Features
< Fear Of Music
words by Kate Hutchinson
Some bands never make it so imagine making it twice. The first time Fear of Music were badgered by record companies, the youngest member was just 14 years old. This time around however, there are a few years on them and a host of succulent tunes and wisdom under their belts. Front man Jo Rose tells Loud And Quiet why this is the year Fear of Music are going to slay. Talking to him down a temperamental phone line from London to Manchester, it becomes evident that Jo Rose was a boy reared on rock. Real rock. In school he reveals that he idolised Patti Smith and Bob Dylan when most kids his age were probably throwing themselves around to Slipknot or Papa Roach and thinking they were being subversive. “I’ve never been that much of a primadonna,” he says humbly. “I’m not into believing you’re a big rock star before you’ve really got anywhere.”
Not that anyone would blame them if they did have a bit of the ol’ rock star attitude going on, they did get a deal when they were doing their GCSEs after all, years before the current wave of young bands. But the six-year ride taking them to the point of playing the Islington Academy stage this February has been strained and unforgiving – quite a chequered history.
The four lads from Manchester all met through school or each other – vocalist Jo and drummer Chris Stanley, both 18, having known each other since reception class, and quickly went on to practice regularly in Chris’s old playroom for years until they were granted their first show. “No one would let us play because of their [over-18] licences,” reminisces Jo, “but we met a local promoter and he helped us out, got us some publicity and managed to get us into a few bars to play. We generated some buzz from that.”
The buzz travelled at breakneck speed and soon innumerable record companies swept the boys into a vortex of contracts and pep talks, a time that Jo talks about with particular disdain. “There was a point where I wanted to stop because there was a lot of legal and music industry stuff that I didn’t enjoy at all. We weren’t looking for a record deal, we were just looking to have fun and rock out, but it’s a strange shift when it goes from that to being about money essentially.”
To cut a messy story short, the quartet went into hiding and is now back, three years later, to kick 2007 up the arse. Described as ‘between Muse circa Showbiz and Radiohead circa The Bends’ and with lyrics about attacking the norm, Fear of Music’s back catalogue could be described as modern protest music like Jo’s influences Dylan and Smith before him. “I think that’s a fair enough summary of what we sound like but there are a lot of other influences in there,” declares Jo, “but I think that when we’re recording the album we want to be outside that a bit. I did find myself stealing the way that Joanna Newsom uses rhyming structure in her songs and I like the way that The Arcade Fire could use a simple chord progression and still get a very big and beautiful sound, and the way Bright Eyes works lyrically is very simple but it still sounds interesting.
“We always say if you rip off enough influences at the same time then it’s original. A lot of bands don’t admit to that but bands basically rip off the bands that they love but if you expose yourself to as much as possible then in the end it creates something new and that’s what innovation is about.”
A three track EP entitled ‘We Are Not The Enemy’ and recorded by the stellar Dimitri Tikovoi is scheduled for release this month and Rose is sceptical about how the media will receive it. “People bring our age up a lot and I find a lot of the write-ups about us go, ‘they’re dead young but they’re dead good and they sound a lot like Muse.’ When Muse came out everyone said they were the new Radiohead and when Radiohead came out everyone said they were the new R.E.M. It’s lazy journalism, it’s what I expect. But I’m definitely putting everything into creating something original and organic.”
So with all this creative energy and an innovative sound, why didn’t they grab the opportunity by the balls when they first had the chance? “Strangely it’s at the points where it’s been looking most likely that something big is going to happen that we’ve got a little bit terrified,” says Jo, “and the music business can stab you in the back. It’s bizarre because when you’re that age there’s a natural educational progression we’ve been taught to go through, with school then college then university, and there were a couple of band members who didn’t know what to do. Mike wanted to go to university, that was his plan, and he was put in a position where he had two options and he’s not very good at making decisions. He ended up going but he came back! After a while it occurred to us that this is what we’ve been wanting to do our whole lives.”
After ten minutes of talking to Jo it becomes clear that he is a boy (bordering on man, ya hear!) far beyond his 18 years. He talks about dealing with the trappings of the music business with a deep understanding. “The best way to deal with the bullshit is acknowledge it and understand it as far as you need to and make sure that you don’t get exploited.”
Like rose-tinted spectacled with an intense, otherworldly mindset, spouting lines like “I’ve always felt an ‘on the road’ like lack of identity” and “It’s all about provoking any kind of emotion or reaction out of people that excites me”, Jo is perfect for the role of next mysterious front man in rock. After all there’s a lot of room for growth.
Originally appeared in volume 1, issue 19 of Loud & Quiet magazine
