THE FUTUREHEADS ANNOUNCE A NEW A CAPPELLA AND ACOUSTIC SHOW FOR WHELANS THIS SEPTEMBE

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THE FUTUREHEADS ANNOUNCE A NEW A CAPPELLA AND ACOUSTIC SHOW FOR WHELANSTHIS SEPTEMBER

Sunderlandpost punk band the Futureheads have announced a new show for Whelan’s September7th, in support of their new A cappella album ‘Rant’.

Ticketspriced €15.00 go on-sale this Thursday, July 26thfrom Ticketmaster outlets nationwide, and online at www.ticketmaster.ie

‘The Futureheads have been together fora long time now. And we have the right to do something different.’

No one could argue with BarryHyde about that. In just over eleven years, Barry (lead vocals, guitar), hisbrother Dave (drums, vocals), Ross Millard (guitar, vocals) and Jaff (bass,vocals) have established themselves as one of Britain’s most thrilling anddurable guitar bands. They’ve made four albums – the explosive, barbed TheFutureheads (2004); the elegantly miserable News and Tributes (2006); there-energised, celebratory This Is Not The World (2008) and the expansive,troubled The Chaos (2010) – that make for a varied but unified back catalogue.



They’ve played hundreds ofshows where their taut energy and barely-controlled fury blends with thenatural audience rapport of Good Men, and makes sweaty, pogoing punters intoFFF’s (Futureheads Fans Forever, of course). They’ve released the two mostrecent of their albums on their own Nul label, proving that DIY can and willmake a band bigger, as well as reviving the true spirit of something called‘indie’, something that used to actually mean something. And they’ve even,along with friends and neighbours Field Music and Frankie & TheHeartstrings, established the Sunderland accent as a fresh and vital componentin the DNA of the pop vocal.



So The Futureheads have earned the right to do anything they like. Aslong as they don’t, you know, throw out all their instruments. Make a recordwith, like, no instruments at all.Can you imagine? That would be stupid.

The Futureheads have made a record withno instruments at all. It is calledRant, and it is strictly a cappella.

‘If we were gonna carry on makingmusic,’ Ross Millard explains, ‘we needed to change it up. Making anotherFutureheads record as per usual wasn’t something that appealed to us. We’vealways been a four-part harmony group; it’s been a massive part of the geneticsof this band. ’The eureka moment came straight after a radio show, asBarry explains. ‘A couple of years ago we did an a cappella version of a Kelissong called Acapella for the Radio 1 Live Lounge. And it was such a buzz toperform live on the radio just with four voices. There’s nothing to hidebehind.’ Having made the decision to gamble, The ‘Heads had no intention ofchucking Rant together hastily. Research was necessary. ‘We didn’t sit down andsay, “the record will be great if we do these particular songs”’, Rossexplains. ‘It’s been a gradual, protracted process. We were in and out of thestudio throughout the whole of 2011… although it was a small amount of studiotime in terms of hours. In that time we educated ourselves on a cappella.’



Rant also contains a cappellaarrangements of four classics from the Futureheads’ back catalogue. Barryexplains the choices. ‘We did Thursday because it immediately came to mind.It’s quite an orchestral, symphonic song so I knew it would work a cappella.And I think the lament side of Thursday is quite lovely. Robot is one of ourclassic songs and the arrangement creates this beautiful, polyphonic,constantly moving piece of music. Man Ray we chose because it’s one of our mostberserk songs. The human voice is so expressive and you can create some amazingchords and rhythms. We chose songs that lent themselves to that.’



And then there’s the threestunning versions of pop classics. The Kelis tune picked itself after the LiveLounge performance. But the Black Eyed Peas and Sparks covers stem from theband’s surprising obsessions.

‘We did The Black-Eyed Peasone,’ says Ross, ‘because Barry wouldn’t stop talking about it and singing thatparticular melody throughout the whole of the The Chaos tour. I’m really proudof that one because it’s got more chops to it than a lot of the other ones. To me,it’s like dubstep without the beats. As for Sparks, I first heard that song inBarry and Dave’s parents’ kitchen just as we were starting The Futureheads.It’s stuck with us for quite a long time because, in the early days of the band, Jaff said, in an interview with The NME: “Sparks’ No. 1 SongIn Heaven always gets me in the mood to go out clubbing.” This sounded so sadthat we’ve never let him forget it.’



“A Futureheads fan who doesn’tget Rant is not a Futureheads fan. This version of The Futureheads has alwaysbeen there. We’re bringing to the fore what we’re really about: a unification,a gang mentality, which is in the balance between our voices and ourpersonalities. And on Rant we’re pushing that right into your face. We’vestumbled across tricks as we’ve made Rant which are so powerful and which noone has ever done before. Just because this is an a cappella album doesn’t meanto say that the songs are slow or passive. They’re still in-your-face, slightlymad, aggressive. They’re still The Futureheads.’



Tickets forThe Futureheads @ Whelan’s September 7th go on-sale this ThursdayJuly 26th at 9am.

TheFutureheads new single ‘Beeswing’ is out now.

Links

www.thefutureheads.co.uk