The Blow Up:: Friendly Fires

Feverent St albans genre mashers are funking their way to a system near you.....


I’m safely tucked up on a cold, grey winter’s night, excitedly anticipating a go-ahead txt. I’m waiting to call Ed McFarlane, bassist of funky and unwillingly cool Friendly Fires. It’s not even been six months since we last chatted, but Friendly Fires have been exhaustingly busy. I wanted to catch up with Ed, to find out what’s old and new, what’s borrowed and what makes him blue.

After pleasantries are exchanged, we muse upon the bands beginnings in the ever burgeoning hot bed of music that is St Albans, fast growing for its churning out of hardcore superstars such as Enter Shikari and Gallows. When asked if they were ever involved, Ed simply replies:
‘Well, we weren’t part of a scene; in fact I don’t think we’re part of any scene to be honest.’
That’s the pure spirit of Friendly Fires; a band uninterested by trends, fashions and cool record labels. They’re natural ability to transcend genre and seek original ambitions is executed effortlessly, probably without giving it a second thought.

‘Well, yeah we’re writing it for ourselves’ agrees Ed, ‘we don’t care about what else is going on! We don’t really, well, I don’t listen to a lot of indie music.’

We then start to scorn the way that bastardized and diluted electro has seeped into every pore of the musical plateau, grinding up all into a digestible paste; the modern day easy listening. Yes, Friendly Fires are a forward thinking band. Ed moves onto the unique, daring mix of different sounds. ‘Our sound is really compact, lots of lush melodies, with some tracks made using pads, others contain really deep funky disco elements. And to be honest, I don’t know a lot of the bands doing that. I really like the shocking pinks though!’

what’s changed for them in the last six months?
We’ve just been doing a lot of writing, lots of experimenting. We’ve just been travelling round touring. We did transmission on television as well!’

Aside from T Mobile sponsored shows, they manage to avoid the trappings of bands who do anything but write good, original melodies. But they’ve been lumped into the Nu-Rave bracket, no doubt because they display a fondness for synth driven eclectica; how does Ed feel about this?
‘I prefer labels that are about the band, not the image of the label itself. There must have been a phase where no-one mentioned new rave. Everyone asks us what its like to be included in it, it’s abit of a focal point, but I can’t really do anything about’ he shrugs casually. ‘It’s not like us to be dressed up and in part of a scene. There is a trance type element in our music that we’re trying to recreate. It’s just bubbly. Rave music to me is people playing piano.’

So, are friendly fires making a statement? Do they feel he media latches on too much to bands using electronics?
‘Yeah, I get abit annoyed about it but at the just talk about it because they need a hook’, Ed Chuckles, “Time Out’ called us ‘Nu-Rave rockers’ in the listings. Id rather people said ‘pop-indie band that use electronics’ if you were to categorize us!’ he chuckles wryly.

Of the pieces of kit and toys available, what is the weapon of choice?
‘I love using soft synths that I use live with a drum machine. We record on the most basic equipment the limitations help you make the music.’ Ed explains, ‘We’re used to it, and when we go to recording studio, we won’t bring our own speakers and mics and start messing about with it. We won’t lose any of the energy and authenticity, and what gives us the drive.

After success with the Cross The Line EP, the band will imminently drop they’re new 7inch ‘Paris’ on ‘Moshi Moshi’ records, another twisting turn in the echelons of the bands tastes. ‘ felt good when we put that EP out.’ And do they really want to live in Paris? ‘Actually’ laughs Ed, ‘the lyrics are quite coincidental and really have no link to the music…basically, it’s just a song I wrote for a friend. I don’t really wanna live there!’ (Laughter)
The trance element has the same feeling as stadium rock does.’ Says Ed. ‘Really big, healthy and epic, Paris is really stripped down, so we keep that real energy rush there……it sounds abit My Bloody Valentine, Brian Eno like, with loads of distortion, that kind of shoe gazing haze on it too. We don’t want to stick to one sound, we like to swap around; we’ve got lush ballad like tunes, really stripped down, no electronics punk-funk, then we got our straight up, 4-4 house sound. It
Without wanting to sound too contradictory, I take a big gulp of Dutch courage and probe further about electronic input. In the current issue of Artrocker they feature the ‘Year of the Indie Synth’ article, but I’m interested to see how much its influence hangs over these free spirits
‘Our sound would still be danceable, and have that punk funk edge to it’ muses Ed, ‘It would still be influenced by dance music, just minus all the layers of pads and rolling pitches. If it works it works; there’s no need to add too much to the track if it really isn’t needed’ states Ed. ‘Sometimes we just don’t want to use the synths and we just jam. We don’t really follow a set formula. I think it’s really healthy to do that, to experiment.’

Finally, when will an album be released? ‘We’re recording it in January; we’ll literally lock ourselves away!’ assures Ed. And I believe him too.

http://www.friendlyfires.com/
www.myspace.com/friendlyfires