Fanfarlo: Interview

Timeless song crafting is a talent bestowed upon very few.  Yet so many musicians lust after it with mediocre results.

Fanfarlo, however, are a six piece who have been described as part of a crop of British bands who make music so compelling in it’s beauty as well as its foundations.  Their song dexterity denotes a wealth of soundscapes, drawn from their multi-influenced backgrounds and true musicianship, helped no doubt by the fact that each member has a plethora of instruments at their playing disposal.

Fanfarlo began as a conceptual idea contained within frontman Simon Balthazar’s imagination.  And once Balthazar had moved from his homeland of Sweden to the bright lights of the city of London, Fanfarlo went through many incarnations before becoming the sixpiece it is today.

The once twee musings contained within the songwriting and lyrical contexts have now been replaced with a beautifully orchestrated “pop” sound that has manifested itself at their core.  And whilst the folk elements still exist, through their instrumental qualities, it’s a label they have collectively striven to move on from.

After a six-week stint at Tarquin studio in Connecticut, cutting themselves off from the distractions that London has to offer, their debut long player was recorded without any label support.  And whilst the record is the result of years of honing their sound and writing to produce something they felt was as superior as they could make it, it helped contribute to the ominous old cliché ‘musical differences’ and subsequently they lost their guitarist.  But if everything happens for a reason, then their reason to carry on was ‘Reservoir’.  And despite the partly tumultuous journey, the finished record contains nothing less than a rich tapestry of melodic and enveloping sounds and simple yet brilliant song writing.

Perhaps 2009 will be the year they finally get the recognition they deserve.  Recent events have seen things crank up with a second stint at sxsw, an arena tour supporting Snow Patrol and their debut being unleashed to enviable reviews, plus they soon headline their own UK tour and become ubiquitous festival fodder as the summer dawns.

We spent some time with Simon and Justin before all this activity kicked off to find out more about Fanfarlo, the record and those reoccurring David Bowie rumours…

4or The Record: Simon and Justin from Fanfarlo, tell us what the band is all about and where the concept came from.
Justin: Simon always had Fanfarlo in his mind and then when he moved to London it slowly progressed.  Fanfarlo was always going on but with different members over a 3-year period, so it’s been an ongoing concept for some time.
Simon: It’s interesting how the band has grown quite consistently over the 3 years.  Basically I had the idea, then started recording some songs and used the name Fanfarlo, but it was literally just me.  Then I moved to London and after a while I sort of started getting people involved to play the songs.
Justin: I saw Fanfarlos first ever gig when it was Simon and some other guy and I was just blown away by the sort of beauty of the music, and of Simon and his physical presence. [Laughing]

4TR: So things have changed in structure over the years but what about the sound, has that developed along with the band members?
Simon: Oh yeah its very different now.  We were a lot more twee when we started out and I think that’s something we have really moved away from.
Justin: Yeah we have a lot of old songs we just don’t like to play now because it doesn’t represent who we are or what we want to do anymore.
Simon: I don’t have a problem with twee music at all, but at that time we were into a lot more twee stuff anyway which showed through our music.
Justin: But it’s not like all of a sudden our music taste has got incredibly different, we still love Belle and Sebastian, we still love Arcade Fire, but musically and naturally Fanfarlo took more edge.  But you will hear in our sound that there’s still a huge folk element to it, but twee is something we would rather not be totally bogged down with. 

4TR: You have released your debut album, which incidentally was funded entirely yourselves in the absence of label support.  Why has it taken so long to get to this stage?
Simon: Yeah it’s taken a while, but we wanted to wait until the circumstances were right. We released a bunch of 7-inch singles and they were always recordings that we were never really happy with, so there’s no point in going and making an album like that.  Making an album is a big deal and a really big effort, plus it stays around for much longer than a single, so we thought the songs just deserved more than that.
Justin: If we’d done it 2 years ago or something, we would have made an album in Simon’s bedroom and wouldn’t have got much more than what we had with the singles.  But now we’ve got really great management, who are like members of the band and who supported us, so we had the chance to go to America, into a really amazing studio with a really amazing producer.  That was what the music and the songs deserved.  So we waited until we were in the position to make something really good.

4TR: With that in mind, has it ended up sounding as you always imagined it would?
Simon: Yeah it went eerily to plan.
Justin: Alot of things happened almost perfectly. It was so exciting to hear a song how we had envisaged it sounding for years and to go wow its now as big as we thought it could be and as intricate as we hoped.  But we’ve still played around with the songs since they were recorded and the album as a body has kind of changed shape, but now its perfect.  To us anyway, physically its perfection.

4TR: You mentioned your earlier 7-inch singles, which came out on different labels, but have you had label interest in the album?
Simon: Wait, does anyone want some Kick Stimulation? [Disgusting Red Bull substitute]
Justin: It’s the shit equivalent of Red Bull, it’s horrible. I’ve been drinking too much of this before gigs, just trying to stave off pre-gig tiredness.
Simon: [laughing] Justin is trying to stay away from the Class A drugs so we’re substituting it with Red Bull.  Essentially we’re saving him from the street, if it wasn’t for this I would have already been dead and buried.
Justin: Well I’ve been drinking a lot of this and wondering why I’ve been getting so many pre-gig nerves and been shaking and I realized its because I’ve been drinking so much of this fucking horrible stuff.
4TR: It’s really not good for you, in fact I think at one point it was even illegal in some countries for some health reasons.
Simon: Yeah it used to be illegal in Sweden when I was little and people would buy it or had friends who would buy it abroad and bring it back and everyone was like whoa its almost drugs [laughing]
Justin: Well I have to stay away from it now; otherwise I just start freaking out on stage.  It’s a fucking soft drink for Christ’s sakes!
4TR: So in that case you’ve gone back to the Class A’s?
Justin: [laughing] Yeah, gone back to the pills.  What was the question?

4TR: Label interest?
Simon: Yeah we’ve had a bunch of offers to be honest, but none of them have been right.  We’ve had major labels wanting to do quite traditional kinds of deals, which is not what we are into.  We’ll be selling the albums ourselves for the time being on the Internet and stuff, then do a limited edition of it in nice boxes and with artwork. That’s our plan so far.  I mean we want to do it on a bigger scale, and we want to get a label on board but it has to be the right deal for us.

4TR: What kind of label and deal are you looking for?
Justin: I guess a really good indie.  Someone big enough who is able to push things out.  We’re really confident that we should get more than word of mouth coming out of London, but we don’t want to be fucked over by Mr. Big.  We’d love to have the money, but the thing is we’ve put everything into this, we’ve made this album, no-ones given us a bean so why should we give someone else a percentage? 
Simon: Yeah, but you know bands aren’t dependant on labels anymore, the music industry isn’t dependant, and people who want music aren’t dependant, so we could end up doing it all ourselves.
Justin: We would like people to help us basically, we’re musicians and not really into the business side of things.  It feels good when you have a team working on your project, so if we get a label willing to put the time in then it would be worth.

4TR: You went to the States to record and produce the album with Peter Katis (The National/Interpol) how did that working relationship pan out, and did you find it beneficial to the music and the finished sound?
Simon: More than anything, to me a producer is a bit like someone who’s there to get the best out of you.  Especially when there are 6 of you who are all pretty opinionated people with our own ideas.  So it was good to have someone to filter it and go ‘yeah that might be a cool idea but actually its not going to sound right’ and ultimately someone who knows their shit.  He could do all that brilliantly.  Plus he has a really interesting studio, with a really interesting collection of gear he works with.  Everything is sort of analogue and hands on. 
Justin: And there’s a local radio station right near by as well, so some of his old 50s amps and stuff would pick up these stations, so sometimes we would have to scrap a take because there’s actually rap music in the background during the middle of it. 
Simon: But you know equally on some of the songs on the record you can hear radio at the start of it, but it’s so subtle that it adds something to it.  I think it’s really important to sort of isolate yourself for the music.  There’s a reason alot of musicians do that and go somewhere to completely focus, because in a place like London there’s just too many distractions.
Justin: It was tough though, I mean we lost a guitarist over it, it was an emotional ride and we lost him.  We literally just lost him……he didn’t come home one day.
4TR: You literally lost him somewhere in Connecticut?
Justin: [laughing] He’s still there as far as we know, roaming the streets.

4TR: Losing your guitarist during the recording of your album must have come as a big shock to the group. How has it affected the dynamics since?
Simon: It’s just something that had to happen.  We were going through a very intense thing and in that time you really sort of figure out a lot of things about each other.  It’s that old cliché of musical differences, but I think we have come out a lot stronger; we’re more tightly knit now.  It’s really hard losing a member after working together for a couple of years, its difficult. 
Justin: Yeah absolutely but there are positives and negatives.
4TR: Well yeah after all that you have completed your perfect album, so that’s a positive!
Justin: [laughing] Yes exactly, plus I got a girlfriend while I was out there; we lost a guitarist and gained a girlfriend.

4TR: This year you are playing at SXSW in Austin for the second time.  Excited?
Simon: Yeah definitely, we’re playing 6 shows or something crazy like that.
Justin: Really good shows as well.  Last year we played 3 really great shows with like Duffy and stuff which were really cool and we had the most amazing time, but this year it’s a bigger thing for us. 
Simon: At the same time South By is fun mainly because it’s warmer there, but it’s really proper industry.  Its corporate sponsored bullshit most of it, like for anyone going I would say stay away from the downtown shows, go to stuff on the fringes ‘cos that is more the real thing. 
Justin:  It’s like a really big Camden in the middle of Texas, with less punks and less crackheads.
Simon: And they do better soya lattes and the best Mexican food ever.

4TR: Something I wanted to ask you about, which probably goes back a while and is something you probably get asked about it in every interview you ever do…
Justin: Oh don’t say it!
4TR: David Bowie said he likes you, discuss please.
Simon: [laughing] It was a long time ago and we do get asked about it a lot.  He is stalking our band actually.
Justin: Yeah and I hang out with his wife quite a lot.
4TR: Iman?  You hang out with Iman?
Justin: [laughing] Yeah yeah, we had a single launch and he came along and hung out with us, it was crazy
4TR: Ok, I don’t believe you.  I am sensing you hate talking about it but how did he come to hear about you?
Justin: We don’t know how he heard us, but he wrote about it in a magazine and said he liked us and its been the bane of our fucking existence ever since
[Both laughing]
4TR: Why so bad?  The man’s a legend.
Justin: We are proud of it of course, but its like next question please.  It really wasn’t that big a deal, someone said to him give us a list of bands you like and we were in that list and then he wrote another piece about us in another magazine.  I don’t want to make it any less than what it was, but it was years ago.

4TR: Ok I get it, swiftly moving on… You have been compared to everyone from Beirut to Arcade Fire. Does that sit well with you or do you hate the whole comparison thing?
Justin: No we don’t hate that, we’re actually inspired by it. 
Simon: Most of the bands that people have compared us to I don’t necessarily think we sound like them.  But they are bands that we like and respect and they have been an inspiration, so I find that aspect great.  I don’t see why anyone would be offended by being compared to other bands
4TR: Some artists hate it because they see what they are doing as something completely original and personal to themselves.
Justin: Well they clearly have a chip on their shoulder don’t they, because they’re not making something as original as they wish they were.  We make music because we love music and are inspired by so much!
Simon: Comparisons are lazy journalism, but at the same time it’s not offensive.  We love all the bands we’ve been compared to.
 
4TR: Finally, London is the city in the UK most people look to for the newest emerging music.  But do you think it gets enough support?
Simon: The live scene is thriving in London especially, but I think promoters in the UK are shit compared to Europe.
Justin: Yeah we’ve spent so much time in Europe in the last year and you see the differences.  European promoters are just so grateful to have you come and play, and it’s because this country is so saturated.  We’re grateful for that because there’s so much great music, but it’s just when we go to Europe not only do you get the sun, but you get treated so well and paid so much money [laughs]
Simon: The culture surrounding live shows in general is so much better and is taken more seriously; it’s like a concert and not just a gig in the pub.  In the UK everyone wants to be a bloody promoter, there’s no quality control.  People think if you cant play an instrument, you can go and put on a night instead.
Justin: Which is fine, but when you turn up to play to like 3 people that’s fucking hard.  But everything has its place I suppose, doesn’t it?


Interview and Words: Francesca Strange

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