There's No Future Quite Like The Left

“Great rock ‘n’ roll isn’t made of substantive facts. It’s made of a series of contrasting images and ideas which get people unaccountably excited about a band.” Oh indeed, and there are few bands that can claim to be as contrary or as exciting as Future Of The Left; a trio of socialist, liberal-baiting, hard-drinking, fitness freaks who pen hard pop-punk songs about imagined, bloody revenge and a sentimental love of pussy cats in equal measure.

Andrew ‘Falco’ Falkous, from whom the above quote is proffered, continues to enlighten The Skinny about the band’s non-literal name as we share a word backstage at Glasgow's Stereo. “We’re all left-leaning individuals, but that’s not what the name's about. When you go for a year-and-a-quarter without a name you start to panic. At one stage, I thought of calling the band just a barcode. You know, having a barcode for a band name.” "Actually, I remember you telling me that,” groans bassist Kelson Mathias with an equal degree of mirth and relief.

Fortunately they opted for their current “good sounding” moniker, but there were other more pressing problems in the two year interim between Mclusky and Jarcrew’s dissolution and the subsequent formation of FOTL. “The first year was pretty difficult for a few different reasons; relationships ending and bones breaking in wrists,” offers drummer Jack Egglestone. “Have you ever seen the Manga film Akira?” asks Falco excitedly. “It was a bit like that. 2005 was Akira, 2006 was Fist Of The North Star, and 2007 was Howl’s Moving Castle - which I haven’t actually seen. Looked too feminine for me. ‘Chick Anime’ – not my genre.”

Future of the Left - Manchasm

 

However, such drastic, if unlikely, teething problems seem to be paying off now as last year the Welsh lads enjoyed more mainstream press coverage than their former bands combined. “The NME have given us about as much coverage as a band like us could reasonably expect,” admits Falco. “I don’t think they’ve said anything unreasonable about us – I think we’re a fucking good band. I’m just surprised that they’ve decided to tell people that with big pictures and everything.” However, he states he’s unimpressed with the weekly rags’ eight-out-of-ten rating for their album Curses. “I’ve just got a thing where I’m not interested in eight-out-of-ten. Give it a three or give it a nine, you know.”

Perhaps the most surprising thing about meeting the band in person is just how amiable and pleasant they all are, a stark contrast to their photo shoots that have often involved power tools and dead hookers. “Sometimes people are a bit hesitant to come up and see us after shows,” admits Kelson. “Apart from real fucking psychos,” adds Falco. “Well it’s an obvious reaction,” Kelson continues. “If you saw a guy on the street freaking out, throwing his arms in the air, you’re not going to go up to him and say ‘Fuck, good moves’. You’re gonna go ‘I’m gonna take a wide berth past you, you big fucking radge’.”

“When I’m not making a lot of noise I like to be quite quiet,” adds Falco. “I mean, I’ve met certain people in bands who aren’t like that. Frankly I’ve met lots of people in bands who could do with putting a lot of the passion and the chaos they bring to their normal everyday lives into their fucking music because their music’s really boring and polite.” Like? “Nearly every musician you’ve ever met, frankly.”

However, don’t mistake the Future Of The Left live experience as some kind of catharsis for the band. “It’s just totally natural. It’s not a catharsis at all,” states Falco. “I’ve been in bands with people for whom it was a catharsis and for me that’s bullshit. If it’s a catharsis you can’t be so rigid with it. You can’t travel around and have your appointed time of catharsis every night between ten and ten-fifty. It’s actively the most enjoyable thing you can do with your time, and the rest of the day is set around creating, hopefully, the ideal conditions for playing a rock show. Playing live and having people really, really like the music and it being appreciated and having magical nights is what it’s about. It’s not about inner demons. Fuck that.”

Future of the Left - adeadenemyalwayssmellsgood