inthemix | Features | Friendly Fires: Stepping up their game

It’s been an impressive 18 months for British lads Friendly Fires, having appeared on the UK landscape brandishing a peculiar brand of indie-rock blended with rave leanings, calypso rhythms and tech-infused sonics, they surprised everyone with the drive and accessibility of their self titled debut album at the end of 2008.

Since then, it’s been all work and all play for the three piece, who’ve hit the road relentlessly, hitting Australian turf for last year’s Splendour In The Grass festival and now making one last victory lap with the upcoming party festival Good Vibrations.

Ahead of their arrival in Australia next week, ITM’s Dave Ruby Howe caught up with Friendly Fires’ drummer Jack Savidge to get the deets on why they click with Australian audiences, dealing with label pressure, and nutting out their next move from here.

Hey Jack, it’s Dave from inthemix, how’re you?

Doing good, just in London at the moment, we’ve got a bunch of meetings happening today.

Oh, so is this like an ‘admin day’ for you guys where you do press and handle the business end of things?

A little bit, we’ve got a couple of meetings to get to today, but then later on we’re going to meet up at Paul Epworth’s studio to do a re-record of On Board, which is getting re-released as a single.

That one’s getting another push out into the world, is it?

“Yeah, the album is kind of turning into a kind of Thriller thing where there’s tonnes and tonnes of singles, but you know, it’s something lead by the record company and they wanted another single from the album. And it needs to be re-done because the original track would need a new mix for it to sound good on the radio and all the stems from that recording are deep down in the belly of Ed’s lost hard drive! But it sounds good, we did some new stuff with it, added a whole lot of brass so it’s got this kind of sassy stripper jazz sort of vibe to it now. It sounds good!”

Well who doesn’t love stripper jazz? I like that you added something new to the re-recording, like with the single release of Skeleton Boy, it’s like a little surprise for fans, a little present.

“Yeah, I mean even though it was getting re-released because of a business decision, which I can understand, it doesn’t mean that it can’t stand out on it’s own as piece of music.”

And you’re working with Paul Epworth again? He’s your go-to guy, right?

“Yeah, it seems like a combination that is really working well at the moment. He’s a great guy, always very enthusiastic and has a lot of good ideas to share with us.”

He’s a producer that’s had a golden touch for a really long time, and you would think that he could easily rest on his laurels but he’s always working with new bands and keeping busy.

“He’s a busy guy, there’s a lot of stuff that he does that he kind of underplays. Like he just did the music for a Cadbury’s ad campaign over here. It’s a really great little piece and there’s a Ghanaian MC on there too.”

Now you guys were just out here touring last year for Splendour In The Grass and now you’re on the way back for February’s Good Vibrations tour, I’m guessing that you all had a good time here, right?

“We had a great time, all of the club shows that we did around Australia just had an amazing vibe. Our show at Splendour was kind of difficult though, because we had a few technical issues and we couldn’t really fix them on stage, but we managed to pull something out and make it go okay.”

You guys have been on the road for a while now, is this Australian visit going to be something of a victory lap before you go off and record a new album?

“Well we’ve actually started on the second album already. We’ve done some stuff on it but we still want to get out and tour a bit more. I mean, it’s a hard balance between writing and recording but also touring consistently to get your name out there more.”

Any indication of what album number two will sound like? Will it have that Kiss Of Life vibe to it?

“Well at this stage I wouldn’t say there’s a specific style or feel of it, we’re trying out a lot of different things right now, working on diverse stuff, piling a lot of guitar layers over stuff…it’s a little chaotic. We’ve always said that we want to make it as varied as the first record, and I think that diversity makes an album exciting. I like it when no two songs sound the same, or like the same band.”

For all your Good Vibrations needs, check out ITM’s Festival Page for loads of news, interviews and more. National dates below…