It’s four o’clock on a Saturday afternoon and I’m sitting
on the cold steps which lead up to the Guildhall, surrounded by assorted sixteen year-old autograph hunters and hangers-on.
The vague fuzz of "A to B" filters through the doors and tells me that the Futureheads are still sound checking for tonight’s
gig. Eventually a bemused-looking Ross Millard, guitarist and vocalist with The Futureheads, appears through the doors. Before
we get past "Hello" he is accosted by a girl with a mobile phone, "Ross can you say hello to my friend Vicki?!" With Vicki
acknowledged and the fans happy, Ross decides that we should move to their tour bus for a bit of privacy. We briefly talk
informally about how the tour is going while we settle down in the luxury leather interior of the double decker’s ‘lounge
area’. After a brief interlude and several interruptions from the tour manager we finally begin...
Chris Spence:
So you’re on tour with the Kaiser Chiefs, Bloc Party and The Killers. Who’s your favorite?
Ross Millar: Oww I don’t know. We knew Bloc Party before we came on this tour and the Kaiser’s have really endeared
themselves to us because we’re similar people. The Killers are nice but we don’t really see much of them. They’re
big enough to do this thing in their own right so they have a lot more to do. We all get on well equally, so I can’t
really say.
CS: Hmmm ok, and what’s the best town you’ve visited so far on the tour?
RM: Best town…
CS: Apart from Southampton of course.
RM: Aye, well this is shaping up well. There’s only been two towns so far where there were kids outside the
gig, here and Birmingham, so that’s a good sign. But I would have to say the best gig was the two we did in Glasgow
so far, as the crowd really warmed to us.
CS: How did your three man a capella vocal style vocals come about?
RM: I suppose it’s because we were all singers in different bands at one time or another and none of us were
really comfortable with being the ‘front man’. So we decide to distribute it between the four of us.
CS: Is it true you got your energetic style from your original garage rehearsal space being so cold?
RM: Haha. It was. It used to be freezing in there. I think that’s why in the beginning the songs were so fast,
as you don’t really want to be standing in a cold garage playing acoustics. We also didn’t have a PA so we would
just be shouting over the top of each other. Of course we don’t rehearse there any more.
CS: When I saw you in Portsmouth you threatened to do a cover of East 17’s ‘House of Love’. Is
that ever going to surface?
RM: Haha. I don’t think so. We’re trying to knock the covers on the head. In the beginning we were
quite nervous about being referred to as that band who covered the Kate Bush song. But I think we’ve done enough to
that song now to make it our own. We don’t really want to be tarred with the cover’s brush so I think we’ll
steer clear of them for a while….
At this point our interview is randomly interrupted by a half-cut
Barry Hyde, vocalist and guitarist with The Futureheads. Obviously bored at the fact he has nothing to do for the next four
hours, Barry decides to sneak up behind me. Seeing the look on Ross’s face, I turn around just in time. A giggling fit
and mumbled apology later and we continue.
CS:
What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done for your art?
RM: Craziest thing um….we toured some German squat clubs a couple of years ago, that was pretty crazy. They
were the unused buildings that the kids would take over and put gigs on inside so that was pretty mad. A lot of Carney folk
and stuff.
CS: Any new material out soon?
RM: Well we’ve got new material ready. But we’re touring until September so I should think an album
won’t be out until the end of the year. We’re re-releasing the album in March with bonus tracks on. We’ve
got some work in progress on-going as we’re on the road. It’s kind of hard being the second album as you have
to start from scratch, but we’re more excited then scared about it.
At this point I decide to leave Ross to wash
his ‘dirties’ before tonight’s show. He says that him and some of the other boys on the tour are going to
have a ‘kick about’. I wonder if The Killers will join in?
Chris Spence
