The Futureheads interview

SPLITTING WITH THEIR LABEL HAS GIVEN THE FUTUREHEADS A NEW LUST FOR LIFE, AS GUITARIST ROSS MILLARD TELLS ROB TOWNSEND

It’s been too long, three years in fact, since English post-punk quartet The Futureheads last visited Australia, and guitarist Ross Millard can’t wait to get back. “We toured the first record for over two years and it was quite a galling schedule, but there was just something about Australia. There was a unique aura about the country,” he reminisces about his band’s only previous visit. “It’s hard to explain but you almost adopt a different lifestyle. We’re all quite uptight individuals most of the time,” he laughs. “I love the fact that it didn’t seem like a rat-race and that people didn’t seem to be pushing each other out of the way to get things done. It was nice to go to a country with a real feeling of people just wanting you to enjoy yourself.”

A lot of water has passed under the bridge since The Futureheads were last here. After the release of their second album, New And Tributes, the band parted company with their label, Warner Bros. Millard describes this difficult time as “a bureaucratic nightmare,” that nearly led to the band calling it a day. “We’d have found it incredibly difficult to make another record if we’d stayed with Warner Bros because… well, they seemed hell-bent on making it difficult for us.” Following the divorce from Warner, the chirpy lads from North-East England went about setting up their own label. “There were just irreconcilable differences between the label and the band. The music industry has just descended into chaos. Everyone is running around like headless chickens because people aren’t buying music, and we are taking ourselves out of that by trying to exist independently. We’re not at the mercy of a major label. There’s no knife to our throat anymore.”

Millard continues to chat candidly about the breakdown of his band’s relationship with Warner, and his vivacity is palpable as he discusses the liberty that they are experiencing now they’ve escaped the shackles of a major label. Such freedom is symbolised by the artwork which accompanies their new long-player, This Is Not The World, which sees the four-piece wearing foil masks. Millard explains. “Our drummer Dave had the idea of making masks. Even though we spent five minutes doing the photos, almost as an afterthought to satisfy his whim, they have this element of power about them, because, if Warner had been involved, someone there would have just said: ‘Oh don’t be silly Dave, that’s just stupid and you’re wasting time.’ Now we can decide which pictures we use, and it’s all symbolic of this kind of independent spirit.”

The newfound autonomy that the Englishmen are enjoying shines through on This Is Not The World, which is perhaps their best and most vibrant record to date. It is clear that the band is happy and experiencing a new lease of life, although, without the clout of a major label, the purse strings are being watched very closely. “It’s a double-edged sword because there’s not an endless pot of money like there was at Warner. They would literally pay for anything. That’s the stupidity of major labels; they are always keen to dig into their pockets. I suppose the old adage is that you have to speculate to accumulate, but with our own label we can’t do that. You have to be a tight-arse, watch every penny and pick your moments. You can’t just throw a load of cash at the wall and hope something sticks.”
 

Financial constraints aside, The Futureheads are in the best shape they’ve been in for years. Such is their fresh outlook, it’s as though they are an entirely new band; indeed, Millard says they approached their new record as though it was their first. However, while they are looking very much to the future, they won’t be ignoring their back-catalogue when taking to the stage at The Gaelic Theatre. “I remember being disappointed when I saw Pulp because they didn’t play Common People and some of their bigger songs from Different Class. I don’t think a band should deny people their hits, because they have paid good money to go and see them.” So, pleasingly, you can expect Hounds Of Love and Decent Days And Nights to be part of their set. “It’s nice to able to play for an hour and not know every song intimately as part of the routine, but we would never omit certain songs. Hounds Of Love is a defining song for our band, you can’t deny that, but the fact that we can pick from 35 songs keeps it interesting for us and the crowd.”