Interview The Futureheads

, drummer with jaunty guitar pop quartet The Futureheads, is surely one of the loveliest gentlemen in the current music scene, and his memory isn’t nearly as bad as he thinks it is either. He even remembers meeting us around eight months ago when his band supported The Rapture, and quite happily recounts what they’ve been up to in the past few months.

‘We’ve just been to America to do a video for ‘Decent Days And Nights’ because they weren’t very happy with the UK one, so we re-did that one,’ he recalls, ‘and we did a lot of interviews there.’

‘Before then, we went over to Los Angeles to do a video for ‘Hounds of Love’, which is coming out in February. We had a month off over Christmas. I had a lovely Christmas. It was really good. I didn’t do a thing – just sat at home and had a few beers, and that was it really.’

Their new single, a cover of the Kate Bush classic, ‘Hounds of Love’, will be released on 21st February and has been earning them a fair amount of attention from the music media.

‘It comes across as one of the poppiest songs on the album, I suppose. The construction’s very simple and it’s very radio friendly. The management thought it would be a good single, and it’s getting a lot more radio play than we’ve ever had, so it was obviously the right choice.’

Currently on tour with The Killers, Bloc Party and the Kaiser Chiefs, The Futureheads are playing to massive crowds, and the reaction so far has been absolutely amazing. Thousands of people singing the ‘oh oh oh oh oh’ of ‘Hounds of Love’ back at Ross, Barry, Jaff and Dave must give them a fairly magical feeling.

‘We’re playing much bigger shows now, but a lot of that’s to do with touring. If you tour your arse off, you’re going to get more and more fans, but a lot of bands struggle because they haven’t got the backing to do that, and we have, so it makes it a lot easier.’

With members of the four bands watching each others’ sets from the wings, it seems like there’s a lot of mutual appreciation on this year’s NME tour. When asked who his biggest tips are for 2005, Dave names Bloc Party and the Kaiser Chiefs.

‘Bloc Party are definitely one of the better bands out there. They’ve got their own sound, and there’s a lot of bands that haven’t, know what I mean? I saw Kaiser Chiefs last night for the first time, and they’re really good as well.’

Enough with the serious questions for now. If Dave could swap any member of his band for any other person in the world, who would it be?.

‘I’m not just saying this because we’re in Glasgow, but Billy Connolly. He’s a funny guy and he’s pretty shit-hot on the banjo,’ Dave describes, ‘so I’d replace Barry with Billy Connolly, because there’d be less fights then, and more giggles.’

If there’s one question every Futureheads fan has pondered at some point or other, it’s the question of whether Jaff is a fan of Jaffa Cakes. Does Dave have the answer?

‘I think Jaff does like Jaffa Cakes. I’ve seen him eat a Jaffa Cake once before. He’s not obsessed with Jaffa Cakes. That’s not his favourite food, I don’t think. It’s not how he got his nickname either. He told me the story, but I’ve forgotten it.’

That’s that one cleared up, then.

So what about the future? Who better to ask than a Futurehead.

‘I’m scared about the future, to be honest. I don’t know where the future’s going to go. I don’t think anyone knows. It’s a bit scary at the moment, but hopefully everything will be fine. Hopefully we’ll do well in the future – that’s what I’m predicting.’

Does Dave think we’ll all be living underwater in the Year 3000?

‘Possibly, but I’ll be dead by then anyway. I’ll be in the clouds by then.’