Interview Friendly Fires - eng

[FRIENDLY FIRES - 24/02/09 - Ubu, Rennes]

 

   The most well prepared interview from 100% Sucre so far. 15 questions - no more no less - promising intense debates between the three members of Friendly Fires (maybe four, if the bass player, only there for live gigs, had expressed such a will). But we were welcomed by a 'You're Sabine? No, you're not'. (thanks, but we still remember our names). We've been stolen our identity - another Sabine is already interviewing the guitar player and the singer, Ed&Ed it is, down town. But Jack as a gallant drummer, kindly agrees.
Camera in the right place, coffee and pen in hand, madelaine cakes within hand reach (yes we've made and offered them).

1) Do you speak French ?
Euh un petit peu, euh c'est pas mal mais c'est pas bon.

2) Do you have any nicknames?
Not so much because although we've got two Ed you'd expect we'd called them Ed One and Ed something else but no not really. It's like our nicknames are mainly for our bass player, the guy who plays for us live. We call him Bobby for no reason really, and we call our manager the slugman because he looks like a slug with the face. So that's probably the biggest nicknames we've got for FF.

3) Describe your music without words/sounds (only using gestures) or if you find it too difficult without the words pop / shoegaze / disco house ?
Really? Oh ok hum alright no actually with hum I'll show ya. [VIDEO] Yeah that's it. Was that alright?

4) Why moving from punk - hard core to disco pop music?
I don't know it was kind of a different music we were getting into... While I was at university I was getting into a lot of dance music and stuff, so i've introduced that to Ed&Ed and we all kind of went to clubs and stuff. So we started make our music more 'dancy' and then I guess right now we're sort of into more disco-ing sort of music and I think that shows through some songs of the album like Lovesick, In the hospital, and also you know when we would assemble stuff like with Jump in the Pool. But we always wanted to be like popsong but maybe with kind of different influences underneath.
➟ What do you think pop music brings to people?
Great pop songs are kind of... They are probably the most populist and kind of most affecting forms of art that there are right now. It's just the most universal piece of art that exists in the moment I guess. I mean before pop songs existed I don't know what stood for it. Maybe it was novels that people bounded over, but now it's definitly pop music.

5) For or against music under the influence of drugs?
I'd say that like ... I mean I'd like to enjoy music under the influence of drugs but I also think that drugs are to blame for a lot of very bad music. So I mean, you kind of have to, you know, if you're making music while on drugs then you should make sure you like it when you're sober as well, basically.

6) If you had to play in a movie, which one would it be?
It'd be quite cool to play in Jurassic Park, I suppose like tracking down all the dinosaurs and that...
➟ Not afraid to die?
Would we actually be in the film? Oh, alright. I guess at the beginning when they're kind of getting into the park and it's all... Maybe if they show where it's like the grand opening of the Park, I suppose we'd ... I suppose it'd be dangerous but I like danger.

7) Who were you a fan of in your childhood/teenage hood?
Super Furry Animals & Spiritualized & Supergrass and you know kind of...
➟ Hum not especially in music...
(Names of football players)
➟ We don't know them.
Alright they're all ... players of the 90s.

8) Do you have any collection? or did you ever had?
Not really. Just cds and records really. I was never really like in stamps collect you know or hum... yeah just cds and records. And I've still got most of them you know, they're kind of in a mess. I got lots of plastic boxes full of cds that I will probably never touch again.
➟ How many do you think you have?
Between a thousand and a thousand five hundred. Somewhere between that, but I've lost lot. They get scratched up. I'm really bad at keeping you know, some have the perfectly A to Z ... but I don't.

9) Today it’s Shrove Tuesday. Do you have any fancy dress?
Do you dress up on Shrove Tuesday?
➟ Usually, yes.
Oh, because it's mardi gras isn't it? Alright ok. Hum noooo. I havn't brought any.
➟ Such a shame.
Yeah, I know.
➟ But if you could have one?
Hum like a fish or something, that would be quite cool with human legs or gold foil or something to make it shimmer like a real fish does.

10) What’s your favourite board game?
I used to like monopoly but actually it gets really boring because everyone just buys out all the properties and it's all gone by the end of hum... There's one, something called Brainiac or something like that, that I play at christmas which is really fun. And you've got to mould things out of a client, then you have to do a charade or something like that. It's really good. Also there was one called hum like a Lord of Rings one that was quite fun as well even if you don't play ... It's not like : play with your granny time. It's alright.
➟ Do you still play when you're on tour?
No I usually play with my family many around christmas. We always have a board game session. What's your favorite?
➟ I think it's called Fast Ten.
It's called what?
➟ Fast Ten.
Oh ok. I don't know it.
➟ It's not well know. It's a card game.
Ok.

11) What's your favourite swearing?
The one I use the most is fuck, definitely. You know it just sounds really good coming with a phrase like fuck, you know & you can use in so many ways like 'fucking this' or 'fuck you''you fat fuck' or like... Sorry I wasn't saying that to you (he just pointed out S) hum like 'I fucked it up' or so...
➟ Do you often say it?
Yeah all the time . I say it far too much. I wished I didn't, I really need to cut down my swearing cause in the end it's not very ... it's not a good habit to have. It's better to be polite. I have a friend who never ever swears and I really admire her.

12) Do you usually write on your hands?
No never actually. I kind of used to at school, but it's just make you really dirty. I put phone numbers on my mobile and I try to keep everything in my brain. But I'm not good at making lists.
➟ So do you manage to remember everything?
No usually in the end it's kind of a disaster.
➟ Any major problem because of that?
No just when you turn up in a place and you realise you've left your trousers in the previous gig. That happens. We've been touring over the uk up until yesterday, but I think on this tour I've definitely lost a pair of trousers a shirt and a scarf so far which is an absolute shame...

13) Would you like to play on the top of a tree, puting aside the technical problems?
I don't know. You get a terrible sound on top of trees and you also get birds and all sort of interferences. As a drummer it'd be very hard. Putching all the symbals and stuff like that. I don't need a bigger deal.

14)
- mum or dad?
Hum oooooh. You can't ask that to anyone. What would it be for you? (...) OK. Mom.
- tidy or untidy?
Untidy.
- orange or black?
I dont know probably black. Black's safer.
- house or flat?
Flat.
- lemon or kiwi?
Lemon.
- left or right?
I don't know, I prefer my right hand but I'd say politically somewhere around the middle. I don't know... The middle I guess, yeah the middle.
- sms or phone call?
Phone call.

15) Do you have any cooking recipe to give us?
Yeah, it's called 'Welsh Rabbit'. Have you heard of that? (No).
Ok it's like cheese on toast but you add a few crucial ingredients like ail, and ...what else do you add?... You just add a few spices. I think some cumin, some salt & pepper and a bit of milk and a bit of ail and then you spread it all on toast and grill it until it kind of looks like cheese on toast.
➟ Do you eat it on special occasion?
Hum because it's really easy to do I think you eat on very unspecial occasions.

16) We thought of giving you the camera to get an exclusive guided tour of your tour bus, which you don't have now, plus you're on your own. It's less fun to do.
It's not really a tour bus, although we've got a new TV and we get to play FIFA all day.
➟ Ok. 'boys'! or like


Interview by Josephine & LittleSyd. Translated by LittleSyd.
You can find an interview of Ed&Ed without Jack at Stage Invasion, (HERE). Life's great, isn't it ?