Future of the Left

Fri 31st Dec, 2010 in Features

“Mad, bad and good with a penis joke” that’s Future of the Left’s Andy Falkous. Well, that how the NME chose to describe him when they declared him to be on of the 23 greatest lyricists in the world. “I heard something about that, but that’s the first time I’ve heard that description,” he laughs down the phoneline, “My head doesn’t have any information to respond to that with. I may as well be in Grazia’s list of 50 most attractive thighs for all I care, but it’s nice to have people write nice things about you, even if it is demented. [Damon Albarn, Nick Cave, Jay-Z, Jarvis Cocker] what exalted company! We could all hang out together and drink margaritas, take things literally and deliberately dress in certain ways to garner a reaction”.

Though he might not be a fan of celebrity (or margaritas) Falkous certainly garners a reaction with Future of the Left and has built a devoted following in Australia. And with the recent addition of bassist Julia Ruzicka, who recently replaced Kelson Mathias, Falkous reckons the band is “as much an Australian band as a Welsh band now” so hopefully we’ll be seeing them very regularly down here.

The new lineup hits Australia over the New Year to play at Pyramid and a trio of East Coast sideshows and FasletLouder caught up with Falkous to discuss the new band, new songs, dealing with hecklers, being mistaken for being Welsh, and “tickling sailors balls in order to pay the rent”.

First of all thanks for making the trip back to Australia again so soon after your last visit. Is the quick return a way to make up for the tour you cancelled in January 2009?
No it’s not, it’s just because we like doing it. The reason that tour was cancelled was that we’d been put in a ridiculous position in terms of trying to write a record and get it out in what seemed like three seconds. It was a pain I the arse, because believe me given the choice I’d rather spend my New Years in Australia than freezing my arse off in a flat in Cardiff.

So a Future of the Left tour could become a New Years tradition?
I hope so. They say familiarity breeds contempt, but I would say familiarity breeds excitement and knowledge of you surroundings. I love coming over, I love getting some sun and escaping our miserable winter. I love playing to a crowd that’s actually excited that we’re there, I mean don’t get me wrong generally speaking the crowds over here look like they want us to be there it’s just that they’re usually significantly smaller in number.

We get some pretty good crowds over here now, as the band passed its second album. On our last British tour, last January, we were selling out shows in venues where previously we’d been treated with mild disinterest. But there’s a few cities in the world which are fun to play Seattle is incredible; New York in pretty incredible; Zagreb is pretty fucking amazing and Sydney and Melbourne are in that top echelon as well.

The reason we’re coming is that we really want to do it and it’s a really good high-pressure way of breaking in the new people in the band. Let’s bring them over and throw them to the lions.