Catching Light

By Joe Kavanagh

As 2008 reaches the last stages of its inexorable march to the New Year, there is still enough time to discover acts whose sound has defined a year that will surely be remembered more for its fiscal shortcomings than any musical excellence.

Although most record companies have trotted out their main contenders, there remain a few competitors for breakthrough act of the year percolating just under the surface of the mainstream, often emanating from the most unlikely of places.

Until recently, the city of St. Albans was hardly known as a breeding ground for musical talent, given its role as a plush commuter area located 22 miles north of London.

The site of the UK's first Christian martyr and the place with more pubs per square mile than anywhere else in Britain, the sleepy market town was probably most noted for being the most expensive square on the UK version of the board game Monopoly.

Being the birthplace of Bananarama's Siobhan Fahey and one of the members of The Zombies does not a music legacy make, but contemporary products like Rupert Parkes (a.k.a. Photek) and, more recently, Enter Shikari, have gone someway towards redressing its reputation as a musical flyover.

The success currently being enjoyed by their latest indie act will certainly add to the air of musical respectability but, far from the common perception that they are an overnight success story, this band has been over a decade in the making.

Vocalist/bassist, Ed McFarlane, guitarist Edd Gibson and drummer, Jack Savidge first became a band in the old fashioned way: as 14-year-old school chums who longed to escape the ennui of their sleepy suburban surroundings.

Initially, however, they were a very different animal that they are today, calling themselves, First Day Back, and finding their calling in hardcore music, like so many other angst-ridden teenagers.

So it was that they covered songs by acts like Pantera, Deftones and Sepultura, before eventually writing their own original equivalent in their quest to become St. Albans' answer to Fugazi.

They continued on this musical direction throughout their years in high school, until the trio left to attend university, where they soon found themselves open to a slew of new musical influences.

Savidge was the first to fall under the spell of one form in particular, when he came into contact with club music and the culture that surrounded it, which stood in stark contrast to the often isolationist tendencies of the hardcore scene, and he later recalled: "It was really fun because it opened up a whole new mode of how to consume music. Going to a club is different from a gig. There are names on the flyers but once you're inside, that's secondary to the social thing. It was more led by people rather than some untouchable band onstage."

Duly smitten, he returned to his friends like some evangelist who has just discovered the one true path and wants to share it with all and sundry.

Equally impressed, his two bandmates soon immersed themselves in house music from places like Chicago and Detroit, and McFarlane began playing keyboards in the band, in an effort to flesh out their sound and embrace this new musical direction.

He would later claim of the epiphany: "This probably sounds out of order to kids that like hardcore music, but we didn't want to play shouty three-chord music anymore. It's not like we made a conscious effort of, 'right let's write a really 80s sounding electro song'. Jack got into house, he played me a house record and I thought this is banging, girls might listen to this."

As the three members neared the end of their time at university, they began to realize that they would have to take the band more seriously if they were ever to succeed because, as MacFarlane later recalled: "I did not want to work in St. Albans HMV."

This new direction in attitude and sound also called for a new name, and taking their inspiration from a track by Factory Records act, Section 25, the band settled upon Friendly Fires; no relation to the euphemism that describes the bullets that supposedly kill you in a more personable manner.

Seeking to fuse genres such as shoe-gazing, club music and pop, they now took their inspiration from the likes of Carl Craig, German label, Kompact and Prince.

The first track they wrote under their new mandate that actually impressed the band themselves was Photobooth, which evidently struck the same chord with critics when it was released as a limited edition EP and promptly sold-out the first 1,000-pressing copies.

In another delightful piece of symmetry that harkens back to New Order's Factory-release, Blue Monday, the band actually lost money on the release despite its popularity because it was printed on clear vinyl.

Despite this setback, everything else about the band was fast-becoming an unbridled success, as they set out on tour with names like Crystal Castles and US indie kings, Interpol.

The latter stint even secured them an endorsement from one of the biggest names in music when, after the Dublin leg of the tour, the trio was approached backstage by none other than Bono, who praised their act and even shared stories about U2's time in St. Albans at the very beginning of their own career.

The next two years saw them release several more critically-acclaimed EPs, secure a new management deal and tour the world playing everywhere from the dingiest dumps in the capital to more exotic destinations as far afield as the US, Japan and continental Europe.

All the while their live show grew, as they incorporated elements more familiar with the club music world, such as breaking down the so-called "fourth-wall" between audience and band members, in an effort to get away from the idolatry-oriented shows that often typify rock music.

Only moments into each show MacFarlane frequently launches himself into the crowd, often performing much of the set, surrounded by the audience like - as one hack memorably described him - "a marionette-with-tangled strings", while the singer himself claims: "You have to work your way through the crowd person by person, and you'll eventually get to someone who's up for it. I like to get involved, get a close reaction, and try to get people to dance."

The formula has paid off in spades, as the band became the first ever act to make a televised appearance on Channel 4's acclaimed show, Transmission, despite the fact that they had no recording contract.

That status changed only weeks later when they were signed by noted talent spotting/feeder label, Moshi Moshi, who immediately released the contagious single, Paris, which won "Single of the Week" at the Guardian UK and NME.

All the while, the band continued to work on their debut album, rehearsing in the home of MacFarland's parents, where they were forced to stop every night at 11pm, after police responded to the complaints of some neighbors who were evidently not quite as impressed by the band, as was a growing number of the general public.

In fact, by the time the band actually signed an album deal with XL Recordings (Radiohead, White Stripes), in January of this year, the album was almost complete, each instrument recorded on a couch in their rehearsal space, on what they described as a "crappy microphone gaffer taped to a mic stand".

Only one track, Jump In The Pool, was recorded outside their spiritual home, as they turned over production responsibilities to acclaimed British songwriter/producer/musician, Paul Epworth.

They also scored a major coup in May when their track, On Board, was chosen for use in the US advertising campaign for Nintendo Wii Fit.

It has seen the band go from strength to strength in a market that is traditionally a difficult one to crack for most UK acts, and they are currently touring the continent, playing to packed houses as they seek to consolidate the momentum that they built up playing virtually every major music festival in Europe during the summer.

It has, naturally, helped that their eponymous debut album has scored well with critics since its release a little over a month ago and the band claim that it only represents about five percent of the music that they have already written.

Hard as it is to believe, McFarland admitted lately that the band genuinely believed until only recently that things might never happen for them.

He needn't have worried because from where anyone in the music industry is standing, Friendly Fires look set to burn for a long time to come.