INTERVIEW: Man & The Echo

Man & The Echo are a band from the North West of England with top tunes and plenty to say. They signed James Endeacott’s rejuvenated 1965 label in November 2014 and released their debut single, Honeysucker, on April 13th. I caught up with Gaz and Fush to find out more about the band and what the future holds.

For people who don’t yet know about Man & The Echo, who are you and what do you do?

We are Gaz (vocals/guitar), Fush (Bass), Joe Bennett, (Drums) and Chris (Keys). We are a band in the popular style.

How did signing to James Endeacott’s 1965 label come about?

Fush: Our manager Jimmy sent James some of our early demos and he immediately bought into what we were trying to do. Pretty soon a meeting was set up and he and Mat (James’ business partner) came up to see us rehearse. We were rehearsing on the altar of a church at the time which I think took them by surprise.

Gaz: Not least because we jumped out at them.

Fush: That’s right we jumped out at them. Plus we had laid on a buffet of crisps, nuts, snouts, lagers and expensive cakes so I think that was what sealed the deal.

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You recently released your debut single ‘Honeysucker’ – what can you tell us about the track?

Gaz: Honeysucker was based on a bass riff that Fush wrote, which I then took away and wrote a melody and words for. Lyrically it’s an anti-corruption, anti-big business rant. But also I was thinking about how quite a common theme in a pop song is the “nothing’s gonna bring me down” kind of rhetoric, which I find absurd as several things bring me down every day, so I wanted to write something from the opposite perspective I suppose.

How would you summarise your music?

Gaz: I think musically we’ve quite a wide range of influence, but I think there’s elements of soul, glam and new wave to what we do. I’ll write a song about anything that I find interestinut the words are usually informed by a working class perspective, even when I haven’t initially intended them to be.

Who are you influences in terms of making music and songwriting?

Fush: Early on my main influence was The Smiths, aside from my obvious admiration of Morrissey and Marr, as a bass player I love how melodic Andy Rourke’s bass lines always were.

Gaz: Morrissey was a huge influence on me. I don’t try to ape his style lyrically because he is unique, but he made me see how important the words in songs could be.
Fush: Since we decided to start writing songs for M&TE we’ve been influenced by Talking Heads, The Beta Band and The Strokes as well as early Beatles and 60’s beat pop.

Gaz: I think Bowie is probably my biggest influence, I love how diverse and adventurous he is.

When can we expect the next release?

Fush: We’ll be releasing the video for our next single “All Right” in the coming weeks, followed by a release of that and first single “Honeysucker” together on one 7” soon afterwards. We are so pleased to be releasing on vinyl, we’ve had the test pressings through and they sound brilliant so we can’t wait to get them out there.

Are there any other bands from the North West people should be looking out for?

Fush: We’ve got a band supporting us at our gig at Gullivers in Manchester on 1st May called Lucky T Jackson, I’ve liked everything I’ve heard from them so far so I’m looking forward to seeing them live.

People should also look up Frazer King from Wythenshawe – unfortunately they’ve split up now but while they were still playing they were one of the most unique and interesting bands to come out of the North West for years.

Where would you like to be this time next year?

Fush: On tour. Everywhere.

Gaz: Hopefully touring our debut album.

Catch Man & The Echo Live:

May

1 Manchester, Gullivers
6 London, Brixton Windmill

Abi Richardson

Abi Richardson

Likes: Dr Martens, 42s and Manchester. Dislikes: Rain, camping and hangovers.