It’s not for the cock, it’s for doing favours

Favours for Sailors interview

With the credit crunch, the recession, the worst winter for two decades and, probably, the imminent end the world being shoved in our faces and down our throats pretty much relentlessly by the media, anyone creating music in these dark times could be forgiven for coming across a bit bleak and depressing. Not Favours For Sailors though.

Favours for Sailors, a four piece from London, deliver their up lifting, slightly off kilter (yet firmly grounded) pop sensibilities with a reckless abandon and a brilliant lack of pretentious stiffness- perhaps something like The Cribs or Weezer covering an early Beatles song. Perhaps not. Perhaps a little bit, though. Their somewhat cheeky guitar pop- bursting with “woahs”, soaring choruses and a passionate delivery- is gaining them quite a bit of (whisper it) industry hype. With any luck, as the grey, muddy slush that used to be snow thaws out in the spring sun, Favours for Sailors will be on hand to soundtrack a sumer of last exam euphoria, drinking in the sunny park and playing football with your mates in slow motion whilst constantly smiling. Big, bouncy fun is what they excel in. Their ep/mini album/little offering to us, “Furious Sons” comes out 2nd of March- it features some of the aforementioned sun kissed bounciness.

It’s Not For The Cock caught up with the band and chatted about things such as recording, touring with names such as Danananakroyd and Foals and singing Snoop Doggy Dog  in falsetto……

Firstly, could you introduce yourselves- who plays what etc and how did you all meet and what made you decide to form a band?

MF: I am Maltese Falcon – I forced my way into the band using a yellow sock as a gift after seeing the other guys play as a three piece with a different drummer (Metin – MMA)

DSS: I am DSS, the Department of Social Security. I replaced the previous drummer, Department of Health and Social Security (DHSS) in 1998, and was myself replaced in 2001 by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP).

AKDB: I play bass – met Jon at university… We have pretty much spent the last 8 years in various states of inebriation dreaming of being able to give up work and make music.

JRC: I guess i’m the Gary Barlow figure, I write the songs and eat too much. In my spare time (when not inebriated with Al) I play guitar and sing too.

You’re now signed to Tough Love, how did this come about? Did you talk to many other labels and what made you decide to sign to Tough Love?

AKDB: They probably saved us from giving up pretty much – we had been slaving away with no real interest from anyone for a while – Tough Love came along and we were galvanised – since then pretty much everything has fallen into place really quickly – from zeroes to heroes in under 6 months…

JRC: Yeah, thanks!

I know you’ve got an EP ready, is there an album in the pipeline? What are your plans in general for 2009?

MF: Album, gigs, more songs, more gigs, more radio, more fans… more money – more problems.

JRC: We’re amassing songs for an album i guess, yeah. Maybe another single first. Think some of our new stuff will be far superior too… For example, an insanely poppy song (more so than ‘I Dreamt’) about a cannibal so misanthropic he can’t even bring himself to eat human flesh… perhaps.

Where did you record the ep? How did it compare to when you’ve recorded before?

MH: We recorded with Rory Attwell (ex-Test Icicles) and it was the most fluid and lurid recording experience I think any of us have ever been through. For example my guitar parts took about 50 minutes to record in total. Rory really knows how to subtly tease the best or beast out of us.

DSS: the drums were recorded in Rory’s old studio that looked like it may have previous been used to murder people. Then when my services were no longer required we moved to plush premises off Hoxton Square.

JRC: Nothing to say but good things about Rory and the way he works!

I can hear quite a lot of different influences in your music- I really love the Beach Boys style harmonies and and the poppy/60s style in particular- what would you say are your main influences?

MH: Melodic songs with a bit of bite and cool lyrics – whether that is blatantly melodic like The Beach Boys or the sort of chaos melodies you get in Afro-beat tunes.

DSS: John Donne. John Milton. Jon Crawford.

AKDB: We all like different things for me it is Television (the band not the medium) and lots of 60s songs – The Band, The Ronettes, The Who. We all love some nineties rock too – Pavement, that kind of thing. The Beach Boys are amazing (especially sunflower) but I don’t think we sound like them (that would be hubris)…

JRC: Soulseek.

You’ve played/are playing gigs with a lot of amazing bands (Dana, Tubelord, Calories etc etc)- how did this come about, it must be exciting to be going on tour with Danananakroyd as they have such a good live following?

MH: Before I joined this band they had already played with Foals, Islands and Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin. The more recent amazing line ups we’ve been on has been down to a combination of certain Dananana members enjoying our stuff and us just thinking more carefully about the gigs we play.

AKDB: It will be our first proper tour (except an ill fated Scottish jaunt when we played to one man in a Hawaiian shirt in Aberdeen) so it is really exciting and hopefully we will get to play to lots of new people and we won’t drive each other bananas…

What other bands do you enjoy playing and touring with the most and why?

MF: Other than the bands that you’ve already mentioned, a Dutch guy who goes by the title of PFAFF is amazing to play with. He does live divorces and your’re not allowed to clap when he finishes. We played a great gig through our label with William and Situationists a while back too.

Which current bands, if any, do you feel an affinity with? You don’t seem to fit obviously into any particular music “scene” right now, though this can only be a good thing surely?

JRC: Not saying we’re special or anything but sometimes I think we’re a bit too lighthearted to fit in with some of the “cool” bands out there, but then maybe too wayward and obtuse for the straight-ahead indie pop thing. Possibly doomed.

MF: I used to live with Mike Lord from Stars and Sons and me and him have an affinity which involves cute baby animals and Mike being brutally lewd.

You seem to be experiencing quite a lot of support and positive press right now, with things like an XFM radio session and a lot of excited chit-chat on music boards etc, how aware of this are you? Does it effect how the band works at all?

MH: Its great to finally feel like what we’re doing is reaching more people, that we are not just going deaf by ourselves…

DSS: All this attention has made four very lazy and lethargic people inordinately energetic and well organised.

JRC: Yeah it’s really good, things seemed a little dark for awhile – now there’s a purpose.

You mentioned before that you were having to clean up some songs for radio 1, this sounds exciting- tell me more…

AKDB: I had a hideous moment just after we had recorded, I was listening to the album at my friend’s house and thinking that it sounded pretty catchy and might even get radio play… Then I realised we had laced pretty much every song with profanity. People started to get interested and it became a necessity to make versions that could actually be played on the radio before 11 at night…

JRC: We always joked about shooting ourselves in the foot in some stupid way… And taking out a couple of “fucks” isn’t really compromising artistic ideals.

Do you enjoy recording as much as playing live? How do the two compare for you?

MH: Personally I prefer playing live but as long as I’m with my brothers it doesn’t matter which!

JRC: I probably prefer recording as you see less people and can have long lunches. Also I’m a bit of a geek at heart despite my crude grasp of technology and party-girl exterior. Live can of course be fun though.

Lastly, what has been the funniest or oddest thing that’s happened to you since starting Favours for Sailors?

MH: For me it is getting back to Clapton (north london) with Jon and getting off the bus to meet a guy called Obafemwu who told us he wanted to learn bass and then preceding to do the bassline to Beautiful by Snoop Dogg/Pharrel whilst me and Jon falsettoed our way along the murder mile.

DSS: When Alex stayed over at mine, woke up acting like Klaus Kinski, made one of my other friends dress as a ghost while he dressed as a giant crab, and, at knifepoint, made the other guy wake me up – at knifepoint.

AKDB: When we played 3 gigs in Scotland we went up there in a van with a wooden screen separating the front (very plush with a CD player but only 2 seats) and the back (pretty much just a floor with no seats, hardly any light and a whole heap of equipment bouncing around). Whoever was in the back heaped scorn on the aristocrats in the front of the van and visa-versa. What developed was pretty much the master slave dialectic with positions and roles being continually reversed as we all took turns in the front and back.

JRC: The funniest bit of that tour for me was having to pay this weird sex-pest man who’d been following Alex around in Aberdeen £2 to go away and then speeding off in the van. It was probably not a high point for Alex though, the man was pretty creepy and I believe he had made some out there propositions. We’re not trying to give Aberdeen a bad name!

Favours for Sailors have a selection of gigs planned over the next few months, check them out at:

http://www.myspace.com/favours4sailors

“Furious Sons” is released on 2nd March and is a belter. Buy.

“I Dreamt That I Dreamt That You Loved Me In Your Dreams”