The North-East seems to be overflowing with fantastic new bands at present. The sleepy border town Berwick-upon-Tweed has brought us the wayward delights of Eastern Lane and Won Mississippi, while Newcastle's flexing its' muscles with a horde of DIY heroes like Caged and County Durham's jealously hoarding The Cliffhanger.
On Wearside, though, it's really happening, firstly because of The Golden Virgins and now THE FUTUREHEADS: a shockingly young and unfeasibly talented quartet who are putting a truly distinctive twist on the classic 2-minute post-punk choon story. The band are about to release their eponymous debut on 679 Recordings and W&H cornered singer/ guitarist Barry Hyde and discovered an entirely affable chap with an impressively old head on his young shoulders.
Barry is actually returning home from rehearsals for the 'heads forthcoming tour of (really) Working Mens' Clubs when he takes our call. More about that a little later, but seeing as yer wandering through Sunderland at present Barry, tell us about the musical climate in Mackem at present. Has there been a lot more attention on the area since the Golden Virgins and yourselves started breaking through?
"Yeah, well it did change briefly and for the better when a good new venue got opened up, which perhaps happened because of the attention the likes of us were bringing in the press," replies Barry.
"Sadly, though, that venue's gonna be knocked down along with the whole street and it's being rebuilt, so that's probably gonna knock it back a bit. Shame really, it was starting to look good," he says with real regret.
But how have attitudes changed to The Futureheads in local terms? Have you had the dreaded A&R men sniffing around since the NME etc latched onto you?
"Well, you do find out who your friends are when you're signed alright," Barry replies, with a lingering essence of darkness. He doesn't really elaborate, though, preferring to state the positive.
"But yeah, it's lively enough up here, there's really good DIY stuff coming through. For instance, I can recommend a great compilation called "Twice The Town You'll Ever Be" (out on This Ain't Vegas), that gives you an idea of the strength and depth."
W&H will be making a note, don't worry...
"Nice one," says Barry. "In terms of A&R men, though,. no not really, it's not become a haven for the likes of them thankfully, though I think the internet has helped change that kind of thing."
Meanwhile, The Futureheads have been rightly making a name via classic 2-minute single blasts like "From A To B" and "Robot." Does the way the band sound come from what you've all listened to growing up?
"Yeah, in certain ways," Barry considers.
"We've got a load of influences all told. There's the obvious guitar stuff from the late '70s and early '80s...I mean we are avid fans. It's always been, you hear one great song by The Buzzcocks and get into them, from there you hear The Adverts, from there TV Smith solo, from there the Gang Of Four and so on...It's all interlinked. We got each other into all those bands and it was an exciting time in itself."
"Having said that," he continues, after a brief pause, "the harmonies we use come from more modern sources. Like it might surprise you that we're into people like Steve Reich, but also we've been influenced in a big way by the likes of Fugazi and Shellac. The thing I really do want to emphasise, though, is that we're anything but some kind of revivalist band, we've got very strong ideas and new elements which will be coming through in our music."
Sounds great by us. One bracket you seem forever shoved in (prior to your debut album, even!) is as logical successors to the slightly brainy, but spiky post-punk outfits like Wire and XTC. I can obviously see some similarities, but....well, you guys weren't even born when those guys were making the likes of "Pink Flag" and "Drums & Wires". Is this all being rather overplayed?
"Yeah, well it's probably inevitable because if you plug a certain type of guitar into a certain type of amp and turn it up it'll work a certain way, which in our case is probably not too dissimilar to those bands," replies Barry evenly.
"But that's just the way we like it regardless of what anyone else has done. I mean, we're very strict in our approach in that we don't use any FX and we're very much a rebellion against horrible widdly guitar solos. We're a bit Stalinistic in that sense, you know....we don't like meandering, we don't want too much repetition... We don't fall for that sort of crap at all."
Well said. Despite that, though, you DO have a direct link to post-punk's heyday through your co-producer Andy Gill, the Gang Of Four's legendary guitarist. How did working with him come about?
"He's got the same management as us, simple as that, no magic involved," says Barry baldly, stopping a potential myth there and then.
"We actually did the whole LP with him initially, but we weren't happy with all the songs, so we ended up doing about two thirds of it again with Paul (Epworth) and we're dead happy with the results."
Despite this, you didn't end up at loggerheads with Andy Gill then, like the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who famously presented Gill with a turd in a pizza box during fraught sessions for their first album?
"No, no," Barry guffaws. "No, we got on with Andy, but it was just he wasn't really suited to us. The sessions weren't a disaster, though, there's some good moments like "From A To B" and "First Day", they're from the Andy sessions and they're on the album, rightly so."
Right. Tell us some more about Paul Epworth. Before producing you he's done sound for LCD Soundsystem, Liars and The Rapture. What did he bring with him?
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"Paul's an absolutely shit-hot engineer," enthuses Barry.
"He's currently in Norway with Bloc Party doing their album as apparently he's found a dead cheap studio there he really likes. But that's Paul, he loves his buildings. That has to be right with him, the ambience of a room and everything. The feel of a studio's a big thing with him. Bloc Party will have a blast with him, believe me."
The bands Paul has on his CV are creating quite a stir at present. The likes of The Rapture and Liars have become influential themselves and W&H are hugely into the punk-funk sounds of these bands. Do you feel Tthe Futureheads have any sort of affinity with those bands?
"Not really," says Barry firmly. "I mean, there's not really any funk or disco in our music, we don't pretend there is. It's not important to us to recreate sounds from an era before."
"Having said that, those bands are great. We've toured with The Rapture and they're great and terrific guys too, but they're influenced by a diferent part of the post-punk era to us, they have a different blueprint. It's really Paul (Epworth) himself who influenced the sound of our album."
Barry starts laughing.
"When Paul was doing sound for The Rapture at one venue, he had the snare drum so loud, people thought it was a gun going off, they were hitting the floor with fright."
Bloody hell. Remind me to hire him if the taxman's due a visit. But tell us more about "The Futureheads." Which songs are you especially proud of?
"There's a song called "Danger In The Water" I'm really pleased with," Barry reveals.
"It's a capella and gives the album a real variety. It's an important track because it will make people realise we can do things other than the jerky post-punk stuff. Also our new single "Decent Days & Nights", which is my favourite live song at the moment. Were really pleased with what we've achieved with the album."
The four-way, call'n'response harmonies are a big feature of your sound and it seems very much a situation where you all contribute a lot to the overall group identity. Are your roles defined within The Futureheads?
"I think the lead vocals are about two-thirds myself on the album," replies Barry.
"But yeah, we all contribute a lot. Ross (Millard, guitar/ vocals) does stuff and I often prepare songs at home and bring them in for the band to work on. Jaff (bassist) is the organiser, he drives us around as a rule. Ross is the sensible one....he brings us back to reality. I tend to be the Fuhrer at rehearsals (laughs) and I push them hard. I fight with Dave (Hyde - drums) as well, but he is me brother after all."
You're not like Liam and Noel again are you?
"No, not really, we're more like a skint Liam and Noel (laughs)."
A couple more things before we have to let you go. Firstly, what's the deal with this tour you're about to go on. You're playing Working Men's Clubs. Brilliant! The spirit of The Fall's "Totale's Turns" lives on! Call yourselves bloody professionals!
"Yeah, "laughs Barry, "we're looking forward to it. The idea was partly us and partly the label. We wanted something that was different to the norm, different to the regular rock perspective, because gig-goers do get sick of regular rock venues and we wanted to do a short tour that wouldn't visit regular student venues as this is the summer after all."
Plus Festivals are high on everyone's hitlists...
"Yeah, right, they've relieved most people of their cash alright," laughs Barry.
"And besides it's our heritage, isn't it? I mean, there's 30 WMC's in Sunderland alone. Jaff lives in a pit village outside the city and there's 10 of them in that village alone. Thay're all idle these days and that's terrible. We can't wait to play these gigs....some of the places are amazing. In Glasgow we'll be playing a Polish club. Magic. Really cheap beer an' all."
Spoken like a man. And talking of which, doesn't the album's final track "Manray" (about the legendary painter) speak of a sophisticated way to, er, lure the opposite sex? Pray tell, old son...
"Yeah, that song's about a certain type of pornography which masquerades as art," replies Barry.
"I'll let you into a secret: if you're with a girl and you want to both impress her and make her feel horny, then read a Man Ray book. I tell you, it's the best way to seduce a girl using art. Mark my words."
Already done, Barry, already done. Who says you don't learn something every day, eh?
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