The Brag

Future Of The Left
Against Common Sense
By Darragh Murray

The Australian summer just doesn’t feel right without Welsh rock group Future Of The Left dropping by to tear local ears off with their distorted tales of odd characters and borderline sociopaths. The group’s forthcoming Australian tour, which includes a trip down to the Meredith Music Festival, is actually their second jaunt to the antipodes this year. Fortunately it’s difficult to tire of the band, and interviewing their charismatic frontman Andy ‘Falco’ Falkous is never a boring experience; his witty, erudite and engaging demeanour makes the task of a music writer a hell of a lot easier than usual. Even when I call him at an hour approaching midnight in Cardiff, the ex-Mclusky singer-guitarist’s fondness for self-deprecation and humour shines through – especially when I ask what he’s been doing of late. “On a personal level, looking for a fucking job! With my CV, that’s a real pain in the arse – ‘cause the gaps in my CV generally happen to somebody who’s been on tour for a long time as a roadie for Motörhead… or [someone who] has been in prison,” he says emphatically. “On another level? Trying to actually finish this album.”

I’ve managed to catch Falco the night before his band are due to finish their third full-length record, The Plot Against Common Sense. Future Of The Left are touring Australia before the release date in January, but Falco explains that the album’s delay was unavoidable. “We’ve been so excited about this record; I mean, we’ve known we’ve had something special on our hands for a while, but it’s been frustrating having that just beyond our reach for the last month or so. [After it’s finished], I’m going to have two days of injecting a series of lagers directly into my eyes in order to recuperate from the experience.”
Eager fans won’t have to wait too long to hear new material; the band found time to record a six-track entree, Polymers Are Forever, ahead of the Australian tour. “We thought we’d have the album finished and out by now. Unfortunately because of various delays – most of which were beyond our control – that wasn’t possible.” Although just a pre-cursor of mostly demos, Polymers Are Forever is a significant release for the band when you consider it’s the first commercially available material since the departure of their original bassist Kelson Mathias in 2010, and the first since the group evolved into a four piece, picking up Jimmy Watkins on guitar and Julia Ruzicka on bass. “I’d like people who are fans of the band to listen to those five songs and think, ‘Fuck, if these five songs are songs which weren’t good enough for the record, I can only imagine how good the record is.’”

Surprisingly, Falco admits that the new songs are, for the first time in his view, actually “about something”. Explaining the genesis of the song ‘Polymers Are Forever’, he reveals a deeper meaning behind its title. “Jimmy, who’s the relatively new guitarist in the band, he came up with the title when the song was already half written. And I just had this image of all these plastic bags at the bottom of the ocean, just covering and strangling the ocean… eventually just subsuming the world.” Falco explains. “And I like the [title] ‘Polymers Are Forever’; that has an epic notion, and it’s also, at least in contemporary scientific understanding, literally true.” Our conversation turns towards the story behind one of the more interesting tracks on the EP, the curiously-titled ‘Destroywhitchurch.com’. “It’s really bizarre. We were driving through Cardiff and saw this sign which said ‘destroywhitchurch.com’ – Whitchurch is an area of Cardiff. It sounds like it’s going to be the web hub of an anarchist organisation, or maybe going to be sticking bombs through local neighbourhood watches’ letter boxes,” he muses. “It turns out that, conversely, destroywhitchurch is about saving English language schools in the Whitchurch area… The website is concerned with what it sees as the destruction of traditional Whitchurch.”

A stray question about what the future holds for Future Of The Left sets Falco off on another anecdote, about a past interview with a guitar magazine – which provides insight into his philosophy behind playing guitar. “I did an interview with Guitar World magazine about five years ago, and the guy said, ‘So, what advice would you give to any readers of Guitar World?’ I said, ‘Shut the magazine and never fucking read it again.’ And he said, ‘Well obviously we can’t publish that…’ and I went, ‘Yeah, well that’s my advice,’” he shrugs. “You don’t want to learn from some tablature how to play a Kirk Hammett solo – just pick up a guitar and fucking hit it until it sounds good. That’s how great guitar players are made.”

After a few shows in the UK, Australia is the first stop on a wider tour. “Pretty much getting on to half the live set is going to be new songs, and there’s going to be old songs, and a couple of Supergrass and Metallica covers,” Falco jokes. “Australia first – it will be a delight. And it will also be a chance to get some sun on our pasty fucking skin.”

What: Polymers Are Forever EP is out now through Remote Control
With: Dead Farmers and Yes, I’m Leaving
Where: Annandale Hotel
When: Thursday December 8