Interview: Folks

Folks are one of the finest live acts around.

With a stellar debut in I See Cathedrals, so 7Bit was quite grateful to sit two-thirds of the six-piece down before a show at The Sebright Arms on their headline tour to ask them a bunch of questions and perhaps get their genuinely charming guitarist Michael a touch riled up in the process. Here’s the interview presented in full (sorry Michael).

7Bit: First off, introduce yourselves.

Michael: I’m Michael, lead guitarist of Folks.
Thom: I’m Thom, rhythm guitarist.
Harry: I’m Harry, the bass player from Folks.
Scott: And I’m Scott, the singer.

7Bit: Who are the two missing?

Scott: Elliot Barlow (drummer), and in his full entirety, William Akroyd.

Michael: William E. Akroyd, the keyboard player.

7Bit: What’s the ‘E’ stand for?

Thom: I have no idea!

Michael: I think it’s Edward… not to be confused with William H. Macy or the guy who used to present ‘15 to 1’.

7Bit: Right, I’ll start by getting this question out of the way, as it’s no doubt a regular one for you: during the past year or so you’ve played with [the likes of] Band of Skulls, Miles Kane but in particular Noel Gallagher. Do you consider yourselves to be – as an extension of that – associated with the ‘britpop’ genre, or is that too easy a label to be assigned to you?

Scott: No, I think we try and get as far away from ‘britpop’ as possible, people seem keen on pulling us back in there.

Michael: I think because we’re from Manchester and we play guitars, people can make that association quite freely, whereas what we did in the early days of the band was take ourselves out of that situation, rehearse in the countryside and West Yorkshire, wrote songs in our tiny houses that attracted the attention of people in America which meant we could move and ‘cross-pollinate’ with them.
7Bit: At the moment then, do you… In terms of what your sound is considered to be, it’s quite difficult to pin down exactly what it is. [Your debut album] I See Cathedrals shows a wide variance of songs on there…

Michael: We wanted it to be varied, because some of our favourite records in the past… if you listen to something like Revolver by The Beatles, the songs are diverse, y’know, you’ve got ‘She Said She Said’ following‘Yellow Submarine’. We wanted I See Cathedrals to be a divergent record. We waited long enough to make it, didn’t we?

7Bit: Going back quickly to where you’re from, coming from Manchester brings with it a fair share of expectations, you’d like to shy away from them if you can whilst being proud of the heritage, are you trying to defy expectations in any way? Do you want to make your own mark on music while you can?

Scott: Any sort of artist wants to do that, it’s almost by definition, but…

Michael: Not only do we want to transcend Manchester, we want to transcend all our influences as well. One thing Scott said to me before we even made the record was “We’ve got to lose sight of the shoreline and discover new oceans”. I thought “fuck me, what did you put in your granola this morning?”.
Yeah, I think we want to defy.

Scott: We didn’t think we wanted the album to sound like anything in particular necessarily, I think the songs that were written… I don’t think we had anything generally in mind, they just kinda happened.

Michael: When we make demos, we just use really specific instruments. We have about five different instruments that we use in the studio, but it’s not like we have an abundance of instruments to choose from. We’ve got a pallette of instruments and every song is made with the same ones. Although it is divergent, there is a continuity to the record.

7Bit: Do you find it beneficial to have six people, having that innate variety within the band enabling you to produce such a variety of tracks?

Scott: I think we had to have six people, could probably do with a few more maybe…

Thom: To be honest, we use the six instruments in the same way through all the songs. That doesn’t create diversity in that way, but it does help with the overall sound. I think what you get from [six] is the sheer power.

Michael: I don’t think the band could be any smaller, unless we ditched the rhythm guitarist… (looks at Thom, who laughs).

7Bit: With regards to I See Cathedrals – for instance, ‘Ink’ sounds very vintage, as does ‘People I’ve Known’ and ‘Avalanche’ – is it proving quite difficult to make an impact on the modern music scene, with the way the industry’s shaped right now, having that vintage element bleeding into your overall sound?

Michael: With the way we demo’ed [‘Avalanche’], it was quite a fast-paced song wasn’t it, quite a hypnotic song, we were messing around in the studio in downtime playing on an acoustic guitar. We just recorded that track live, that song’s actually all live.

Scott: It was our best take as well. We got it down straight away.

7Bit: You released I See Cathedrals at the end of last year…

Michael: 1st of October, yeah.

7Bit: …and I caught you live supporting Band of Skulls post-launch, yet I’m going to refer to a point you’ve made before Michael, where you said you don’t want to “be labelled as a great support act”. Is it good to finally have a headline tour now?

Scott: I think it was good for us to do it, we’ve supported some fantastic acts so far, but it’s nice to be a bride as opposed to a bridesmaid, and we’ve been looking forward to this [2013 headline tour] for ages now. It gives you the confidence to carry on, you’re there selling tickets y’know, it’s very important to us.

Michael: I think we learnt a lot with the Band of Skulls tour, they had really diverse crowds, it was all age ranges, and we found them really responsive didn’t we? Also, Band of Skulls were incredibly kind to us in that they didn’t mind that we played louder than them, for example.

7Bit: When I saw you guys, the crowd at some points were louder than [Band of Skulls]. They are a notorious live act now though and the crowd gets so into the performance it becomes a full-body experience, but you received a very strong reception also. As you said you played to diverse crowds, some in mine were as young as 14 with others comfortably in their 60s…
When you released I See Cathedrals, you got a great reception for it too though, people were embracing it: was it nice to have that affirmation upon releasing your debut?

Thom: The day that it was released, we all felt like “finally, it’s released”, we had a launch party which was just a gig where nothing actually happened!

Harry: We did two gigs in one night, didn’t we?

Michael: We played at Shepherd’s Bush Empire and then [Camden] Barfly. Two concerts in one night.

Thom: It was more of a gradual thing, over the last few months we’ve felt better and better.

7Bit: Now I See Cathedrals is out there, and the tour wraps up in Middlesbrough on the 9th…

Thom: In Yorkshire actually [on the 10th], a little place where we played our first six gigs at where we honed our live act.

7Bit: Do you know where you’re heading to next? With six people, I’d imagine that at least one of you has another project on the side? Are you going to consider your options now?

Scott: I think we need to chat with the label I suppose, but we’re hoping to do festivals this year, that’s what we want to concentrate on. Michael’s writing the whole time as well… also, the album’s only been out since October, so…

Michael: Because we’ve been doing this headline tour of our own, we’re seeing more people coming to our shows than ever before, we need to capitalise on that before we think about anything else. It’s only been four months.

7Bit: That’s true, I was going to ask next if you all consider yourselves to be where you want to be as a group right now, but I suppose that question’s a little redundant in retrospect…

Scott: We wanna carry on touring, get the gigs bigger and better, and louder, so that’s something we’re working on, and we’re gonna look forward to another tour at least.

Michael: We have a lot of people come to shows… like for example [on February 6th] in Cambridge, we had one lady who stopped Thom and I and said to us “I didn’t even know you guys were playing tonight”, she’d looked at a listings page and saw that ‘a band’ was playing tonight, with guitars, and she thought she’s come down and have a watch.
I think she posted on Twitter that the gig “was like a religious experience”, and I think we need to meet more people like that, find our audience. Look under skirting boards, in cupboards, wherever… seek them out… Like scientologists, constantly recruiting.

7Bit: Got a little bonus question related to this now: got any festivals lined up, I don’t know if you’ve also done any festivals already?

Michael: We have, we did Green Man a while back, that was a brilliant festival, we actually opened the Far Out stage. In the Brecon Beacons, it was great.
We did a smaller festival just outside of Manchester, what was it called?

Scott: Friends of Mine Festival.

Thom: We haven’t really done many, a handful.

Michael: It’d be brilliant, if we got lucky to play before a massive audience, to see how they’d react, see if they react in the same way as the ones on the Band of Skulls tour. Festivals can be good for new bands…

7Bit: Even just for getting yourselves out there, large crowds congregate to all stages across a festival…
You have quite a few venues however, certainly in the past year, dotted around the country on one tour or another.

Michael: We’ve been touring for 18 months now, it’s something we wanna do.

Harry: It’s what it’s all about.

7Bit: Been overseas much?

Michael: Yeah, we did a European tour!

7Bit: Are there any particular places you’re really set on playing if you got the opportunity to?

Harry: Benicassim would be a good one.

Michael: Y’know when you read a biography of another band… Damon Albarn’s come to mind. Blur were sent on huge tours of America playing to no-one in the middle of nowhere. I’d like to do that. A 60-day tour…

Thom: A depressing tour!

Michael: That’s the way you’ve got to do it.

7Bit: You continually describe your music as ‘guitar music’: do you consider there to be a home for your brand of it at this time? Feedback thus far suggests there is, but do you feel like you have to play a little against the trend?

Michael: I can think of loads of bands right now that have been successful.

Thom: If you look at the charts, Biffy Clyro at number one [this month].

Michael: The Black Keys?

7Bit: The Black Keys are a great example. A lot of your sound derives from the guitars – your setup enforces that. Do you feel that you want to come at people with that…

Michael: I think if I came out with songs that were all electronic, or I did some math rock, then it’d be inauthentic, I’d be deceiving not only myself but everybody that was listening.
There are some esoteric records that do both, Bowie’s Low is a crazy record that has guitars in it. I’m not going to get too ponderous and try things that are so clever I don’t understand them myself. No point.

7Bit: It seems quite innate for you in particular [Michael] to want to produce guitar music, but is there not something within that wants to experiment a little beyond what you’ve been comfortable doing?

Michael: We’re experimenting all the time. We all love different music, and especially nowadays with iPads and Macs, you can simulate loads of sounds. We’ve got a little African jazz album in the offing…
Stick to what you know, I can’t think of any other instruments I’d want to consider playing.
Even groups that make this math rock stuff, they must start somewhere with a voice or a guitar. You can’t take a synthesiser to bed with you because you’d have to plug it in, whereas with a guitar it’s portable, it’s eco-friendly.
The music shouldn’t be complicated, it should be one direct needle in the arm, a direct shot of fucking music. It’s not complex.

Thom: It can be.

Michael: We’re not saving the world here, we’re making songs.

7Bit: Acoustic or electric?

Michael: Not bothered.

7Bit: Got one more question for you all… trying to find it… *frantically flips through notepad* (interviewer’s note: interview got away from me a bit there).
It was something along the lines of: now that you find yourselves in the headlining act position, do you have any idea of who you want supporting you now? You’re in the position of choosing who plays with you now.

Scott: Oh, loads.

Thom: There’s been a lot of arguments about this one.
There was a band that came and opened two of the gigs with us on tour, not the whole tour, just Manchester and Glasgow, called The Merrylees, a band we met a few years ago. We’d love to get them on a full tour, they’re a band we’re friends with.

Scott: The gig worked out really well, it was nice to have them on tour, they set the atmosphere up really well for when we came on.

Michael: Everyone talked about Band of Skulls, but I think the best band we’ve played with have been a band called The Staves, they were really good…
We’ve enjoyed curating our own gigs, haven’t we?

Scott: Yeah, it’s nice moulding something yourself, making sure from start to finish it’s going to be how you want it. I’m sure the next tour we’ll refine that, and we’ll pick our own supports.

7Bit: It was a nice touch at the gig I was at where [Scott] stayed behind to sign stuff that people were buying from you. You still do that now?

Scott: Yep, we still do.

Thom: Every gig.

Scott: We enjoy meeting the people and speaking to them, definitely a people person me, it’s been nice to meet them after shows.
It’s funny though, being there after, you’re kind of opening yourselves up to anyone who’s there, you’ll meet some very interesting people, but also some absolute nutters, nothing you can do about it! We’ve not been injured yet, touch wood.

Thom: (to Harry) You got jumped though, didn’t you?

Harry: Oh yeah, in Sheffield! That was horrendous.

Scott: They actually started stripping off.

Harry: She must have been about 15, she was very drunk, I don’t even think she’d watched the band?

Thom: What I saw, she threw up in one corner, and three seconds later she was wrapped around you and wouldn’t let go.

Harry: Our manager had to intervene in the end and tell her to go, I couldn’t get rid of her.

Scott: I was hiding around the corner, I could see what was going on.

Harry: Was a nightmare.

7Bit: As good a point as any to wrap up the interview, but worth a mention of what you’ve got coming up soon after the tour finishes?

Michael: The tour finishes on the 9th, and then I’m available for landscaping gardening work until the summer. Drop me an email.
Thom: Available for guitar lessons in the Manchester area.

Scott: Gonna become a hairdresser.
Obviously, the single ‘My Mother’ is out now.

7Bit: That’s out for free, right?

Scott: It is.

Michael: But yeah, with regards to the landscape gardening, I’ve got a van, I can travel.
Have you got a garden?

7Bit: No.

Michael: Mum and dad?

7Bit: Yeah they have, but good luck with that one, they’ve got chickens.

Michael: Well, I’m also a trained halal butcher.

For more information about Folks, take a look at their site. I See Cathedrals is on iTunes, Spotify and Amazon. You can get a ticket here to see Folks next on the 19th of April in Oldham, where they’ll be supported by none other than The Merrylees.

If you’d like to learn guitar from Thom or get Michael to spruce up your lawn, or if you’re in need of only the finest halal meat, send an email to hello@wearefolks.com for more information, or message them on Twitter or Facebook.