FALSE HEADS: INTERVIEW
We met with False Heads before their impromptu gig at the Camden Assembly. They even guested a playlist for us - scroll down to listen.
East-End punk band, False Heads, have exploded onto the underground scene after being snapped up by Gary Powell’s record label 25 Hour Convenience Store. Made up of Luke (singer/guitarist), Barney (drummer), and Jake (bassist), they are set to be the next big thing with a dirty, loud, great new single, Weigh In.
Before we start 9Q1A, we just have to ask you about your biggest fan, Iggy Pop.
Barney: Yeah, I know you wouldn’t really put Iggy and us together. We are just really brilliant.
Luke: Have you heard of Danny Fields? He’s a punk legend and one of our friends. Someone involved in our label played us on Radio Soho and he was a guest. We blew him away, without sounding conceited, and he said he’d look after us. He sent us around to some of his contacts and Iggy Pop came back and saying he liked us. He played three of our songs back to back on his radio show and has played one every day since. In an interview with the Sun, he said we are one of his favourite bands, along with Skepta. His show is pretty good.
Barney: We are at a weird level with the band at the moment. We go to Leeds or Manchester or something in our shitty car and play some gigs, but then there are loads of industry-type people around us at the next ones. There is this stratosphere of huge labels, huge managers and fucking Iggy Pop and it’s like – where the fuck are we? We need to stay grounded and get better cos we are still playing crappy places, you know?
“Iggy’s a busy man but we’d love to support him one day.”
Luke: The whole industry is so tight, man. If you don’t know his booking agent, you’re fucked. It’s all about who knows who, and if you don’t, you don’t. But everything is just getting bigger and bigger. Like being interviewed by The Independent. Every day feels like - what the fuck will happen? You know? I’ve been trying to do this for ages.
Barney: Back in the day…
Luke: No, go on. Say what you think.
Barney: It was fucking bollocks honestly. If you told me I’d be in False Heads in six or seven years and playing on Radio 1 I’d have told you to fuck off! But Luke carried on trying. Fair play, man. He called ‘Wanna be in my band?’ and I was like ‘Fuck no mate’ but we went for a pint and tried a rehearsal and with the right drumming and performance it just completed itself. I adapted and developed what the previous drummer did. He did a fucking good job.
“Luke wanted to be Kurt Cobain so I thought, fuck it, I’ll be Dave Gohl.”
Luke: I never really had a band. I tried for years. The name False Heads has been around since I was 16. People came in and came out. I couldn’t get it off the ground at uni and I was just about to give up. I tried playing for my mate’s band but no one was into it. Then Barney came along, our new bassist, and it all fell together. We got signed two months later. It was so quick. Barney joined saying ‘Get ready for me to leave’. Not only was he a mate from school but an insane drummer and he said he was already planning on leaving! Fucking blackmail.
Barney: I’m an enigma. It’s nice now we’ve done a year on the circuit. It’s given us a massive insight into what we need to do next.
Luke: We could be cheeky and put out an EP with other singles but we don’t know yet. We need a campaign plan. There will be an album at some point next year.
1. Favourite First Line
Barney: The only one I can think of right now is (imitates Luke’s vocals) “Maybe I don’t wanna know…” I’m not a lyrics person. I’m more of a music person.
Jake: Nude by Radiohead, "Don't get any big ideas, They're not gonna happen".
Luke: It would be Elliot Smith and it would have to be Between the Bars. God, it’s just…"Drink up, baby, stay up all night, With the things you could do, you won't but you might, The potential you'll be that you'll never see, The promises you'll only make."
Barney: I can’t name one! Radiohead with 2+2=5 maybe. It’s my favourite Radiohead song ever. I bought the album on record just for that song. "Are you such a dreamer, To put the world to rights, I'll stay home forever, Where two and two always makes a five."
Luke: We can’t have two Radiohead songs.
Barney: It’s fine! As long as nobody slips Arctic Monkeys in I’ll be fine. That’d make me fucking livid.
2. Song you wish you’d written
Luke: Oh easy! Pixies, Where Is My Mind.
Barney: Not Smells Like Teen Spirit? God, this is going to get me onto some obscure shit now.
Jake: I’ll go Two Headed Boy.
Barney: There’s an amazing track by Modaselecta called Evil Twin. They do loads of different genres but this one is like proper German techno house shit. (Starts drumming on the table) I wish I fucking wrote that. That would be awesome.
3. Who would you most like to support?
Luke: Nirvana. Hands down.
Barney: We have to choose someone relevant to us or they’ll be leaving in their droves.
Luke: They’ll be used to that!
Jake: Eminem. Has to be.
Barney: He played Reading a while ago and there were some interviewers like, “what was it like at Reading?’ Everyone tried to talk to him, have a piece of him. I fucking would as well!
Luke: He was the last big pop act that really did not give a fuck. Eminem was my first love and then I sort of slept with Nirvana.
Barney: I love Slipknot. They are the most astounding live band ever. I’ve never seen it but oh my god! They’ve done a track called Spit It Out where everyone gets on the floor and they start fighting people if they don’t sit down. They start punching people and shit and then they build up the song and everyone jumps the fuck up. I would just love to be a part of that.
4. Five words to describe your band.
Barney: What’s on the business cards?
Luke: Snot?
Barney: Fuck ‘snot’! Someone described us as ‘snot pop’ and I fucking hate it.
Luke: The cards say “Crack, fuck, rock-”
Barney: -Yeah and then you go and put fun on it!
Luke: It made me laugh!
Barney: Sounds like Daddy Day Care. Don’t put ‘pop’ on and it’s the ‘snot’ bit I don’t like.
Luke: While we are moaning, I fucking hate Blossoms. No, too many bands censor themselves these days. I saw a thing in the Guardian saying they are the new Stone Roses - fuck off! Seriously? They are being marketed as underground indie but they’re not, they’re fucking pop. Nothing personal but they’re a big pop act. There’s no edge to it - nothing.
5. Where would you write your best song?
Luke: We currently rehearse in an old shipping container in the middle of nowhere. We’ve written some of our best music there. It’s great. Our own little space.
Barney: We’ve shot some videos there, like Thick Skin! That was in the fields behind.
Luke: For me, it has to be Edinburgh. It’s that great cross between modern and old and there’s a mountain a mile away.
Barney: Broadstairs.
Jake: York. The Stone Roses Bar is amazing but it’s always closed! Have you ever gone to Willows? It used to be this Chinese restaurant but they lost their license so they turned it into a nightclub. It’s closed now, but you got free prawn crackers…
6. Band snack?
Luke: That risotto was fucking lovely.
Barney: (Cockney accent) Cockney slags but we love a bit of risotto! What about Lamb Tikka Bhuna?
Luke: That’s not a snack! You don’t go to the cupboard for a snack and pull out a Lamb Tikka Bhuna! Cool Original Doritos – perfect answer, that’s why I’m the lead singer.
Jake: Wine Gums.
Barney: (Laughs) Wine gums?! When have you ever eaten Wine Gums? I have literally never seen you eat them in my life.
Jake: I don’t like to publicise my Wine Gum habit.
7. Venue you’d most like to play.
Luke: We’ve done it. The Roundhouse. It was the one.
Barney: It was brilliant. Backstage in our dressing room we had fuck loads of beer and snacks. On the wall were Elvis Costello’s stage times. It was awesome. I should have taken it. There’s this band we know, on their profile it said “We’ve been chucked out of more venues than we’ve played…fun year, bouncers been glassed!” That’s not how you do it, you know? When we did the Roundhouse they came to see us which was nice of them but…that’s not what it’s about.
Jake: I’d love to headline the Electric Ballroom.
Barney: I’ve done Shepard’s Bush Empire. I did the sound check for a band there a few years ago so I’ve played the stage. But it has to be London Astoria, hands down.
Luke: Bilbao festival would be amazing. I saw Radiohead there. I was so thirsty and overheated I thought I was gonna pass out and then they started singing Rain Down and it started raining. It was like the fucking Shawshank Redemption. It was pretty intense.
8. Which do you think is your best song?
Jake: The new one. It doesn’t have a name yet.
Luke: Twenty Nothing. It makes me feel something every time. It’s one we don’t really do.
Barney: Weigh In.
Luke: That song makes me feel like it could take on the world.
9. Do you have any pre-gig routines or habits?
Barney: (Cockney accent) We get out elbows out and start some banter, you know what I mean? No. Nothing really. I get changed cos I wear shorts and a vest when I play.
Luke: He tries to get me to warm up cos I can’t sing but I just kind of go “me-me-me” and give up. If we play a really good gig we have a band hug at the end cos it’s intense, you know? We do show affection after we play. The songs are so intense musically and lyrically. If we know we’ve nailed it I usually jump into Barney’s drum kit or something.
