The Futureheads
Dave Hyde talks the current tour, The Chaos and how The Futureheads capture their live show energy in their recordings.
Navigating the streets of Chicago this past weekend was no easy task. The Jazzfest, the Crosstown Classic, the World Cup and a post Stanley Cup hangover weaved their hellish charms about the town. No better way to escape the madness than with a performance from one of the decade's most engaging live bands. Since the early "oughts," The Futureheads of have been the most invigorating of Indie imports, from a scene that spawned bands like The Libertines, Franz Ferdinand, and Kaiser Chiefs. Their style is a mixture of oddball Oingo Boingo with the ferocity of The Buzzcocks. The Futureheads have chosen Chicago to wrap up the short East coast tour that showcases their latest recorded assault to the senses, The Chaos. HEAVE sat down with the most affable of chaps, drummer Dave Hyde.
Upon meeting we shake hands and he immediately apologizes for being the one I have to interview, to which I respond that he's a great fucking drummer and not to think any less of his star power nor interview skills. Friendly re pore established, the chat commenced.
HEAVE: How's the tour going?
Dave Hyde: Very well yeah, we haven't been here in four years. We haven't been here in so long that we weren't expecting anybody really. That's the problem with America, not a problem, I love being here but it's so vast you have to spend a lot of time here to really make it. We didn't get to come here on our last album financially or whatever, cause we're running our own label now and we're being very careful with our money. I mean we have money, there's a very nice pot there. We just have to be clever with how we spend it. You know, what to keep back for the next record, what to spend on touring. It just didn't happen on the last album. It's great to be back. We've met a lot of lovely people over here. Great fans over here who are very pleased to see you.
HEAVE: Chance to explore Chicago?
Dave Hyde: I've never had the chance to explore anywhere. A few of the boys they tend to go out during the day. But normally, I'm just lazy. I can't really remember exploring Chicago to be honest. And it's such a great city, I just never had the time.
HEAVE: Tell us about the scene that spawned you? Also known as the second coming of Britpop.
Dave Hyde: It was described as that at the time. We were definitely pioneers of the scene that kind of invaded if you will. But we didn't see ourselves as that, but we were one of the first guitar bands to kind of do the guitar thing again. It got very dancy and we came out with this mad guitar stuff and we started to get people to come see guitar bands again. In London there were people dying to see us cause they heard about us or whatever. It was a very important time for us.
HEAVE: Your live show, it seems there's a riot going on. Ever fear for your safety?
Dave Hyde: Um yeah, that's happened a few times. We had to have our fellas throw people off, but you tend to be so much in the zone you tend to ignore that stuff. I mean unless some guy's right in front of me with his cock out. But I very much get into a mind set when I'm playing. I almost fall asleep. Not fall asleep, but you're in a very deep kind of place.
HEAVE: What were you listening to when you first started playing?
Dave Hyde: Captain Beefheart, I actually got one lesson of a drum tutor. I just went round' to his flat to get my first lesson. He just sat me down and talked to us for an hour and all the time I was just staring at his drum kit, like I need to be on this. He was a very conservative, very technical minded bloke. And he had like twenty toms and thirty cymbals. I got bored of that really quickly. I learned how to play just a very simple drum beat and that was it for me. I got a drum kit that Christmas off me folks. I just sat in me room listening to the Blues Brothers soundtrack very loudly and just played along to that for a year or whatever.
HEAVE: Playing, writing, and recording "The Chaos"
Dave Hyde: The writing process and playing, I get a lot of help off Barry for drum parts and things like that because he's writing the songs. So I can only do what I can do. I'm not the most technical of drummers. It's just the idea of keeping everything steady mostly on these last few albums. The first one was(makes random duh-duh-duh noises) you know all these weird kind of, very different little drum parts. There are still some quirky sections. The majority of the songs for me are quite strait forward. Guitar wise definitely not. The guitar parts of always been weird from the start. It's almost like Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, where it's just very steady beats throughout the songs. Nothing fancy really, but just something to keep the whole thing going.
We recorded parts of it in London with a producer called Youth(The Verve, James, Primal Scream) who did our last album. We did "Heartbeat Song" with him and "Sun Goes Down." Then we worked with Dave Brewis from a band called Field Music. We've been in bands with them in the past. Also some more of it in a studio in Newcastle. It was a very odd process because normally we'd be like we're going away for two weeks and get this album done, blah de blah. But this time around we were very bitty. I had a child this year. So we just decided to have a year off. My year has been very strange.
HEAVE: What sort of music do you play for your kid?
Dave Hyde: A lot of old Blues records. It's funny cause I've shown him so many songs like Beefheart, Beatles, to loads of old cool Motown stuff. But then I put on "Heartbeat Song" and that is the only song that he dances along to. Me and Barry are from very musical families. My Dad is one of the biggest music fans I know. So, we were always brought good music from a very early age.
HEAVE: Please tell us about the video for "Heartbeat Song."
Dave Hyde: I think we just got a bunch of treatments through from a selection of directors. We kind of picked the one that would be most appropriate. If we're gonna do a video we like to have a good time. There's nothing worse than seeing a super serious video. You've got to be careful cause you don't wanna come across as being comical. At the same time we definitely don't take ourselves seriously. So why not inject that as much as we can?
HEAVE: How do capture that live energy on tape?
Dave Hyde: We record everything live then we do overdubs after. There's none of this bitty bits where I'm putting the drums down first and then separately. Our albums have all been very live and then you polish it at the end. We capture it because for one it's a very intense process making an album and you just want it to be the best, hit it harder than you ever have just to get the right take. We're not a band that goes over things constantly. We'll get a take done in three or four goes. We don't spend too much time on one song. The song we labored over the most on the new one was probably "Sun Goes Down" because we all wanted to go home. It was one in the morning and our producer Youth was like let's have some drinks and put one more track down tonight. Lyrically, it's a vampire sex song
HEAVE: Tell us about working with Youth.
Dave Hyde: He's like a wizard or something. He's very spiritual, stoner, beautiful guy. A odd guy in a very cool way. He was in Killing Joke who were a very heavy band. I would work with him on every album we do. I really respect him and he's done a lot for us. He knows how to push you in the right direction for a hit. But we never sit down and say let's write a hit, but he knows what to do to encourage that in some weird psychology way. He lives like Keith Richards with a beautiful pad in Spain with a beautiful studio and a lovely house in London.
HEAVE: You guys did a very popular cover of the song "Hounds Of Love." With the 25th anniversary of the album Hounds Of Love upon us, you ever had an occasion to hang out with Kate Bush?
Dave Hyde: Yeah well, we never met her but we got a phone call off her when we were making our second album. She rang us to thank us for the cover. And she's like a big recluse and she never rings anybody. I doubt she rings her family. We were told by our managers that she was gonna ring in a half hour and we all just stood around the phone saying "who's gonna answer?" So, we missed the call but she left a message on Ross's mobile saying thanks for the cover, basically thanks for paying me rent for the last two years. No, not like that. But it was a very nice thank you, Merry Christmas, keep up the good work. And then Ross deleted the message by accident. So we heard it once and that was it. He still gets grief for that everyday.
The Chaos by The Futureheads is available now via Nul Records
Posted by Joe Roth on Jun 21, 2010 @ 6:06 am
