Sunderland punk funk tykes The Futureheads have spoken to ClashMusic about their dark new album.
Retreating to their native North East, The Futureheads basked in the success of their 2008 ‘This Is Not The World’. However since then, the political climate of the country has changed completely.
Huge stock market crashes have led to rising unemployment, while the MPs expenses scandal has damaged the public perception of politics.
Returning with their new album ‘The Chaos’ The Futureheads been affected by this atmosphere, with their new material being at times dark and brooding. Always influenced by post-punk music, the band looked to American groups such as Fugazi to help inspire them.
“Fugazi, Minutemen, Wire, Black Flag – that American hardcore scene. Maybe not going as far as Guerrilla Biscuits, but the interest in quite tough stuff, the hard working rock bands from over there” guitarist Ross Millard explained.
“In a way, this record does re-introduce those elements in some respects. I’ve never had to practice my instrument as much as I’ve done on this record! There’s something quite rewarding about going home from band practice knowing there’s something you’re really going to have to work on, you need to know how to play it before you go back in the next day. We haven’t had that since the first record and it was good to get back into that mindset. It was almost a bookish approach to arranging specifically the guitar parts I guess.”
Continuing, the guitarist explained that The Futureheads wanted to wring out the individual elements of what makes them so unique. “For this album, we wanted to be considered away from that back story and make a real Futureheads record” he claimed.
“We wanted it to have its own head of steam, and for us to be able to make that happen we needed to have all of the charismatic elements which make up the band: the twists and turns, the counterpoint harmonies, the stop-start pacing of the songs.”
To read the entire interview with The Futureheads click HERE.
