Over the last 20 years Wales has served up fantastic musical acts like Stereophonics, Funeral For a Friend, Marina and the Diamonds, The Joy Formidable so it is no surprise that Future of The Left hail from a country that has brought us thunderous music. Future of The Left have been together since 2005 and gained immediate attention all through the UK and with the release of their current album, The Plot Against Common Sense, the band have now begun to finally get international attention and acclaim. The bands alternative sound and irresistible catchy rhythms will have you understand why their success is justified. We spoke with singer, Andy "Falco"Falkous about the bands success, starting off and where they are headed. Take a look at our interview with Falco below:
The
sound of the band is very interesting and unique, who are some of your
influences?
After eight or so years
of playing together I would like to think that Jack(drums) and I have
harded enough yards to influence each other, both in form and execution, more
than any other band we like or are currently listening to. Julia and Jimmy are
more recent additions but retain that freshness and genuine love of a whole
range of music which probably helps to keep the whole enterprise grounded and
vital.
Aside from these thoughts
if I had to list my influences (past and current) in more of a
list format, then Wire (always), Gang of four, The Clash, your usual
AmRep/TouchNGo bands, Queen, occasional bursts of hop hop (often ignoring the
lyrical preoccupations) and comedy – good comedy. Stewart Lee, Louis CK,
Colbert, The Thick of It (British TV series). These performers impress as much
with their sense of communication and playfulness as any contemporary rock
artists I can think of.
Jimmy genuinely likes
Supergrass, which is a constant source of bewilderment around these parts.
How
does “The Plot Against Common Sense” differ from your last two records?
Although it's something
of a struggle to describe our own music without sounding like an advert for a
all-inclusive beach resort I'll try - It's longer and thicker around the face.
'Curses' was strange, 'Travels with Myself and Another' (accidentally) more
straightforward whilst this one is just all of the colours of the rainbow. It
rails and growls about specifics which is something I started to do on the last
one but there's a total lyrical focus there now – out of fifteen songs I can
honestly say that only one and a half are vaguely bullshitty (in a thematic
sense, at least). It's also the best one.
How
has the band grown since your last record?
It's literally grown –
there's four of us now.
What
is the one thing you did differently on “Plot Against Common Sense” that you
didn’t do before?
For the writing - Same
processes, slightly different cast. The individuals involved colour the record
precisely. For the recording – it was much more drawn out, encompassing 16 or
17 days over a 5 month period, due to studio availability. This was great from
a lyrical perspective (it meant I had more time to draw stuff together) but
utterly infuriating in just about every other way. Work were very
understanding, until all of a sudden I wasn't employed any more.
Where does the title of the record come from, what does it mean?
It sums up the themes
addressed within the record, which is particularly unhappy with the modern
world, whether that is the predominance of slogans over meaning,
commodification of the Olympics by fast food and soft drinks companies,
franchise film apologists, Riot and coffee fetishists, the mechanics of
alcoholism or the all-pervasive dull allure of celebrity culture (amongst other
things).
The title itself comes
from my subconscious cobbling together of Philip Roth's pretty damn okay novel
'The Plot Against America' with Dan Carlin's pretty damn incredible podcast
'Common Sense' and leaving it sat, unblinking, in my mind one morning. A good
morning, I should add.
In
2009, months before your second album was due, it was leaked onto the net. Are
you going through special steps to make sure this does not happen again?
As special as we can. The
leak itself is inevitable it was the timing of that one, 3 months early, that
really hurt us. For a band without a marketing budget the record has come and
gone in most people's minds before it even exists in anything approaching a
commercial sense.
Did
you ever find out who leaked “Travels with Myself and Another?”
No.
How
as the band grown since your started?
In all of the ways it
should have, I feel. It does all the things it did at the start but extra.
There's probably a slight, understandable reduction in spikiness and a huge
fucking increase in the panoramas we're bounding towards. Y'see? All inclusive
beach resort. Now with slaves.
The
band went through a big line-up change in 2010, does Future of The Left seem secure
and intact right now?
Sure, yeah. Finance, at
least as far as I'm aware, is our only real concern but people can always
surprise you with their madnesses. I'll meet trouble when it knocks on the
door, as my Grandma used to say.
Being
from Wales, was it harder to get noticed in the UK than other acts?
I genuinely can't
remember. Probably. Maybe. If I was pissed off about that I'm not anymore.
The acts
that break from Wales – Stereophonics, Marina and the Diamonds, Joy Formidable
seem to break really big internationally. Are Future of The Left the next big Welsh
band or does that not even matter to you?
It matters, of course,
perhaps more than it should but fuck it, the world can smell desperation and
besides, none of those bands you've described are far from the acceptable
centre. I'd love for us to fill rooms on our own terms and have all the time in
the world to invest in the next record. That's as far as it goes.
In 2010,
Julia Ruzicka of Million Dead joined the band. With former Million Dead
singer, Frank Turner making a big name for himself as a solo artist, could
collaboration between Future of Left and Frank happen?
A serious suggestion of
such a collaboration would involve, at best, a fundamental misunderstanding of
both acts.
What has been
the best thing about being a member of Future of Left?
Those moments when I believe,
with a slightly embarrassed shrug, that I'm in the best band in the world.