January, what a month it is; crippled finances, burnt out on festive joy, back in work, miserable weather, and a recertified awareness that the years tick on, just as your own do, and you are edging ever closer to death. With that in mind, IT’S NEW BAND OF THE MONTH TIME!
As I say every month, and mean (because fuck do we have damn good taste here), this month’s band are seriously deserving of you dedicating a whole month of your ears ingestion to, and then more because you love them. The band, as you’ll have gathered from the title of this feature and the link you clicked, are Fawn Spots and they be a three pieced based out of York who get their kicks splashing around down the deep end of the post-punk pool.
Hello, how are we, and who from Fawn Spots is giving the As to my Qs today?
This is Jonathan!
By way of introducing Fawn Spots to our readers, how would you describe your sound and what you’re all about?
This is what our friend John Foster said on Facebook, and it’s about our favourite thing anyone has said about us:
“If you ever said to yourself “hey, I wish Husker Du had been on Factory in the early 80s, while still being able to hear the important records of the early 90s” then, number one, don’t deny that you said that, we all have. Number two – check out Fawn Spots”
I noticed you have labelled the quote ‘We got everything to win and nothing but our boredom to lose.’ as a band interest. Is this the attitude the three of you try to approach the band and your music with? Also, fans of Refused then?
Definitely. Refused’s bastardisation of The Situationists idea to “live without dead time” is a great slogan – pithy but poetic. That whole thread of more ‘avant garde’ critical thinking throughout French and German writers in the early to mid 20th Century is really fascinating. The Situationist approach to “live without dead time” – to reclaim your free time – is really inspirational, and resonates for us.
The Shape of Punk to Come was one of those records I got when I was 16, put it on and thought ‘this is just shouting’ – when I started reading the liner notes, reading about the influences of John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman on the record, it totally blew my mind.
We also have our own label we do with our friend Mike called ‘Bad Paintings’ – guess where that name came from?
Speaking of being fans, what other bands would you say have been key influences upon you sonically, spiritually, whateverlly?
For me personally, Xiu Xiu have been really important – there seems something so pure and open about their music; even though it can be brutal and challenging, it still has beauty in it. Jamie Stewart just doesn’t seem to give a fuck about doing anything other than the music he makes.
Joy Division continue to be an inspiration – every time I listen to Unknown Pleasures it reveals itself in a different way.
Of course, Fugazi, Rites of Spring (basically Dischord records), alongside Unwound, are like our go to for most things too.
We’ve been listening to a lot of End of a Year / Self Defense Family recently.
Your most recent single, ‘New Sense’, includes a cover of ‘Twenty Four Hours’ by Joy Division. What lead to the decision to record that, and was it daunting at all to release a version of such a classic track?
Joy Division are sort of an obsession, and have been a fundamental influence on our album From Safer Place. We did a night where we showed the 2007 documentary and then played a set of JD songs – obviously everyone knows how the story ends, felt really weird to play after that! Twenty Four Hours has my favourite lyric from them – the opening “so this is permanence” – so it seemed appropriate.
How are things looking on the live front? Any gigs/tours coming up that our readers can come catch you at?
We’re touring with Naomi Punk from the US in Feb and have our own dates the week of our album. We want to play as much as possible.
02/02/15, Supporting Naomi Punk @ The Prince Albert, Brighton
03/02/15, Supporting Naomi Punk @ The Shacklewell Arms, London
04/02/15, Supporting Naomi Punk @ The Fulford Arms, York
05/02/15, Supporting Naomi Punk @ The Glad Cafe, Glasgow
06/02/15, Supporting Naomi Punk @ Start The Bus, Bristol
07/02/15, Supporting Naomi Punk @ Music Hall, Ramsgate
08/02/15, Supporting Naomi Punk @ Hare & Hounds, Birmingham
21/02/15, Unwave EP Launch @ Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
09/03/15, Show @ Guilty by Association, Manchester
10/03/15, FREE ALBUM LAUNCH SHOW @ Birthdays, London
11/03/15, FREE @ Nation of Shopkeepers, Leeds
13/03/15, Show @ The Great Gatsby, Sheffield
14/03/15, ALBUM LAUNCH SHOW @ York
The new year has just started, and you’ve got it off to a good start with the brilliant ‘New Sense/Twenty Four Hours’, what else is on the agenda for 2015? Is there a master plan?
Our debut album From Safer Place is out March 9th.We want to play as much as possible and start recording new material.
Aside from yourselves, of course, who else is currently working their way up the ranks and making music to get excited about?
Bands we love at the moment that you may or may not have heard of and are from the UK: Doctrines, Human Hair, Carson Wells, Papayer, Sievehead, Great Cop
Our very own Cultured Vulture goes by the name of Voltaire, but if you had yourselves a pet vulture of particular culture, what would you call it?
Guy – it’s both the name of the head of the Situationists (Guy Debord) and frankly the coolest guy in rock Guy Picciotto of Rites of Spring, Fugazi etc…
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