Prior to False Head's show at Nottingham's Bodega, Finlay Rowe sat down with Luke, Barney, and Jake from False Heads to talk about their latest album Sick Moon, the status of rock music today, as well as modern-day streaming.
Me: First of all, congratulations on the release of your second album, what does Sick Moon mean to you as a band?
Luke: Erm, well, we released the first album, but then obviously it was lockdown, so we couldn’t really experience the tour or anything like that. Rabbit Hole took off and done its own thing, and we felt like our fan base was growing, but we were all in lockdown, I was on the dole, and we didn’t know what was happening. We all started writing separately and then came together. It kinda kept me going really, and then Frank Turner was like, "do you wanna record it?" And that’s even f*cking better.
Me: How do you think Sick Moon differs stylistically to It’s All There But You’re Dreaming?
Barney: So, It’s All There But You’re Dreaming was like the culmination of almost ten years of what False Heads had been and the journey that False Heads had done from Luke starting out the band, all of the people that had been through it and all of the songs that have been written, so it was kind of an embodiment of the history of the band. Then lockdown happened, and we had a year to write an album, so it was like "let's do this, kinda quickly", and it was an interesting reflection of the way that we’d worked before, just turning into a bit of a machine for a bit to get these songs going. We’d always had quite a high standard of each other of what was expected, nothing was precious, some things were thrown away.
Jake: I always see It’s All There But You’re Dreaming as very stark, everything’s very dry and almost skeletal in a way, but with Sick Moon we let ourselves be a bit more colourful. Especially the vocal melodies that you two [Barney and Luke] wrote.
Luke: Yeah I think that was another part of it. Because I had so much time on my hands, it was like I was trying to write four or five vocal melodies for every little part. We’d pick the best one, and Barney would write one, and we’d change one and stuff like that. And also I think as well the first album was kind of like a culmination of, like, 16 to like 24-25 [Luke is now 26], the rawness, and then Sick Moon was like this little weird period after 25 and we just did it in that period of time. So it was like, not completely different, cos I thought I’d be a lot happier by this point in my life but obviously, I’m not, according to the lyrics!
Barney: I think it was one of the more confident records as well. We knew what we were doing and we knew where we were at, we’d been around the block at least once kinda thing.
Jake: That’s so true, and I think it's a better record for that but you do lose a little bit of like- I think about the end of Slew [track five of the band’s debut album] where we just put riff upon riff upon riff. We’d never do that now.
Luke: I think that’s a good thing. I think with Sick Moon as well, there was more of a conscious effort because it was such a weird, disjointed time of, like, we were all on our own, it was lockdown, we’d come in together and were putting stuff together, then there was another lockdown or whatever, so we put everything away, so it was a disjointed thing but I think it was more fleshed out because of that, because we had different parts and then we had the opportunity to sort of like tighten them together, so I think it’s a much more melodically interesting album.
Me: You spoke a little bit about the ‘historical referencing of the band’ in that answer, so how did the band actually come to form all those years ago?
Luke: At school, I had the name, and I was just trying to get a band, never really worked, came back from uni, Jake joined, we had a different drummer. George [a friend of the band who was sat with us] was in it as well.
Jake: Me and Barney were in a band together at school as well, we used to play with Luke’s band who were False Heads at the time, so it was very incestuous. We were in the van today and we were listening to the music from Essex [where the band are from] from 2008-2009, and it was like a time capsule.
Luke: We were literally children doing that, and it was, like, bizarre. When we came back and it was just us three, I even thought about changing the name, but I thought, "no, f*ck it", cos there are a lot of bands that aren’t from money, and they struggle, and I felt like "man, sometimes it takes ten years to get a record deal", and stuff like that, so we kept the name. When it was us three, we had a rehearsal and we kinda knew it was something special, so, yeah.
"The reference point of what rock is for me now, is like, so far removed from people’s lives. I can’t relate to it, and I think also, a lot of the music because of that is pretty sh*t!"
Me: Just on that actually, you’re actually quoted as having said that rock ‘has become an endeavour for kids from super-rich families’. Do you think that’s against the traditional spirit of the genre?
Luke: When I say that, like, for me music- Radiohead are one of my favourite bands; they’re from money. It’s not like I’ve got major beef with that, my issue is I think the genre has become such an echo chamber of, like, a day-care centre for people with rich parents, and I think it has just made the genre pretty boring and sh*t. I just think no one really talks about it. We’ve been to events, man, where f*cking hell they’ve been posher than the Queen! And it's like, I can’t relate to that, cos that’s not what our families were like, and it’s a different reference point. I think that’s ok, but I just don’t think there’s anything else penetrating that sphere in rock n’ roll at the minute. None of us are poor, we’re all from working-class families that moved up into the lower-middle classes, so we’re not claiming that we’re poor or we’re struggling but like, the reference point of what rock is for me now, is like, so far removed from people’s lives. I can’t relate to it, and I think also, a lot of the music because of that is pretty sh*t!
Me: Now you’ve been together for a little while, you’ve got two studio albums, I wanted to ask what is your favourite False Heads song?
Jake: At the moment, there’s something about Mime the End that just does something for me, man, I love Luke and Barney’s dualling vocals in the second verse. Something about that song just touches me in a way that I don’t understand
Luke: I think Said and Done is probably the most personal one to me and I love it, but I think A Thousand Cuts is probably my favourite. I love the way that it grooves, I think it has some of the best lyrics that I’ve written, and just the way that it goes into classic False Heads with just a fat riff at the end. So for me at the minute it’s A Thousand Cuts, yeah.
Barney: No Idea! The general idea of being in a band is that you’re always trying to achieve, like, the one thing. Every song is kinda like a stepping stone to achieve-
Jake: -Are you trying to say everyone is trying to write Edges by Robbie Williams? [laughs]
Barney: We’re all trying to write Edges by Robbie Williams! But to be honest though, Said and Done I think is my favourite tune, just the way it got put together on the record. It’s really quite simple, the approach was easy.
Luke: It was brutal recording it as well, because that song was like my ode to my own struggles with mental health. I remember Frank [Frank Turner] was like- we did the singy parts and then Frank was like ‘go in there and just scream’. So I was like, alright, fine, and I just screamed my lungs out. It was a little bit weird but I just felt like I’d got something out of my system.
Me: Do you think that the new age of streaming makes it harder for new bands to break through the mould?
Luke: Streaming has changed music. This sounds like a humble brag but Rabbit Hole, for example, across all platforms, probably has about three and a half million streams. That’s worth about two grand. You can’t live off that. We’ve all got jobs. It’s ridiculous. So from that point of view, that’s not sustainable, is it? I think a lot of streaming is passive, and I’m a hypocrite, ‘cos I stream a lot of music as well as buying it. It’s passive, so like, editorials are great, when you get in a Spotify editorial playlist it’s like "oh yeah, yeah", but they are passive because when people put Spotify playlists on they’re doing it when they’re cleaning or when they’re just at a party or whatever. I don’t think you get as many fans as people think you do from Spotify editorial playlists.
Jake: The only good thing about this album release I think, from our perspective, is it did feel like we were releasing an album- the amount of people wanting vinyls, the idea of it being a composite but complete work of art, is something that still has lived despite everything you’ve just said
Luke: That is true.
Barney: At the very start of the album, Jake was like, "ok, we’re gonna write, ten bangers", so that’s what we tried to do.
Luke: I think streaming could be solved, for smaller artists, in a lot of ways. One would just be paying people a little bit more sensibly. I think that would sort a lot of problems, because, it’s very very difficult and weird, because, y’know, like, when I see Rabbit Hole on a million streams it’s mind blowing to me. But at the same time, I’m still working a sh*t job, and it's very hard to spend the time to write the music that you wanna do.
Jake: It’s a difficult thing to reconcile.
Luke: Yeah exactly you can’t reconcile it. So I think if there was a slight change and artists were paid slightly better, a lot less artists would moan about streaming.
Me: So I saw that you’ve got into the charts, I think you’re at number two on the Independent Album Breakers chart?
Luke: Yeah.
"It’s a milestone. It’s something that is like, historically written down. Music is just milestones of your life. It’s something nobody can take away from you."
Me: How significant a moment is that?
Luke: It was a big deal for us. And it was difficult, ‘cos it went down to the wire. When that happened, my uncle and my aunt, everyone was calling up like "f*cking hell you’re in the charts", but no it was a big deal. You feel stupid saying that as a punk band but, it made me feel good.
Barney: It’s a milestone. It’s something that is like, historically written down. Music is just milestones of your life. It’s something nobody can take away from you.
Luke: And most of that was people actually buying the record. That’s the thing for me. It was physical.
Barney: Half of the charting positions is like, it’s the labels buying the records, just spunking a load of money into it, but that was no bullsh*t, no cheating.
Jake: It goes back to the idea of work. It’s rubber stamped, people have enjoyed it. It’s not very punk but it is something to look on, and it feels like an achievement.
Luke: The reaction to this album has, at times, made me emotional. The amount of Instagram messages we’ve had, for example, it’s been a pretty beautiful thing. I think the album will stand the test of time.
Me: If you could choose to support any current band, who would you choose?
Luke: Pixies.
Barney: I’d say Queens of the Stone Age, but we’ve already done that! [met with laughter]
Jake: I know the last ten years have been a bit rocky, but a part of me still loves Muse, man. Early Muse for me, is, yeah.
Barney: Or like, just Foo Fighters, ‘cos if you support Foo Fighters, then, you’re done.
Luke: Well I say Pixies, so the real answer is Pixies. The Pixies just did something to me.
Me: I’m running out of questions so I won’t keep you too much longer; I think this is your seventh stop of the tour so far?
Luke: Yeah.
Me: What’s been your favourite venue so far?
Luke: Glasgow was my favourite gig.
Jake: Glasgow was a great gig.
Barney: Good craic, lovely people. Glaswegians love it, they were just bouncing around the room.
Finlay Rowe
Edited by Roxann Yus
Cover and in-article images courtesy of False Heads via Facebook.
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