New Music - ADALIA - Chemical Hearts

Is Brighton full of noisey girls and loud guitars?

A year or 2 ago we featured Yonaka on this very blog, who have grown and grown. Blood Red Shoes, Black Honey, even The Go! Team are all from Brighton. However, A new fighter has joined the game, and it doesn't sound like they are content with following in their footsteps. ADALIA come from Brighton, but they are looking to carve their own path. Actually, they are looking for World Domination, more on that shortly...

In 2018 they hit the scene with a 5 song grunge-pop EP, 'Stray Hearts', with dirty guitar riffs and moody lyrics, it's clear ADALIA drew their early inspiration from across the pond. Stand out track 'Royals' channels bands like Dead Posey and Flyleaf, whereas 'The End's is an atmospheric ballad and a real showcase of singer, Corey Plant's emotional vocal range. This is a band that isn't afraid to dip between genres to put their message across, and they are about to make their biggest leap yet.

In a few days, ADALIA will drop a brand new single, 'Chemical Hearts', and we were lucky enough to get a sneak preview. A familiar intro quickly makes way for a burst of energetic-emo-skate-pop-punk! If 'Stray Hearts' tells a story of a band being backed into a corner by an unforgiving world, 'Chemical Hearts' has them bursting out of the corner, armed with a fresh attitude and a middle finger! Just like the emo-superstars they take their name from, this new confidence really suits them!

I had the chance to speak to Corey about the upcoming launch, and a few other things:

ALOMR - Hello. Thank you for chatting to us. Would you mind introducing yourselves to the readers?

ADALIA- Why hello there, I’m Corey Plant, the lead singer of ADALIA, a collision of Brighton-based, misplaced misfits serving alternative rock madness with a quirky twist. Now taking their first steps towards world domination. On guitar, we have the wonderful Sam Cotton and on the drums, equally as lovely, Jordan Hart.

ALOMR- I recognise the name Adalia from Chicago Superstars 'Madina Lake', is that a coincidence, or are you fans of the band, like me?

ADALIA- Hey, someone else who appreciates their genius as much as we do! They are such an underrated band, aren’t they? Yes, the name originally comes from them. A few years ago I was fortunate enough to interview Matthew Leone (creator, bassist) about the world of Madina Lake, the whole concept that forms the band’s foundations, specifically Adalia’s origin. As we talked about everything she stood for, something just aligned. Whilst our ADALIA isn’t a replica of, or even a direct reference to theirs – the only thing they really have in common is the name – the principles surrounding who she is are very similar. It was the perfect name that represents everything we stand for as a band.

ALOMR - Wow, what an honour. I am really into their earlier work, I'm pretty sure I still have 'From Them, through us, to you' on CD. Any other influences?

ADALIA- I think that one of the best things about us, as a band, is we have so many different influences as individuals that we all draw upon when we write. Jordan is addicted to New Release playlists but is a fanboy for bands like Don Broco. Sam is the ultimate pop-punk guy with a not-so-secret-love-affair with pop. I grew up on classic 80s hair metal but am infatuated with gothic/emo piano ballads. I’m fascinated with concept records and bands, so take heavy influence from writers such as Jim Steinman (another highly underrated writer), Madina Lake, Andy Black etc. From that, you have the strange concoction that is ADALIA.

Ultimately, as a band, we take a lot of influence from bands such as Madina Lake, obviously, The Pretty Reckless, You Me At Six, Juliet Simms, Joan Jett & The Black Hearts, The Maine. There are too many bands to name, but those tend to be the ones that pop up when looking for inspiration when writing.

ALOMR - We love the new single! It's out in a couple of days. It seems to have a pop-punk, summery vibe to it. Tell us about the song.

ADALIA- Thanks! 

Yeah it’s a slightly different style to our usual - I mean it’s closest relative is probably ‘Victorious’ from our debut EP ‘Stray Hearts’ - but even then ‘Victorious’ has a slightly darker undertone. We constantly kid that ‘Chemical Hearts’ is one of few of our ‘happy’ songs, as usually, we're those angsty post teens commenting on the state of our worlds through a slightly cracked lens. We wanted to write something different. A pop-punk anthem for the lost souls, who are tired of pretending, tired of trying to fit in. It’s about chasing a feeling, something you can’t quite define, but knowing that it’s the thing you’ve been waiting for. It’s the transition of figuring it out to letting go - embracing it and grasping ownership of your true colours.

ALOMR- How has the Coronavirus lockdown affected you? It must be hard on a band trying to make a name for itself, especially when launching a new single?

ADALIA - It’s weird. In some ways it’s really hard. We can’t lock ourselves away in a rehearsal room to write and experiment. We can’t play live. Which is killing us slowly, as there’s something about the live experience that can’t be described. We’re really missing that interaction. As you know the music community is something truly spectacular. We’ve had to cancel a lot of gigs which would have been perfect to really push these single launches. We’ve just started making a name for ourselves and that’s been put on hold.

But, on the flip side, this pandemic has opened a lot of opportunities. It’s forced us to look at our brand and our social media presence. Socials are such huge platforms that help everyone stay connected, so we’ve recentred our thinking. World domination can’t just happen in the live scene, after all! This has also meant a lot of people are looking for new bands and releases to break up the monotonous redundancy of the lockdown life they’re stuck in. People who would usually just listen to whatever playlist Spotify throws at them that day, are now actively searching. That and the community is more supportive than ever for emerging and new bands. Every cloud has a silver lining right? This seems to be ours.

ALOMR - World Domination!! You talk a lot about that. What are your plans after the lockdown, and what's in store for ADALIA in the future?

ADALIA - Okay, that question just immediately made me think of the kid’s cartoon ‘Pinky & The Brain’, “Pinky: Gee, Brain, what do you want to do tonight? Brain: The same thing we do every night, Pinky - try to take over the world!”

ALOMR - Brilliant!

ADALIA- In all seriousness, we love playing live. At this point, we just want to get back on stage and play. Ultimately, we want to share our music worldwide and have the chance to tour new cities and continents playing the songs we adore to new and familiar faces. We want to make a difference in people's lives. Be a band that someone can fall back on, escape with and use to help them fight their darkest moment but also be their anthems for their ultimate highs. 

In the near future, as you said we have a new single being released June 12th, our first in 3 years, which we are super excited about as it’s a personal favourite to play live. Following that, we have another single ready and waiting. But we’re just itching to get back on stage to try out some new material we’ve been working on during lockdown, as that’s where we belong!

…

Be sure to check out the new single as soon as it drops. Check back here on June 12th.

In the meantime, go check out ADALIA on Spotify, and go show the band some support over on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

We would like to thank them for taking the time to talk to us, I'm sure this won't be the last we hear of them. World Domination!!

Able's Army - Private Eye

These days it's so much easier being a music blogger. We don't have to wait for a CD with a hand written label to arrive in the mail to listen to a new song. We can post our thoughts instantly on the internet after we have heard it. Then we can send our readers a link to the song and they can listen to it right away. It's all so simple.

A couple of months ago we told you about a snazzy band from Huddersfield called Able’s Army. We saw them live, we really enjoyed them, we introduced ourselves. Then when we got home, we could instantly listen to them on Spotify and make friends with them over social media. So simple.

Able's Army have a shiny new song out on friday. It's called Private Eye and we got the chance to have a sneak peek at it. Come back on August 3rd and we will post a link to the song so you can enjoy it yourselves. We think you'll really like it.

The 5 minute jaunt through the mind of a recently broken up man, plays like a song from the other side of the Penines. The Noel Gallagher tones shine through, reminding me of his more chilled Oasis songs, Talk Tonight or Half The World Away. The crooning vocals invoke feelings of John Lennon’s solo work. There is also a catchy guitar solo thrown in for good measure, before the chorus takes a lovely key change.

This is lounge music, with an old school rock ‘n roll backbone, and a solid foundation this exciting young band can really build upon for a very exciting future.

We had a chat with Mike from the band, to learn a little more about the single and get his thoughts on the band.

ALOMR - Welcome back. We are loving the new track, was it as enjoyable putting the song together as it is listening to it, and how long did it take from conception to what we are hearing today?

Mike - Private Eye’s probably one of the oldest songs we have actually. When we were first starting out James and I would meet up, get drunk and write songs. About 90% of what we came up with was terrible and didn’t survive the hangover, but this one stood out a bit and there was something to it. It’s had a couple of variations between then and now but we’re pretty chuffed with the finished product.

What was the inspiration behind the song, lyrically?

It’s hard to pin-point exactly what inspired the lyrics, I’m pretty sure it’s an amalgamation of different sets of lyrics we’d each been working on individually. But I think at its core it’s basically about getting over an ex. Like a very polite and convoluted “Fuck Off!”

The tone of ‘Private Eye’ really suits Able’s Army, it's got a distinctive Northern feel to it, and its very stylish. You are still relative newcomers, how easy was it finding your sound as a band? Is this what you've been aiming for?

We haven’t really aimed for a certain style or genre with any of the songs. We just approach each tune as it comes in sort of isolation from the others and just work to whatever suits that song on that day so if it suits us that’s a bonus, Anything in-between disco and country is fair game for us, which could be a good or a bad thing, I dunno?

It is! Definitely! So, Where does the name, ‘Able's Army’ come from?

I used to write stuff under the name Able Archer and when we put the band together I had big ideas to rip off that whole Hives/Randy Fitzsimmons thing and have Able Archer as a fictional sort of Colonel Tom Parker kind of guy controlling everything from behind the scenes and we’d be his band, ignoring the fact I’d spelt the name Able wrong. In the end it was a bit too elaborate for us to keep up so I sacked it off but by then we’d already had a couple a of gigs so the name stuck.

What's next for you guys? Any live shows or more treats coming from the studio?

Well we’ve got an ep recorded which is currently being mixed by our fifth Beatle, Earl Haig. Not sure on a release date yet but it’ll probably be in the autumn. And we’ll be doing some gigs around the North in support of it, which we’ll be announcing soon. So both!

What are you listening to at the moment? Any favourite artists or local up-and-coming bands we need to know about?

There’s some ace bands about at the moment that you should definitely check out; Palmes, Courtyards, FLING, The Maitlands, The Harriets, Capital Eye are all top drawer.

Lastly, and most importantly. What's your favourite dinosaur?

Well I like that spitty one off Jurassic Park, George says his favourite dinosaur is Keith Richards, and James doesn’t believe in dinosaurs.

We love you guys!

Bad Dream Fancy Dress, their story in their words

Before I start to tell you the many reasons you should become obsessed with Bad Dream Fancy Dress, I want to say a massive thank you to Cat and Jeff from the band. It's been such a pleasure chatting to them all week, we have shared many laughs, and I feel I have had an exclusive look into what makes them tick. I have fallen a little bit in love with Cat, my wife wants to dress up as her for halloween. This article was such a pleasure to put together. They have reminded me why I joined this blog, and why I do what I do. Thank you.

Ok, enough about me.

Bad Dream Fancy Dress was the crazy creation of 2 party animals, Cally and Katz back in the 80s. They achieved fame with their explosive first album Choir Boys Gas, and the single Curry Crazy, available on Spotify for all you young’uns to go check out.

Now, 30 something years later, Cat Rees has decided to join forces with her partner, Jeff, and mate, Joe, and do it all again. We will find out why from the lady herself in our snazzy little interview.

What we have is the 10 track album, Space Goddess, a riot of genres all mixed together. Catchy pop along side infectious punk rock. Cute vocals sung with a stern Welsh middle finger. More sexual innuendo than a carry-on film, with a whole heap of female empowerment. All wrapped inside what could be the soundtrack for a 60s interstellar B-Movie that you want to watch over and over again. It's sexy, it's unapologetic, its political at times, but most of all it's so much fucking fun.

It carries on from where the band left off 3 decades ago. I urge you to go listen to it, it will improve your mood and make you wanna dance. It appeals to fans of Lady Gaga just as much as fans of The Misfits. The only people this won't appeal to is people who take themselves a little too seriously. Emo kids, stay away. Everyone else, strap in!

Let's hear it from the mouthpiece of the band though. Cat was kind enough to take the time for an exclusive interview. If you want to find out about her alien friends and what happened to her tickets to the Royal Wedding, keep reading.

...

ALOMR - First of all, welcome back. Many of our readers weren't even born when you started this insane creation. What made you think “Yes, the time for a new Bad Dream Fancy Dress record is now”?

Cat - To some extent it decided itself to re-birth through a bizarre set of events:

While I was making the first Album ‘Choir Boys Gas’ I had a part-time bar job at the Grand Hotel in Leigh-on-sea, where all the local musicians hung out (Dr. Feelgood, Eddie and the Hot Rods, Ian Dury) and I met a guitar player, organizing an anti-poll tax festival in Basildon, who wanted me to play live. Instead we ended up recording a single on an old eight track called ‘Moaning Mini’ which we sent to John Peel.

To cut a long story short he phoned us back and said he was NOT going to play it, as it wasn’t ‘ready’ material, but he liked us and asked us to send him the next recordings and he would play them. He kept true to his word playing Bad Dream Fancy Dress and Jeff’s band, Foreheads in a Fishtank. But Jeff and I split and never recorded any tracks together again until the Space Goddess Album.

We met up by chance twenty-two years later while I was being strangled, stabbed and disemboweled for a Channel 5 Jack the Ripper documentary and I told Jeff about the Bad Dream Fancy Dress facebook group which I’d recently joined and he agreed to film the Lemon Tart Video.

We then recorded a series of covers for the fans, Last Christmas, Happy Mondays ‘Step on You’ and 'The Party from El'. Then, Christmas day 2013 the River Medway decided to change course in the middle of the night passing through our front room and leaving us both destitute. In that darkest hour, a strange man knocked at our door offering us a shower and some strange Jewish, Italian, Irish stew he’d made, and following copious amounts of alcohol, we were invited to jam in his recording studio, and the first song BREATHE was started (first to start last to finish).

Then my inner ‘Diva within’ journey began. The Space Goddess song, was followed by Film Noir and The Longing. Some songs were planned; Tokyo Toy was written deliberately to create Bubble Gum Punk, in the vain of the original Bad Dream Fancy Dress single ‘Curry Crazy’ which had done well in Japan.

Now for the boring bit, my health deteriorated. My feet were rebuilt, I had a spine fusion operation that left me in a wheelchair, and lots of drugs to curb the pain. The recording process for the album slowed for a while, when, again by chance, Christmas 2016 a doctor in Cardiff sent me to have my hips x-rayed. They had completely disintegrated and they wanted to operate straight away, so a decision was made to finish the vocals on the ten most completed songs. Andromeda (Fifth Element extravaganza), Typing Pool of Love (Retro Fun), Samhain (Something Darker), Route 69 (Suzi Quatro road trip) and Morpheus, which captured my sporadic presence on planet earth at that time.

ALOMR - If I had to describe your music to an alien, and I suspect you have run into a couple of them, I'd say your music is bubblegum pop with plenty of sex wrapped up in a punk rock catsuit. How would you describe your sound, and what inspires you, musically?

Cat - Well I love your description. Especially the Punk Rock Cat suit!

We tell stories. We love exciting visuals, old films and retro images. Counter moods the juxtaposition of rhythms with light and dark pattern. We enjoy satire, pain, joy, innuendo, and layers on many levels of sound. We don't just do a single genre. The songs have to have something to say, an energy. It’s about empowerment, regardless of sex, gender, appearance or age. Music should talk to everyone, self-expression, self exploration and always entertaining, there’s nothing worse than being dull.

ALOMR - That's exactly what this blog is all about. Why we started this.

Cat - We don't like the current homogenized X factor warbling, musical happy meals, where most of the contestants end up in rehab singing someone else’s words to someone else’s tune. We want passion! It’s about bands trying to be different not all the same. A band should seek its own unique voice. There are no personalities in the industry anymore. At least back in the nineties we had the likes of Jarvis Cocker. We might not like Liam Gallagher, who is increasingly becoming a parody of himself, but at least he hasn't sold his soul, at least he’s still vaguely interesting. What ever happened to Music scene Manchester back in the 90’s needs to be re-discovered, X factor was a crime against humanity. Simon Cowell should be sent to the Hague.

ALOMR - Can’t argue with that!

There was a massive, like proper massive 25+ year gap between the last album and Space Goddess. How easy was it to pick up where you left off? How did you manage to keep the distinctive sound of the band after such a long time away?

Cat - I’m the only original band member. But we tried to capture the original energy, lots of loose takes and spontaneity, especially on the vocal. Followed by the hard work, I lay the keyboards and virtual instruments and Jeff and Joe did the guitars. I choose a more grown up direction, no good denying twenty-five years of life. We were ‘labeled’ as school girls on Choir Boys Gas. I’ll label myself this time, this little girl has grown up to be a ‘space bag’.

ALOMR - Space Bag? Love it. It seems you speak fluent innuendo, do you also speak any alien languages?

Cat - Oh you are awful.. how very dare you! But yes I do have a close friend who is a Klingon who insisted on translating the lyrics. He’s also teaching me Klingon sign language, which apparently you can get arrested for on most galactic planets if used in Public.

English is actually my second language, I know some people consider Welsh an alien language but I only use my native tongue a little on Samhain. We like to explore languages we also love nonsense rhythm Roald Dahl-isms, if we can't figure out the words we just make the words up, it's all about context and having fun with language.

ALOMR - Space Goddess is a tailor made soundtrack to the best sci-fi b-movie of all time. It's full of whirrs and beeps, sultry vocals and a ton of sexual innuendo. Can you give us a little insight into the creation of the album?

Cat - We sort of answered that earlier and all the songs are so different. But Space Goddess was inspired by the ‘Barbarella’ opening title sequence. It's a housewife breaking free from the domestic chains in her head. Breaking free from conformity, negative relationships. Re-discovering sexual freedom and breaking the transgender chains. Holding her vibrator high and proud instead of hiding it away in the closet. It's a ‘yes you can’ song, we can all break free, to infinity and beyond!

I’m not sure what you mean by ‘Creation’, but we have a spare room which we call the Fishtank Studio it has Pro Tools. It’s full of instruments, Keyboards and guitars and it has a toilet tent as an improvised vocal booth, but it seems to work. I write Keyboards and melodies, occasionally synth bass. Jeff plays guitar, samples drums and twiddles his knobs (Oh yer) and Joe occasionally turns up from Ireland and adds some musical genius to the plot. Lyrics are written on scraps of paper all over the house and random Jams are recorded on the phone. But we always see the songs and have ideas for songs first, recording tracks happens down the process.

ALOMR - My favourite track on the album is Route 69. What's yours?

Cat - It's difficult you don't have favourite children and it always depends what mood I’m in. By and large my favourite song is the one I’m currently working on, so at present it's a song called ‘OMG We Thought We Were So Retro’ which gives a nod and wink to Prefab Sprout. The idea for a song is the most important bit.

ALOMR - What's your favourite dinosaur?

Cat - A Orgasmasaur or Uranusrexsus

ALOMR - Are you the hero or the villain?

Cat - Neither, I’m a witch. However about eight years ago I did play a villain in a Welsh soap opera called Pobol Y Cwm. I’m the welsh equivalent of Phil Mitchel, but in leopard skin outfits, called Judith, a very naughty drug dealer and gangster. So young children used to flee from me in terror when I was seen on the streets of Cardiff. My character finally got sent to prison in a big Crown Court trial and as far as I’m aware I’m still in prison now.

ALOMR - Did you ever find your plasma gun from behind the sofa?

Cat - Yes, along with the bloody amazon Stick! A time travel belt, a big red button (Bigger than Trumps!) and my invite to the Royal wedding, which I promptly stuck back behind the sofa.

ALOMR - What's next for you and the boys?

Cat - First some videos. We like filming videos. The next Album was started when I finished ‘Space Goddess’ there was incomplete material and some new songs being penned. It’s called ‘Bionic’ for obvious reasons, as I’m now more metal plate than human.  But there’s still lots of work to do to get that out next year. We have also been asked to do some live dates, so we are thinking about that possibility depending on my recovery. We would love to play LA and Japan.

ALOMR - Come to Manchester, too.

Lastly, what is your Good Dream Fancy Dress costume?

Cat - Last night's bedtime outfit was a wetsuit but that was rather Bad Dream. Possibly a onesie with a boned corset and fluffy slippers…One should always look one's best in the boudoir.

…

See? So much fun. A great story!

I honestly would never have guessed that Prefab Sprout would ever be mentioned in this blog.

Please go give Cat plenty of love on Twitter, the band have Facebook and a really fun website www.baddreamfancydress.com where the lyrics to the songs on ‘Space Goddess’ are translated to Klingon.

Still not sold? Go check out the album on Spotify.

On The Spot with False Heads (Interview)

The Gig

March 31st. We took a trip to Leeds to see False Heads for a second time. Regulars at the blog may have read our review on their gig in Manchester a few weeks ago. We managed to catch up with the boys after the gig, and they explained that they never managed to fit Leeds and Liverpool into the tour, so a couple of extra gigs were added to the end. So here we are.

The Library bar was rammed downstairs. Many people in costumes, taking advantage of the long weekend, most people there to watch Anthony Joshua vs Joseph Parker. 

Upstairs, however, the music fans were in The Lending Room to see some cracking live music, and that's just what they got. Local indie rockers, Mixed Descent opened up. Followed by Able’s Army serving a delicious blend of indie-pop and old school rock n roll. Kitsch played third, an instrumental band of technicians who brilliantly find themselves somewhere between Billy Talent and Mogwai, two bands I never thought would share a sentence.

False Heads finished the show with another energetic half an hour and the songs we've come to know and love over the last few weeks here at ALOMR.

More pictures at the end

After the gig, drummer Barney shot downstairs to watch the fight while we cornered singer and guitarist Luke for our first interview.

We shared a few laughs as Luke told he was being electrocuted by the microphone throughout the whole gig tonight. We then hit him up with some random quick-fire questions for the video. Bassist Jake joined soon after and we fired the random questions at him too. His answers were beautiful (and fucking weird). Check out the video below.



The Interview
Here is the interview in full

ALOMR
In an industry where there are literally thousands of genres, sub-genres, labels, you’ve taken a step outside of the box and described yourselves as “CRACK-PUNK-INDIE-ROCK”, what does Crack-Punk-Indie-Rock mean to you?

Luke 
“I think it’s just like fast paced Punk, with a little early 00s indie in there, there’s a little jangly guitar and then flicking between the two. To be fair it’s getting more iffy, but then we’ve been writing some more pop stuff lately that we haven’t been playing the in set. 

Yeah, it’s a cross between that kinda more jangly indie and heavy punk.”

ALOMR
Having read previous interviews, your individual tastes in music are very eclectic and drive influence from many places: Muse, Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Bob Dylan, to name just a few. Collectively, how did you manage to you settle into your sound?

Luke
“The one band that we all love the most which we all kind of go over is Radiohead, which in the that, kinda, half an hour set you don’t really get in too much. Then there is certain bands like pixies, Nirvana, Queens of the Stone Age, and me and Jake love Elliott Smith, The Beatles ...and it kinda all came out in that shouty punk, that’s got some melodies that you can sing along to.

We thought it’d be a cool thing to have 2 lead singers, Barney has his own vocal parts completely separate to mine. Mines really shouty and aggressive and Barney has the nice Falsetto.

We thought that was quite a cool thing where me and Barney both have separate parts of the song, and that kinda happened naturally, we can both have our own personalities in the way that we sing. But then we can’t have it too 'ooey', so only a bit around where I’m playing a really fat riff. That was kinda the base of if. We have pop harmonies, but put them over really fucking heavy rifts and me singing them outta tune most the time, so it works to kinda take away that pop element.”


ALOMR
Politics is very much part and parcel of the Punk genre, and evident in your own music, especially your first EP Gutter Press. Not so much with your latest single ‘Retina’. What’s the story behind it?

Luke
“I ended up taking 3 tabs of Acid by accident!

Oh, I really, I don’t do that thing! You got this as an exclusive here, I really hate that thing where bands like 'oh man I smoked so much weed and I wrote this song'. 

But, like, I was pretty, I was so fucked up, that I was really drunk with my Girlfriend, and it was the first time I was doing it and I broke a few in half.
I was really drunk and I thought they were half, they were actually individual ones, not the ones I’d been breaking up, so I slammed back 3 thinking it was 1 and a half!

I was fucked up man, and it was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had, at the same time it was really fucking crazy shit I thought I could control the universe at one point.”


ALOMR
How did this time in the studio writing and recording compare to previous sessions?

Luke 
“We knew what were doing more with ‘Retina’."

Jake
“‘Retina's kinda funny, as we recorded it a while ago and it took a while to get out, but compared to when we did the EP we thought when we got there it would just work itself out, but we realised quite quickly that it doesn’t. 

So with ‘Retina’ we worked everything out, we had all of our parts, very clear cut, got it down it, was a seamless process”

Luke 
“It took a while, because we were trying to get out of our old record contract and shit, we had it recorded and had a load of shit going on. It was about a year old but we were really tight, and we'd rehearsed it a lot. Where as the first EP we hadn’t been a band that long. ‘Retina’ came out a lot better.”

ALOMR
We agree. ‘Retina’ is sick! But here at the blog, we think ‘TwentyNothing’ and ‘Gutter Press’ are equally as good.

Jake tells us they’re going to go and do an album, or 4 or 5 track EP later in the year, or early next year. They plan to re-record ‘TwentyNothing’, and want to get it tighter and much more polished. Having moved away from scatty garage rock to a better produced sound, and with a greater contrast with the chorus and verse.



ALOMR
November last year you opened ‘A Peaceful Noise’, an event held by the Nick Alexander Memorial Trust, in Memory of Nick Alexander. Nick is one of the 90 people that lost their lifes at the Bataclan terrorist attacks in Paris. As members of the music community these type of attacks are something that feels extremely close to many of us. Tell us a little about how you got involved as part of the Memorial night and how was it?

Luke
“So how we got involved into that, Zoe (Nick’s Brother), she saw us live really early on and she really liked it and we became really good friends. She came to gigs, we fucking love her she’s amazing. I’d say about 3 months after we met her, and become mates, her brother died. So we’ve seen the whole process. 

She is genuinely amazing, like I’ve never really... when things like that happen, my opinion and it sounds a little cynical maybe, I get real sick of all that bullshit 'Everything’s alright', 'Keep Calm and Carry on' and that shit. I don’t know, there’s a place for it, but I don’t really know what it achieves. 
There’s always so much narrative and people using it to their own political agenda, the Left and the Right Wing, I can’t stand that shit.

And Zoe, for me, is one of the only people... like, because Nick was on the front of every newspaper, the only English guy who got murdered. How do you deal with that in the public-sphere?
‘Cause it’s such a private thing, it’s so horrific, it’s a public horrific tragedy! And, man, I think she fucking deserves some kind of medal. I don’t know what medals they give out now, but she took something that was public that she couldn’t get away from and turned it into something that is palatable and actually can help people and can bring people together.

I get so sick of that shit on the news, politicians giving speeches like we’re all together and were with you. Fuck off what the fuck do you know, man?”

Jake 
“She got some of the biggest names in music, it was a room full of people, everyone was laughing, everyone was drinking, everyone was having a really good time.”

Jake & Luke

“...And that’s how you beat that”


Luke 
“Thats how you beat fucking horrible, fascist, theocrats that wanna murder you for having a good time. like if you do something like that, and she’s fucking amazing and that. 

Not only did we do ‘A Peaceful Noise’, we saw the whole process from her brother being murdered to doing 2 gigs with some of the biggest names in Rock and Roll and pop culture. It was amazing, it was a very weird thing. Even Josh Homme played a little weird little intimate set on acoustic guitar and we were the first band on, we walk out and play a really loud punk thing. 

But, it’s about Fuck those people, this is how we’re going to respond to that and there are as a genuine really electricity in the air. We went on and we all did ‘Instant karma' by John Lennon, we butchered that, we were out of tune, we were battered, our manager had to drag.. oh I was so fucked.”

Jake 
“Like Frank Turner and Carl Barat singing, Band Of Skulls were singing, it was beautiful, and you could hear me and Luke on the corner like drunk Uncles”


Luke 
“But we were there and the crowd was singing that song like “We all shine on”, that’s when it means something. Because it can affect people. It’s not a fucking scripted bit of paper that you go on TV, it’s amazing and I hope Zoe does that every year. It’s a beautiful and amazing event. And the Nick Alexander Memorial Trust, all the money goes to help people heal their lives in loads of different ways, they help poor people get instruments, poorer schools with music and that. Music therapy. 

So it’s an amazing cause and I think she’s the strongest person I’ve ever met, to take something that public and that tragic and twist it.”

Jake
“The way that the majority of people would deal with that would be to retreat for it, you have so many people talking about your brother in such a public way, you’d retreat, but she’s had the strength to go and do it, put the gig on and make something so positive from it.”


Luke
“The thing is it’s so beautiful her family are backstage, we all getting drink with Josh Homme and Carl Barāt, and like there is something beautiful in that, because it is a genuine rebellion, fuck you, to people who wanna murder people for being on a night out and seeing a gig. 

To be fair, the mainstream media did cover ‘A Peaceful Noise’ both years pretty well. It's a good thing things like that are being covered, the BBC, RadioX, Radio6 and Radio1, it’s a good thing people are getting on board with something like that.

She sold out Shepherds Bush, and sold out ULU, I’m sure she’s going to do bigger next year, whether we’re playing or we're there, we’re going to be on board with it."

Luke, quite rightly reitorated that many other people lost their lives at the Bataclan theatre in Paris, and Nick, depressingly, became a poster boy. 

Just listening to guys talk about Zoe and The Nick Alexander Memorial Trust is truly inspiring. More information and donations can be made at.

http://www.thenickalexandermemorialtrust.com
https://www.apeacefulnoise.com



We decided to talk about what songs the guys first learned on guitar. 
Luke first learnt ‘Polly’ by Nirvana. His first Led Zeppelin song ‘Heartbreaker’. Luke also remembers first trying to learn Stairway to Heaven and was like “why am I doing this?”

Jake tells us the first thing he learnt, and was really proud of, was White Stripes Icky Thump, he laughs "that song makes no sense".


ALOMR
What’s in store for False Heads next?

Jake 
“there is quite a lot up in the air at the moment, We’ve got Demos and we're going back into the studio. We've got festival season to look forward to, we've got a few dates and we’re booking a tour'

Luke 
“We've got a new manager, she’s fucking awesome , we’re recording demos, talking to some big labels, were basically gonna tour for the rest of the year then we’ve got demos we’re gonna record a 4 or 5 track album, with ‘Retina’ and a few new songs.”

Make sure you follow False Heads on all the social networks @falseheads, and check out 'Retina', available absolutely everywhere.
www.falseheads.com



The Video & Quick Fire Questions

The Pictures

Remember check out the lads at www.falseheads.com

New single Retina available all over.






Thanks to False Heads for the time.
That's the lot, enjoy! 
Michael & Chris




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