FUTURE PERFECT


Up and coming musicians are some of the fieriest, most passionate people you’ll ever meet, but on current form Barry Hyde could give all the new bands in Britain a run for their money. We meet the witty and incredibly warm Futureheads frontman in a noisy bar on the eve of the release of ‘The Beginning Of The Twist’ – the outfit’s brilliantly bombastic new single – but no amount of deafening chart fodder playing in the background is able to drown out his fighting talk tonight.


“It is awesome being in The Futureheads at the moment, especially compared to when we were coming to the end of our time with Warner Brothers. It’s a total transformation of spirit… here we are a year and a half after being dropped and we’re in the strongest position we have ever been in and I must say it feels really good,” he chuckles. “The single is a good example of the album and our whole attitude now, mainly in its punky, defiant attitude and directness. We are here to prove a point which is you don’t need to be exploited to have a career in music,” he goes on to explain. “We are releasing our new material on our own label Nul Records, which we set up with our managers, and if fans get behind us we’ll be fully back for the fight and ready to re-establish ourselves as one of the best bands in the country.”

‘The Beginning Of The Twist’ is out now on Nul Records



After a year spent recording their third effort in Andalucia with legendary producer Youth and wooing fans abroad by bagging some major support slots with huge bands like Pearl Jam, The Futureheads have been off the musical radar in the UK for some time, and as a result Hyde describes the forthcoming release of ‘This Is Not The World’ at the end of May as both “exciting and nerve-wracking”. However, when asked whether he is anxious about releasing it on the band’s own imprint he is quite inspirational in his unabashed confidence. “It’s weird to think that we could do better financially by selling a hundred thousand albums on our own label, than an act signed to a major label selling three million,” he laughs, “and that’s not an exaggeration. The major label industry is on its arse and it’s about time to be honest. They need to realise that they are there to serve the artist and not the other way around. The music business was set up to exploit talented people and now it’s time for a change.”


Strong words indeed, so what do the Sunderland foursome have planned for 2008? “A very intense album filled with anthemic songs that will make people go berserk, more gigs than we have ever done and generally we’re just going to be busier than we ever have been and I am over the moon about it,” Hyde gabbles gleefully. “Ultimately though I’d like us and our managers to rewrite the rules this year and put musicians in a much better position in the long term by proving that you can go it alone. We’re going to take the power from the fat cats in polyester suits and put it back into the hands of the artists. It’s a new era,” he adds mischievously, “and we’re going to be the band to lead the way.”


Camilla Pia