Friendly Fires putting St Albans on the map
IN the starry galaxy of great rock and roll towns, St Albans hasn’t exactly sparkled as brightly as some over the years.
And while it can apparently boast such West End luminaries as veteran composer Tim Rice and ageing heartthrob David Essex as residents, the London commuter belt town has long struggled to unearth hip new artists.
One act attempting to turn this musical tanker around are Friendly Fires.
The dance-inflected trio joined the likes of MGMT and Kings Of Leon on the indie disco chart podium last year thanks to their breakthrough single, Paris, and now with a spot on the prestigious ShockWaves NME Tour (which arrives here for the first of two dates on Friday), have cementing that success firmly in their sights.
CityLife caught up with softly spoken frontman Ed Macfarlane in the downtime before the tour began:
How has 2009 been so far?
Pretty relaxed actually, we've been trying to put together some new material, as we going on tour for along time soon, so it would be nice to have some new stuff put down before we go - we're hoping to go and do some recording in Devon - then if we come up with anything rubbish we can run into the sea and cleanse ourselves.
You had a pretty hectic tail end to 2008, how was touring Europe with Foals?
That was good fun, we actually did one of first ever shows supporting them at YoYos in London, which was pretty dead - so it would good to pick up where we left off in Europe.
Do you enjoy support slots?
I do actually. You can enjoy playing to someone else’s crowd with no real pressure on you and if you do manage to impress their crowd you can really notice when they start getting into it, rather than your own audiences, who know what to expect.
You also supported Lykke Li in the States.
Yeah, we'd playing LA and New York before, but it was good to visit a few new places too. The crowds were really up for it as well. Most of the venues were packed when we took the stage and people were really up for dancing.
What’s your favourite touring memories so far?
One gig that actually really stands out in the memories was at Hull Adelphi. We got there and we really thought it was going to be sh*t, even though it's quite a nice little venue. But the crowd were fantastic, there was such a great atmosphere - it was like the stars all aligned. I spoke to the promoter and he said Franz Ferdinand like to play warm-up shows there, because of that. Japan was really great too, we played some decent sized venues there and it's the only place you go where loads of people are waiting outside your hotel and following you down the street - it was quite bizarre. They good crowds too, they like their dance music - when we played Photo Booth, that went down really well. One night we fancied something different so we went to a death metal club and 'Paris' came on, which was really weird in this metal club - we just wanted to get out of there!
And you got to play Paris in Paris at La Cigale.
Yeah, that was with the Foals too. Thankfully it went down pretty well. The promoter’s young kids were actually at the side of the stage dancing - really well. I kept looking over and thought 'I better up my game, here!'
Signed to XL, are you happy with how things have mapped out?
Yeah definitely. They were always the label we wanted to sign with because we'd heard a lot of good things about them. Also, they have a history of putting out the music we like - a lot great hardcore dance stuff. We've got to know a lot of the staff there and you feel there's a real personal relationship. They're a very sensible label, very savvy, they like to take things slowly and aren't like some of the majors, which throw a lot of money at a band and drop them when things don't work out. They suit us.
For your new single, Skelton Boy, you got to work with Paul Epworth again too.
Yeah, he did one track on the album (Skeleton Boy) and when we decided to put this out we weren't totally happy with the album version so we asked if he'd re-do it. He's a great guy; it's nice to have someone outside the three of us to give us his opinion. We're in to the same sort of music too, so there was a bond there. I'm not sure if we'll work with him again as we enjoyed produced the record ourselves, but we'll see.
You met and formed at St Albans School, did it happen quite quickly?
We always used to hang out and because there wasn't much to do we'd go to London and buy records - this was before all the digital stuff, so it was a real investment getting down to London and buying something you didn't really have a clue what it sounded like.
Have things improved much in the town?
Not really, there's one live music venue called The Horn, which mainly has tribute acts on, which is quite depressing, but occasionally has some new bands too.
It's quite a mixed musical history though?
Yeah, one of The Zombies used to go to our school - which is quite a cool thing to tell people!
How about S Club 7's Paul Cattermole?
Laughs. I've never seen him, but a mate did throw a pint over him once! I think he joined a death metal band after S Club split!
NME tour's got such a great track record, must be pleased to have made the line-up?
Yeah, we've done a few NME tours to date - we did a Brats tour with White Lies who are on this one - but this is obviously the main one. I'm just looking forward to playing the big venues. We taking our own lighting rig with us, so hopefully they should be great shows.
Do you know much about the other bands?
We know Florence And The Machine quite well and we supported Glasvegas in Aberdeen. I was a bit worried about that show as I thought it would be loads of miserable fans who wouldn't get us - but it wasn't like that at all - it actually went pretty well. So yeah, we know all of them really. I looking forward to touring with them all. We've played the Academy 1 before supporting Jack Penate and that was a great gig, so we're looking forward to heading back there.
Friendly Fires join Glasvegas, White Lies and Florence And The Machine at Academy 1 on Friday, February 6 and Saturday, February 7. First night sold out. £15.59. Ticket price inclusive of a donation to War Child and Shelter. Call 0161 832 1111. Friendly Fires will also DJ at Schizophonic at Jabez Clegg after the second show.
Published: Wed, 06 February, 2008
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