For the record, Fanfarlo is not a bunch of folks that have attended music school. Nor are they afraid to “do something stupid,” like releasing their album for a dollar or traveling around the world with a barrage of instruments in tow. I met up with a freshly flown-in Fanfarlo outside the back door of Chop Suey, their first stop on their first headlining tour in the US. Though obviously tired, Simon Balthazar, Justin Finch, and Leon Beckenham were kind enough to take a break from a bit of setup to speak with me for a little while. They seemed to be in good enough spirits, though unfortunately their playful banter doesn’t come off as spritely in writing. I couldn’t help feeling at one point like I was part of a Creature Comforts interview, complete with random folks dropping in, responding to other swingers-by and dropping jokes, but the feeling was probably somewhat influenced by the British accents.
melophobe: So I heard you just mentioned you are jet-lagged, I take it you just got in?
Simon: Yeah, we just got in last night, at midnight or something which is eight in the morning for us and we didn’t get fed on the flight. It was a five-hour, so we had just assumed we’d get fed. Also our guitarist [Jeremy Warmsley] got stuck in immigration—they wouldn’t let him in, something about his visa—so we ended up having to rush for the flight and ran by the food. Oh, but we did get a snack box.
Justin: Yes, a snack box.
Simon: And our equipment didn’t turn up either. It went to Vegas, and Jeremy got stuck in Philly. But we finally arrived at the hotel—it said, well they called it “mid-town,” wherever that is—it wasn’t too nice. Kinda a rough street with derelict houses with barbed wire.
melophobe: [Cringing, since I want these guys to come back] You wrote on your website you went to Beth’s?
Simon: Yeah, that part was really great. We enjoyed the food. And then we woke up this morning and here we are.
melophobe: So, have you been in Seattle before?
Simon: No. No, well someone might have been before but this is our first proper show in the states. We played SXSW but we’ve never done a headlining show before.
melophobe: That’s exciting!
Simon: Yeah, it’s really exciting. It’s new and fresh!
melophobe: And what did you think of SXSW?
Simon: It was really cool. Austin is a really cool place. We were really busy.
Justin:The best thing is we played the Presbyterian Church. People were really into it. We played it last year and was kind of smaller scale but this time people were really into it and makes a difference, it’s all about the vibe and so it was fun for us.
melophobe: Did you catch any other bands down there you were excited about?
Simon: Well, I tried to catch Dirty Projectors three times, but it was just ridiculous. One time I got swept away by this black cab session. They had rented a black cab somewhere and had driven it down to Austin and so we went on a trip with that and I missed them. I did see . . . do you know about the Wild Beasts?
Justin: I watched some black metal bands, because I’m really into black metal. We played the same stage as Wolves in the Throne Room, they’re from Cascadia right? From this area?
melophobe: Uh, sure. [Nicole is not familiar with such a band, but the internet says yes! Justin knows what he is talking about, they are from Olympia—close enough to the Cascades]
Justin: Yeah they are from the Northwest. And a Texas black metal band, Absu. I’ve always been interested in metal.
Simon: Oh we saw Dinosaur Jr. as well.
melophobe: They played several unannounced shows right?
Justin: Yeah. We were just randomly there. We saw them in the street so . . . .
[Simon mentioned the Dirty Projectors one more time—"They’re the best!"—and doesn’t seem to be completely over missing them so many times.]
melophobe: So several of the videos I’ve seen look rather impromptu or “organic,” not necessarily staged at all; is this how you prefer to play, or has that come about out of necessity?
Simon: Yeah, that’s definitely part of us. I guess you might have seen a bunch of covers we’ve been doing and that’s been light. Its been, literally, “Oh yeah, let’s cover this song.” And we get out the laptop, look on the internet to make sure we’re not completely raping the song.
melophobe: Yeah, I’ve seen the Bonnie Prince Billy cover and the Smashing Pumpkins one, are there any other covers you’ve done recently?
Simon: There’s Neutral Milk Hotel. We’ve covered “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea” a few times.
Justin: Especially for encores. We’ve kinda opted to take our shit in the crowd, bang a drum. Its kinda fun, since its a real sing-along song.
Simon: We did a Tom Waits cover. And this 60’s French Rockabilly.
Justin: We’ve got so many songs we want to do. Like Talking Heads. It’s about time. We’ve only got so much done so far.
melophobe: That’s one of my favorite things about you: you have such a range of songs you can do and yet they still sound like you.
Justin: Well, we cover them because we love the songs, so we don’t necessarily change them too much. We’re not trying to reinvent them or something. We’re not trying to get creative.
Simon: No, we’re not trying to get creative at all.
Justin: Well, I think maybe sometimes we do.
Simon: Yeah, maybe sometimes we do. Sometimes we have to.
Justin: Yeah, but mainly it’s just because we love the songs. We like to use them for encores.
melophobe: So you’ve toured with Snow Patrol, and did I see The Acorn?
Simon: Well, we toured with Snow Patrol, which is, you know . . . the offer came up. It’s one of those things. They are really great guys. We got to play some huge arena shows. We didn’t tour with The Acorn, but we wanted to do a warm up show before this tour and we are friends with Bella Union so we worked with them, and hooked up.
melophobe: What did you think of them?
Simon: Yeah, they were good. I didn’t really get to listen to them a whole lot, but we enjoyed them.
melophobe: I came across them a couple years ago, it’s kind of a nice theme they have in their music.
Justin: Ok. To be honest, I wasn’t really that sure what they were about.
melophobe: [I briefly summarize. Read melophobe’s Acorn interview and Acorn interview part two.]
Justin: It’s not a very good name for a band. (laughing)
melophobe: Yeah, not really. (also laughing) Ok then, and what about your name?
Simon: Hmm, I’m not sure it’s a good name for a band either. It comes from Charles Baudelaire.
Justin: CHARLES BAUDELAIRE!
Simon: He’s a 19th century symbolist.
Justin: Is he a symbolist? [I believe this is a rhetorical joke]
Simon: Well, anyways, he’s like a French poet and he wrote lots of novellas and he wrote La Fanfarlo. I think that name kinda came about randomly too. I’d just made some songs and I was reading a bunch, like Verlaine, Baudelaire and those guys. And I figured it would be to use one of the lesser known works. So it’s a nice little reference, though I’m not sure how well it goes with the songs. We all love to read, and think out loud, so it’s well-used in just that sense.
Justin: And the word “Fanfarlo” has some connotations. It sounds a bit like “fanfare.”
melophobe: Yeah, it seems a bit fanciful to me, a little like your music. I guess somewhat on those lines, how does your writing process work?
Simon: It’s basically me writing the songs. And then we get together and work out an arrangement around it.
Justin: [Simon] or someone will bring an idea and then the six of us kinda work on it. Work around the lyrics.
Simon: I mean, some songs I have an idea, and we just kinda work on it and then some songs I don’t have any idea, and it really doesn’t work.
Justin: Yeah. We tend to rip these songs apart once there are six of us on board.
Simon: Exactly.
Justin: We are attacking and we rip it apart and start again. A lot of songs never started out that way, with the arrangement.
melophobe: Do you guys have any references you use? You mentioned the reading, but in terms of any musical influences for all the instruments you use? Anyone you are flattered to be compared to?
Simon: I kinda didn’t really have much music growing up. In my house when I grew up. My parents had this tiny record collection, a couple of jazz records, a couple rockabilly, and that was it. But there was always a lot of instruments around, I think my dad always wanted to be a musician. He basically plays a lot of instruments really badly [smiles]. But I was always playing different instruments when I was little. There’d be a piano, a uke, so I started taking piano lessons when I was little.
Justin: When we get together, an obvious reference is Arcade Fire. And I’ve heard Talking Heads. Neutral Milk Hotel. Stuff like that. Sufjan Stevens. There is stuff we used to listen to that might have influenced, but not so much now.
Simon: I think really, I think deep down it’s rooted in folk music.
Justin: We could probably list hundreds of bands.
melophobe: Have you ever been compared to anyone that you thought was a funny comparison?
Simon and Justin: No, not really. It’s always Arcade Fire, that sort of thing.
Justin: Well, we didn’t really think of Talking Heads but a lot of people did, so that’s really cool. Personality on stage, whatnot.
melophobe: Your videos remind me a bit of them.
Justin: Yeah, that whole aesthetic, crazy, surrealist.....
Simon: I think we kinda subscribe to a lot of things they stand for, but it’s funny because we didn’t really think of it as an influence until people started saying it.
melophobe: Yeah, David Burns puts on quite a theatrical show. His most recent one had cheerleaders and all.
Simon: Did you see Sufjan Stevens by any chance? When the whole band was dressed like cheerleaders?
melophobe: Really? I saw them a few years back at Sasquatch, but they were dressed patriotic, like Uncle Sam.
Simon: Oh really, which album was that?
melophobe: It was maybe 3 years ago?
Simon: So was that Michigan stuff?
melophobe: I think Illinoise was out at that time.
Justin: They did a tour where they were dressed like cheerleaders, pom poms.
melophobe: You guys seem to trade a lot of instruments around, did everyone know how to play those instruments?
Simon: We’ve been picking up a lot of stuff as we go along. I learned to play clarinet last year because I really wanted to play it in the band. Uke as well, mandolin. I mean, I’ve kinda had a go at those instruments in the past, but I’ve learned them because I wanted to learn them. And I think the same for Cathy, she’s learned to play a bunch of new instruments. She used to just play violin now she plays ukelele, keys; it’s kinda about going past the three-people group. If you only have three people in the band it can be kinda boring. We just say, “Hey we want an instrument for something.”
Leon: Oh, and Cathy learned to play the saw as well. ‘Cause we are all really into the idea of using saws. I’m going to play the saw tonight.
Simon: Yeah? [that was a joke, only Cathy played the saw.]
Leon: Oh…
Simon: None of us went to . . . music school.
Leon: . . . and I’ve learned to play the tambourine as well. It took awhile, but . . .
melophobe: With your foot, or just your hands?
Leon: Anything. Well, we actually had to grow thumbs.
melophobe: I saw Horse Feathers recently, they use the saw a bit, and he plays the tambourine with his foot. Are you familiar with them?
Simon: Horse Feathers? No.
Simon: It’s a tight fit on the stage. Trying to fit and play your instruments.
Justin: … and none of us have gone to musical school. That was mentioned in a review.
Simon: That actually really annoyed us. I can’t remember where it was now, but we got this review from this show in London and they said, “Yeah, and they were just swapping instruments, I bet they went to music school and wanted to show off and play them all.” No! In fact, I really don’t understand, it’s the opposite. I just don’t understand only playing one instrument. Some people pull it off but, in general, why would you want to do that? I mean, we have an idea of what we want our songs to sound like. And then in order for this song to work, we need to swap instruments mid-song or whatever.
melophobe: I think there is a trend in general of bands using more instruments and fleshing out the sound.
Simon: Yeah, it’s definitely a sort of zeitgeist. A lot of people have started using mandolins now.
Justin: It’s hard work, it’s really fuckin’ hard work with that many instruments. Because you’ve got to put everything into it. It would be so much easier, sometimes you wish it was just bass, drums, guitar. It’s so tough, traveling around the world with all these instruments. And trying to sound check them.
Simon: We always have too many people, too many things to plug in.
melophobe: Well, this stage isn’t particularly large . . . .
Leon: But we’re tough.
Justin: Yeah.
melophobe: So, you released your album for a dollar, I assume you did this because you want people to hear your music.
Simon: Yeah, definitely. And it was like, why not? Because we were doing it ourselves. Well, right now if we are doing it ourselves, we don’t have a label to say, “No you cant do that, it’s stupid.” Well, so let’s do something stupid. And the fact of the matter is, if you were to release on a major label, that is probably about how much we would get. And it was fun.
melophobe: Do you see that in general with the music industry, things changing?—I mean, it’s pretty easy to get music for free online—as someone trying to make a living.
Simon: Yeah, it is definitely like that, but I think it will change. I mean, we are never going to go back to a time when you had to go buy a record to be able to hear it. But I think if you want to, people will pay if it’s stuff you like. I think it’s just about giving people an easy way to do that. It needs to be easier to get it. I think it will.
Justin: And I think if you get music for free it kinda cheapens it.
Leon: Careful there.
melophobe: I did hear you guys just signed to a label?
Simon: Yeah, we just signed with a label called Canvasback. It’s good, they’re good people.
melophobe: Are they going to have you come in and work on more stuff, or go with what you already have?
Simon: Well, we were already putting out stuff, self-releasing the album. But they sort of just, jumped on, added their resources to it. Made it slightly more ambitious, bit more people to interact with, slightly more money.
melophobe: Do get a chance to write much when you are on tour?
Simon: Well, we don’t really write much on tour, you need to have time to write but we’re always talking about stuff . . .
Justin: We’ve not really extensively toured yet. I mean, we haven’t gotten on a bus and traveled around for like, months. We’ve never had a tour that’s been longer than four or five weeks so far.
melophobe: So you’ve mostly played in England and Europe?
Simon: Yeah.
melophobe: You’ve been to SXSW, have you played other shows in the States?
Simon: No, not really.
Leon: We played a tiny last-minute show at CMJ last year.
Simon: I think we’re going back this year.
melophobe: Do you notice any differences in reception of your music here versus home, or in Europe?
Simon: Yeah, somewhat. I don’t want to slag anyone off but . . .
melophobe: You can always change your mind in four weeks.
Simon: Yeah. I, uh, we always seem to get a better crowd outside the UK. Everyone is really snobby in London. I mean, you’ve got lots of music scenes going on there, but in America people seem a bit more accepting.
Leon: Yeah, generally.
Simon: And even if it’s not necessarily snobby, it’s about people asking, “Should I be liking this? What does this sound like?”
Leon: Exactly.
Simon: There’s so many derivative bands. Everywhere obviously.
Simon: In the UK, there are so many bands that are derivative, but there are things you are supposed to be derivative of and things you aren’t supposed to be derivative of. You’re not supposed to like certain groups. It’s just this weird thing where things are supposed to sound a certain way. Where as, in the rest of Europe and over here, it’s more, “I like this, this is great, so I’m going to listen to this. Good song.”
Leon: People seem to listen to a wide variety here without necessarily asking “Is this music for me?”
melophobe: And people that live here have had to search you out somewhat. I’ve been waiting a while to get to see you live. One of my friends who loves you guys is bummed he had to choose between your show and football, so he’s home watching that and I’m here.
Leon: We seem to always be battling with the football. We were, where was it?
Simon: Oh, like we played in Paris and that was a big French game. People came out, but it was a small crowd. And where else, it happened . . . ?
Leon Yeah, it happens now and then.
melophobe: I guess you don’t really have a lot of choice about when you play where.
Simon: Yeah I mean, it’s “Here’s A and here’s C and B needs to be here on this day.”
Leon: You can’t base your schedule around the football pitch.
[conversation about some local Seattle teams, festivals]
melophobe: Speaking of people being exposed to new random music, I just caught an interesting fusion band called Delhi 2 Dublin. They aren’t really like you at all, but they do use quite a mix. Bhangra-celtic fiddle with reggae..
Leon: Oh, you mean like as in the city, I thought it meant as in the food! Ok.
melophobe: Yeah. Not the sandwich.
Leon: Sounds interesting, interesting fusion. Sounds a bit intense.
melophobe: It was fun, very dance friendly, the lead singer could be in a Bollywood video.
[Simon remembers something off topic for a few moments]
melophobe: What is your biggest fear?
Simon: As a band, or personally?
melophobe: Either. Both.
Simon: I don’t know, I don’t think we are afraid of anything.
Leon: No. We’re fearless.
melophobe: Instruments not arriving at your show?
Simon: No, because that happens all the time. It’s happened every time we’ve entered America. We’ve always had someone stuck in immigration and we’ve always had, um . . .
Leon: It’s usually Amos though.
melophobe: Maybe he’s flagged?
Simon: Yeah, his middle name is Akbar. Which is bizarre, because Akbar is a really common name.
melophobe: So is he still there?
Simon: No, no he didn’t get stuck this time actually. He made it.
Leon: Every time he’s been detained in like, small plastic bags. It must be Akbar is on our watch list. There are quite a few million people called that!
melophobe: I imagine it’s quite a hassle to fly with all those instruments.
Leon: It’s a lot to remember.
Simon: A lot of people to fly around with.
Leon: Sometimes some of us miss our flights . . . .
melophobe: Where do you see yourselves in the future?
Simon: Well, we’re working on some new songs now. We are going to play a few tonight. We just want to keep up the records. Presumably, we want to evolve a bit, in a few albums’ time we might sound very different.
Leon: Maybe a bit of Bhangra Irish folk fusion....
melophobe: Yeah, they were pretty fun. Are you interested in doing any collaborations? Or do you already have enough musicians on stage?
Simon: Yeah, we like collaborations. We’ve got John from Beirut playing some shows with us in New York. And we were going to play a song or two at SXSW with Angel from Dirty Projectors. And we tried to get Sufjan Stevens to play on our album but, I don’t know he was busy or something.
Leon: Haha. Maybe too good for us.
Simon: But we love collaborating with people and I think it’s something we will do a lot more of.
Simon: We’re going out on a joint headline tour in the UK straight after this with a band called First Aid, it’s like a folk duo of two girls from Sweden, they are 15 or 16 years old. So we’ve been kind of in touch with them, but we met them for the first time really recently and so we got together and we did this kind of cover together. So we’ve just met and the first thing we do is get together in front of a camera. We’d agreed on a song together, but we’ve never played it before together or anything. So that was interesting, it was cool.
Leon: I’d never heard the song myself.
melophobe: You’ve probably answered this question a lot but, how did you guys all get together? You are from Sweden? [Simon]
Simon: Cathy’s from Belgium.
Leon: We all kinda gravitated around Simon, really. He’s got that cosmic pull, that pulled us to him, literally.
Simon: You know, a bunch of songs and we started out as a two piece with a laptop, and it just sort of coagulated. In the scene in London, we were going to shows together.
melophobe: It’s pretty great you have been able to put together a group. I’ve known some other bands that would love to be able to do that but they just aren’t there yet, so it’s a laptop and a guy.
Simon: Yeah, we’ve done that and it was the worst thing ever. I would never play with a backing track again.
Leon: We did that for a while.
Simon: We did it for ages, actually. I think doing what we want to do took a long time to be able to do just because it is so hard to coordinate. It’s a lot easier for a guitar band to get together and play. And we’ve had sound people be really rude to us. “What do you mean you want a saw on stage? What do you mean you want 25 hookups? Cant you just play without it? Make it work.”
Simon: We’ve had abuse from sound people.
Leon: Yeah, especially when we’re not headlining, there’s that well, “You can’t be making all these demands when you are just the suppor.t”
Simon: Give us our sound!
melophobe: Well, I don’t mean to take up any more of your time away from sound-check, thank you very much for talking to me today.
Simon: Yeah, no problem.
Kelli Shaefer’s songs get stuck in my head non-stop. Every other day I find myself waking up with one in there. And that’s a good thing, she’s a talent!
by Siri on Thu Mar 11, 2010 at 04.37 pm from the entry: Artist Profile - Kelli Schaefer (Portland, OR; Winter, 2010)
Probably johnston has wrote a excellent article for the readers and are excellent photographs and thanks for sharing your thoughts
by fake tattoo on Wed Mar 10, 2010 at 10.03 pm from the entry: The Reverend Horton Heat + Nekromantix – Wonder Ballroom (Portland, OR; Jul. 9, 2009)
ha, yes! the photogs in the front row were drooling throughout the entire set…
by chris on Wed Mar 10, 2010 at 01.05 pm from the entry: Washed Out + Small Black - Mercury Lounge (New York, NY; Mar. 7, 2010)
nice pics Chris. Don’t you love it when the artist brings some cool light. It’s a bunch of low hanging fruit after that.
by colin on Wed Mar 10, 2010 at 12.53 pm from the entry: Washed Out + Small Black - Mercury Lounge (New York, NY; Mar. 7, 2010)
WOMP WOMP WOMP WOMP WOMP
by BASSHEAD on Tue Mar 9, 2010 at 04.02 pm from the entry: Ginuwine's "Pony" Deconstructed Through Dubstep (Remix)
James,
E-mail me: info@jaredfroiland.com
Thanks!
by Jared Froiland on Tue Mar 9, 2010 at 12.37 am from the entry: State Radio - Showbox (Seattle, WA; Jan.19, 2010)
Check out a sick interview back\slash Magazine did with LMFAO about how they blew up in a down economy, the struggles of entrepreneurship, and getting high.
Here is the link: http://www.backslashonline.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=317:lmfao-entrepreneurship-interview&Itemid=56
by Mike McComack on Mon Mar 8, 2010 at 10.24 pm from the entry: Photo Feature! Black Eyed Peas + Ludacris + LMFAO - TD BankNorth Garden (Boston, MA; Feb. 26, 2010)
These guys sound like a lot of fun. I love their music and the interview makes them seem all the more personable