INTERVIEW: FALSE HEADS - GigslutzGigslutz

Before their sold out show in Manchester, we caught up with London three-piece False Heads. We talked their latest EP ‘Less Is Better’ and the negative state our world is currently – across a few pints.

Made up of:

Luke Griffiths (Vocals and Lead Guitar)
Jake Elliot (Bassist)
Barney Nash (Drummer)

How has touring been? Have any of the support bands stuck out for you so far?

B: It’s been good! We’ve sold t-shirts at every show…bar Stoke. But big up The Underground, go to their shows, if you’re listening/reading from Stoke. Bands go and play at The Underground!

L: Tours been brilliant, response has been brilliant so far. It’s gone as well as we could have imagined.

B: I’m glad you asked, about support bands… The Brookes, Of Empires, SONS, Nana White Pepper, Refugee Island. I also really like this band that are on now, Manalishi.

What do you feel the new EP says about False Heads, and how does it differ to your previous EPs?

B: I didn’t really like the last one.

L: You didn’t like ‘Gutter Press?’ Fucking hell mate. I think ‘Less Is Better’… is better.

B: My issue with ‘Gutter Press‘ isn’t the songs, it’s the recording process and how it was recorded.

J: We went in and did it in two days, and we hadn’t completely nailed the structures of the songs yet and they were quite fresh. So when we got there we were still fiddling around, I think a lot of that came across. Where as when we went to do ‘Less Is Better’ we went into different places, and even though there was chaos in the recording side of it, the songs were done and ready.

Listen to ‘Less is Better’ here.

What made you decide to put ‘Retina’ on the EP, as well as releasing it as a single?

B: It’s a bit of a tender subject…

L: We had to re-record it because…

J: Basically the release of ‘Retina’ was so chaotic and s*** that we thought it got a bit lost. People liked it and people heard it – but it didn’t get given enough of a release so we put it on the EP. It’s a slightly different recording as well so it brings out two sides of the song.

L: And also, ‘Retina’ has had like 16k listens and it’s been out since February and ‘Yellow’ is on 11k already you know? We just wanted to put Retina on the EP because it isn’t going to go on the album.

Now it’s got a family

J: It’s got Uncle ‘Yellow,’ Grandad, ‘Help Yourself,’ Mad Aunt, ‘Wrap Up’… she’s always a cunt at Christmas, she has a couple too many sherries and she starts getting fairly racist.

How has the EP been received so far?

B: Well, we sold a record, a real record. And people have listened to it, its getting good radio play. Hew Stephens stole, ‘Wrap Up’ and that wasn’t even a single.

L: Yeah, can’t complain it’s been brilliant, thank you very much to everyone involved.

Luke, you’ve been doing loads of in-depth interviews on these heavy topics lately… do you think this helps get across everything you’re trying to say as a band separately to your music?

L: Yeah basically our PR guys were like “wield him out and let him say whatever he wants to say,” because journalists will probably pick it up and we live in an age where we are so censorship happy, which I fucking hate. Which is obviously pretty clear, and that’s a big part of what we’re about as a band, even though I maybe vocalise it more, we do have similar beliefs between the three of us. I’m not ever going to hold back on what I believe and what I feel. I think people do that far too often. And I’m also not scared of people being pissed off at what I say. If you’re willing to debate me then we’ll have a conversation or you can go f*** yourself. If you think I’m wrong, tell me and we’ll go talk about it and have a pint, I’d love that. That’s what we should be doing.

Being quite openly political, how would you say False Heads stay unique and showcase their politics through grunge?

B: By not taking a stand on the left, the left is fucked

J: We think music in itself is a political act of art, because you’re getting up on stage in front of people, you’re expressing yourself, you’re singing, you’re playing. So if you can create some sort of space that is more vast and interesting than just an argument, that’s what art does, that’s what music does. So I think we’ve shied away from explicit political statements, but I think we think of ourselves as political in the way that we’re still doing music even though we shouldn’t be doing it.

L: When we were writing the press release and we were writing about what we stand for, anti-censorship, anti-authority and individualism, our PR guys were like thats, “brilliant that’ll get journalists talking.” And it was like, really? Just because we don’t go, [chants] “oh Jeremy Corbyn.” and it’s mental. I will say quickly, we all voted labor for a start, and I just said in an interview that the cult of Jeremy Corbyn is not good, I don’t think you should ever worship a politician.

To finish off on a much lighter note, what’s next for False Heads?

J: Do another A side

L: Probably be writing through December, but we’ll go into the studio December, January and February time.

J: Now that we’ve got everything in place, for the first time we feel like we’ve got a proper team, everything is there to do the album. It’s not going to happen for a little while but that’s what we’re working towards.

L: I don’t think it’ll be that long before it gets recorded and announced, but it’s in the gear for next year. There will be a tour, festival season and I imagine we’ll do quite an extensive tour late 2019. That’s the game plan anyway.