The Futureheads Backstage at The New Roadmender, I'm sitting
comfortably with The Futureheads' singer Barry Hyde. Sitting
in chairs, against different walls, the relaxed atmosphere
could be a setting for a television pre gig interview.
For some reason, which
I forget, we start to discuss the vocal style of Silversun.
"What ever happened to Silversun?" asks Barry in his
deep Sunderland accent.
In brief they never attained any more success than they did
with 'Lava' and a reformation and comeback wasn’t as fruitful.
It paves the way for more discussions about The Futureheads'
own vocal approach.
"We started singing in harmony very early on in the band,
when we had our original drummer Pete Brewis. It was because
we didn't have a vocal PA in the rehearsal room. We would go
in and rehearse instrumentally and then rehearse with our guitars
turned right down. I would just be singing by myself. It was
a kind of an odd thing to do really. It's the type of thing
I should be doing at home. Peter started singing and we started
playing around with it and it became one of those things that
give us an identity. I think it's essential for any band to
find something like that, that they feel makes them unique because
then you know you have the courage and bravado to go and try
and convince people that you're worth listening to, that you’re
original or whatever."
Self-confidence is an important factor in more ways than one.
"Absolutely," agrees Barry. "You start thinking,
"We're doing something quite adventurous here, which people
wont be expecting us to.""
Was there a lot of excitement at the development of the band
during those first rehearsals?
"It was a buzz from the off really. We had all been in
various, not very serious bands, but I'd never written songs
before or sang, so for me personally when we got the band together
it was awesome. I began to think "I'm a songwriter now
so if I wrote a song that'll get played by a band, by a band
I'm in it's amazing"." >>
