The Realities of Touring With Friendly Fires

High school friends from St Albans, Hertfordshire turned indie-pop sensations Friendly Fires are taking things slow when it comes to producing their third album. That said, they are still touring hard having just completed their biggest UK tour to date. We caught up with lead singer, Ed MacFarlane to talk destinations, dynamics and dance moves, and get the inside word on his songwriting process and the less glamorous realities of touring musicians that rockumentaries always ignore.

PORTABLE: You just got back from what appeared to be a very cold, remote town in Sweden. How was it?

Ed: I really loved it out there. Sweden feels like home in many ways. I don’t know how, but maybe I just like being surrounded by snow. We played in Sweden quite a while ago but we’ve never been to that part of Sweden. We were literally in the middle of nowhere.

Do you feel that a new setting makes it easier to keep things interesting and fresh? You did a similar thing with ‘Pala’ but in Northern France?

Definitely, as I’m quite easily distracted. When we started recording ‘Pala’, I felt that I wasn’t really getting much done because I was too easily distracted with the idea of going out and meeting people. Being in Sweden allowed us to knuckle down and work out which direction or music was going in.

Was is just the three of you there? Does being isolated help the process?

It was just the three of us there but when it comes to recording vocals I have to ask the lads to leave the house. I just have to be properly on my own otherwise I’m just too uncomfortable trying out new ideas.

Do you feel that contrasting drab surroundings encourages you to produce more uplifting music?

Well surprisingly, the new stuff we are writing is far less upbeat. We wanted to try new things with writing and do the opposite of ‘Pala’. Rather than big, bright and uplifting the plan was to do something much more stripped down, honest and raw.

You took three years to release your second album. Will there be another long gap between the actual release of your third album?

Probably. To be honest, writing music doesn’t actually come naturally to me. I have to really slave away and work hard at it. Maybe it is just because I’m really critical. It can be a great thing but at the same time a constant beating. Usually we will get to the sixth version of a song before we actually get the final piece of music.

On the road you can easily record parts of your album with not much more than a laptop. Do you feel that you sometimes lose the magic of being in a studio or do you feel it is more valuable to have the convenience of capturing a moment regardless of where you are?

Usually I never record music on the road. I’m not a big fan of it. But there are exceptions. We’re working on a track with Andrew Weatherall which I believe we’ll finish this week. I just recorded the vocals for it in a hotel in Toronto but that’s really an exception. Most of the time I actually like to be in a specific place at home, have everything around me and have a blank canvas in front of me rather than trying to stick something together on the road. I think when you’re touring your mind is in a completely different place where it’s almost quite robotic. You wake up, you go to sound check, you sit around getting bored until you play the gig and you do that repeatedly. Personally I find that it is not a great creative environment. As opposed to going to a lovely barn in the middle of Sweden which is absolutely perfect.

You had your largest UK tour to date last November. Were there any highlights?

I was quite nervous at all of those shows. I’ve never been that kind of nervous before but maybe it was because I finally realized where and what I was doing. Playing three nights at Brixton was beyond anything I’ve ever imagined. I’m glad we now have some time to sit down and consider the future of what our band is about. Now is the most important time and I think there is no way we are going to release a record if it sounds exactly like the stuff we have done before. I think we are really going to work out a new direction and a new sound. I don’t have the mental capacity to release another identical sounding record and tour it for two years.

What about those hips? What inspires the dance moves that have developed a fan base of their own?

To be honest, I‘m not sure. I spent years taking the piss out of Jack for having a Twitter but I’ve finally started my own account and regularly update videos of dancing inspiration like random break-dancing. I find it weird that so many people are surprised by it. I really just do what feels natural.

What has been the most surreal moment of your musical career?

I think one of the most special moments for me was playing live at the Benicassim Festival. We closed after The Strokes at 3am and it was great to play a big stage at night time where the crowd was absolutely amazing. It was actually one of the last shows we did before Richard Turner (the band’s trumpet player) passed away and there are a lot of videos of those gigs that really capture the excitement of it all.

Friendly Fires tour Australia with Future Music from March 3-12. Tickets are now on sale through Ticketmaster.

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