s very common for a band to get under their second or third album and start putting string arrangements in there,” he laughs, “That is not creative. It’s just a kind of generic, clichéd idea. As for our album, it’s had a massive effect on our lives, because every song was written with the full intention that they’d work really well live and be very energetic and engaging.”
Talk turns to The Futureheads’ long-awaited return to our shores. “Last time in Australia we were in Sydney supporting Queens of the Stone Age,” Hyde recalls. “That was a tough gig for us because their fans were like these massive, really muscular men, with tattoos on their foreheads…all of them wearing black t-shirts. And we walked out there, these kind of smartly dressed English punk-rockers as opposed to these monolithic, American heavy rockers. And everyone was a bit like, ‘What’s this?’
“But to be honest I’m just so excited about coming over to Australia, I don’t even care what we’re doing after. I’m not lying. We really are thoroughly excited about coming back over because we had such an amazing time last time we were out. We’re absolutely buzzing about this. I hate it when musicians whinge about how they have to be away. I mean, really it’s your decision to become a musician. You’ve got to take every opportunity you can get.”
The Futureheads touch down Australia this October for the first time in over three years.
Wednesday 1 October – Metropolis, Fremantle
Friday 3 October – Gaelic Theatre, Sydney
Sunday 5 October – Corner Hotel, Melbourne
Wednesday 8 October – The Tivoli, Brisbane
