Back to the Futureheads

When Hot Press makes the connection with Ross Millard’s mobile, he’s not where he’s supposed to be. The plan was for The Futureheads to be on their second American tour of the year. Instead the onset of tendonitis in bandmate Barry Hyde’s wrist has forced them to stay at home and Ross is wandering around Sunderland.

“It’s not like he’s in a massive amount of pain”, Ross explains, “it’s just that playing and holding a guitar is difficult, and going all that way to potentially have it get worse wasn’t really an option. We’ve had a good innings this summer though, we’ve done a lot of things we haven’t done before. In the US, you can play 2,000-seater places in New York or LA, and then go to Salt Lake City where there’s maybe 250 people in a youth club. That’s the amazing part of touring the States, the shows can be massive or tiny two days apart. You want to get into the Americana of it all, get into a bit more than just New York or LA.”
Despite being seen as part of the new Britpop scene, Ross feels that The Futureheads owe an equal debt to the US.
“A lot of the ‘90s American underground scene is massively important to us,” he maintains. “We’re all huge fans of Fugazi, Mission Of Burma, Butthole Surfers and that kind of thing. Even if that doesn’t manifest itself in the music so obviously, it’s always there. “Each band has its own sensibility,” he continues. “We’d have a lot in common with somebody like Bloc Party in that they’re approaching their music from the same DIY sensibility; it’s quite unusual that they’ve been thrust into mainstream pop music. We fought that ourselves a little bit when our first record did well commercially, it was a bit of a surprise. It wasn’t unwelcome, but there was this juxtaposition of a band that’s into all this underground stuff and ends up playing CD:UK. You start to realise that your perception of yourself is completely wrong.”
The upcoming BudRising show finds The Futureheads back on more familiar territory, playing in a left of centre environment.
“Tapes N’ Tapes, who toured with us in the States, and TV On The Radio are both amazing,” he says namechecking two of their co-headliners. “It’s really good to see groups like that getting the spotlight thrown on them a little bit. Years ago they would have been playing to a hundred people a night and these days they’re getting pushed a lot more.”
Does he enjoy the whole city festival vibe?
“It removes the ‘everyone in a muddy field’ aspect,” Ross laughs. “There are pros and cons. At the outdoor events there’s this massive feeling of unity when the bands take the stage, at the same time the city festivals mean that you’re playing to people who really want to be there rather than just waiting for the next act. I think it’ll be pretty exciting to be honest.”
The Futureheads have fond memories of their last visit to the capital for the Trinity Ball.
“We went on at four in the morning when everybody was pretty mashed!” he reminisces. “People just threw things at us, not hard objects but items of clothing including some very nice frilly knickers. It was hilarious. We were getting a flight back home at six o’clock so we played and afterwards went straight to the airport. If crowds were always that up for it we’d be laughing.”