Some words with Barry from The Futureheads

‘Creativity is a relationship between you and what you create, and relationships can sometimes stagnate. You know, sometimes you need to start having sex in the kitchen.’ They may not have gone for it as the title of their fourth album, but all that ‘sex in the kitchen’ has led them to a musical…climax. ‘I feel with The Chaos we’ve made what we would consider to be our perfect album.’ It’s not just the record he’s proud of either, ‘Some of these gigs have been some of the best we’ve ever done, the collective feeling in the room has been nothing short of ecstasy. You see when you play the new tunes if they perk people up or they’re kind of like whatever. All the new tunes have been going down like a …ton of bricks.’ That’s presumably a positive thing, as opposed to the sinking feeling they might have experienced when they were dropped by (or left) their previous label, 679 Recordings, back in 2006.

Whether they left of their own accord or were subtly ushered out of the door, it’s definitely working out better for the band, ‘Whatever happened in the past has allowed us to really be where we’re meant to be now, and that’s here, playing smallish venues, but selling them out.’ They’ve done exactly that at the Wedgewood Rooms tonight and once the crowd settle in a bit, some of that ‘ecstasy’ is definitely shared around. A lot of the new material gets showcased, but they’re not stupid, plenty of their self-titled debut album gets played and it’s these songs that really spark a reaction with the crowd. While their sound may not have changed drastically over the years, they’ve definitely matured. ‘I’ve been getting into some pretty mad books’ says Barry, ‘I’m more influenced by literature these days. I used to spend all my money on records but now I spend it all on books.’

Now on their own label Nul Records, they’re free to produce whatever they want and have the fans be the judges of it, however, in a completely unselfish way, the plan on keeping Nul for themselves. ‘The great thing about doing it is that it’s really liberating to have your own label and if we were to sign another band we’d be robbing them of that experience by being their bosses and we don’t want to get involved in that dynamic at all. You need to hold onto your creative integrity.’ Part of that integrity comes down to the way in which their music makes it’s way to the public and having already made their opinions on the subject of illegal downloading known, Barry summarised the situation quite nicely. ‘The Internet is like this collective mumbo jumbo ocean, it’s very wild and free, and I would hate to see greedy music business people and greedy politicians hindering our ability to use it.’ That’ll do nicely.

So having hit a self-confessed peak after four albums, it could be a challenge finding a path to follow. ‘There’s no real need for us to be going into the studio any time soon and whacking out another bang bang bang Futureheads album.’ To break the ‘bang bang bang’ trend, there’ll be an entirely acapella album on the way, and if that’s not ambitious enough then Barry’s got plenty more ideas. ‘I’ve just started writing a punk-rock vampire musical which I want to be our fifth album.’ If The Chaos was sex in the kitchen then I’d love to know where he got the inspiration for that.