The Futureheads

On their return home to the North East and with a gig at Sunderland Minster on the horizon to bookend a tour which presented fabulous new album Rant, our Nic Wright caught up with frontman Barry Hyde.

 

NW: You've said recently that 'Rant' is a record you felt, after being together for a decade, you had to make for yourselves as a band. Was the primary intention to make an a cappella record, or just to do something different? 

 

BH: Well, haha, MY intention was to make the 5th album a musical about two sisters, one of which being a vampire called Malody. Her sister is a goodie two shoes called Melody -this is not a joke answer by the way- They each have boyfriends who are in bands, and those bands are deadly enemies. But believe it or not, the lads flatly refused to do it. Quite right they were too. That's 9th album shit. We did want to find something different to do though, we didn't need to go to such extremes. It was bloody hard though. Doing all that singing! Singing over loud guitar amplifiers has made us very very loud singers! Shout and shout some more! 

 

NW: There's been a lot of new things going on for the band, between 'Rant', the birth of Hyde & Beast, taking up new instruments and re-introducing some older songs to your set; how has this affected the band, and do you think it will have an impact when it comes to writing new material?

 

BH: It's good. As an old fart, to be able to feel refreshed about what you are doing. We feel like we've just come out of a salon! Swapping instruments on stage is probably the most fun thing you can do. We've realised that we have completely ignored pretty much the entire world of acoustic instruments; it's far vaster than our previous stomping ground. The new stuff is sounding very exciting, but that's for later.....

 

 

 

NW: Has it been more challenging to do shows a cappella than with your 'standard' set-up?

 

BH: Yes. No. The banter is the most exhausting thing but the singing is tiring too. We don't sweat as much doing this so I guess in some ways it's easier going. I was shattered after the tour, still am to be fair. I feel like I've got jetlag but I haven't been so much as near a plane. I've got van 'lag'.

 

NW:  The sort of shanties and chain-gang songs on the new album seem to suit the band really well; have you enjoyed bringing that kind of music to people who might not have heard/appreciated it before?

 

BH: We feel very special when we sing those songs! They are artefacts really; it's like a museum piece at that point. People respond very kindly to them but it's a bit of a mystery as to why they like it so much. It must be something to do with ancestral memory, or perhaps we are pretty thick and can't compete with the quality of these songs in the modern age. They are perfect little songs. I wish I wrote them. I've said that before.

 

 

NW: Are you looking forward to playing The Stadium of Light this summer? Will you be performing any a cappella tracks, and if so how do you think they'll translate in such a huge space?

 

BH: We want every show we do from now on to be special to us, we can't wait for the Stadium gig and hope we can prepare something super good for that. The gigs over the water are very very important to the overall gradual positive shift that our lovely City is having. Bravo!

 

NW: How do you think Ross feels about the gig, being a Man United fan?

 

BH: Ross supports Sunderland actually, he's stopped supporting Man U because he realised he had the greatest team in the world in his home town. Now ENOUGH about football. Please.