The White Ones In

They may be regarded as the spiritual heirs to Joy Division’s doom rock throne, but in person, White Lies are quite a cheery bunch who are quick to get the beers in when Hot Press meets them in the Heerenhuis, the Groningen eatery where the chaps are chowing down ahead of their headlining Eurosonic gig which is taking place in two hours 15 minutes and counting…

“Our first show outside of the UK was at Eurosonic in 2009, so when the national Dutch music station, 3FM, invited us back this year as ‘special guests’ we jumped at it,” enthuses guitarist and lead singer Harry McVeigh. “Bands are so obsessed with breaking the UK and America that they often forget about places like Holland, which is huge for us. We’re getting up at the crack of dawn tomorrow to do record signings in Zwolle and Utrecht, which mightn’t sound very ‘rock ‘n roll’, but is part of the reason we’re playing a five-and-a-half-thousand capacity arena show next month in Amsterdam. Fans here love it when you make an effort to engage with them, and media-wise they’re a lot less cynical and likely to turn on you than they are in Britain. Denmark’s another place where music matters more than haircuts. You know when you’re talking to a journalist in London that there’s going to be an element of ‘where can I stick the knife in?’”
More of which anon! Before settling down to their Christmas turkey ‘n’ all the trimmings, Harry and his bandmates gave their new Ritual album its first live outing in South America.
“It was a bit mad,” takes over drummer Jack Lawrence-Brown, “we flew all that way to play just two gigs, but we made the most of it! We had a day off in Santiago in Chile, so we got the tour guide from the hotel to take us condor spotting in the Andes. They look a bit like vultures and have this huge wingspan. We felt like David Attenborough driving round these mountain trails in our jeep. Santiago is actually the only place in the world where we’ve got our own fanclub who e-mailed our manager and arranged to come and give us presents. How cool is that?”
Did they learn some Spanish so they could go, “Hola Santiago, ¿cómo” and impress the locals?
“Onstage it’s just Harry who talks and he barely says any words in English!” Jack chuckles. “Live, no, we don’t dazzle the audience with our linguistic skills, but we have downloaded the odd language course in the past so we’ve the basics when doing interviews and meeting fans.”
The best bit of winning the natives over I’ve seen was when the Red Hot Chili Peppers went out on stage at Dalymount Park in 1994 and, cocks in socks, performed a word-perfect ‘Amhrán na bhFiann’.
“That’s very impressive considering the amount of drugs they were on at the time!” Lawrence-Brown proffers once we’ve explained to him what ‘Amhrán na bhFiann’ is. “After Chile, we went and did a Design For Humanity gig in São Paulo which is the largest city in the Southern Hemisphere and correspondingly crazy. Being in a band is a fairly selfish job, so when you can ally yourself to a cause like that it’s great.
“We’d been told South American fans were passionate, and they didn’t let us down. I suppose when you only get to see one or two foreign bands a month you make the most of it, but even so they went out of their way to make us feel welcome.”
Apologies in advance for this outrageous bit of name-dropping, but I remember David Bowie telling me that the reason he was able to knock Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane and Diamond Dogs out within 22 months of each other is that there were no lucrative tours of the Pacific Rim in the early ‘70s.
“Working an album to the degree a record company wants you to takes at least a year-and-a-half, longer if you’re a Kings Of Leon or a Muse who are probably household names in even Papua New Guinea at this stage,” reflects Harry McVeigh, picking two bands that White Lies just happen to have played with recently. Did they enjoy their ginormodome experiences?
“It was interesting to see how Kings Of Leon have assumed the mantle of a ‘stadium band’ very naturally,” the singer ventures. “They’ve gradually built things up over four albums, which is the perfect way to do it. We toured the Southern United States with them, which was great because they knew all the best places to go and get drunk. They definitely looked after us in that respect! Everybody else has been lovely but quite business-like, whereas the Kings took us out on the piss and introduced us to their Mums and Dads and brothers and sisters and cousins. There’s no ‘this part of backstage is out of bounds’ or ‘you can’t watch them soundcheck’ bullshit. You’re treated as complete equals.
“The masters of ‘not getting carried away by fame’ being Radiohead. Their music is so much bigger than they are as individuals, which is something I really aspire to. Muse were great too, although we didn’t get to meet Mr. & Mrs. Bellamy!”
White Lies also got to follow in Pope John Paul II’s footsteps by supporting Coldplay in the Phoenix Park.
“What, the Pope supported Coldplay?”
Don’t get smart with me Harry McVeigh!
“Bono sent over crates of champagne and Guinness so we could make Black Velvets,” Harry beams. “Did we finish ‘em off? Too right we did! It was such a lovely gesture from someone we don’t even know.”
White Lies’ second album wasn’t in any way difficult, with the band knowing they had it nailed once lead single ‘Bigger Than Us’ was in the can.
“You’re always looking for ‘the song’ and we knew straight away that ‘Bigger Than Us’ was it,” notes bassist Charlie Cave. “The chorus is really hooky and it’s one of the best melody lines we’ve ever come up with. The record label’s attitude was, ‘You’ve got the single, great, now go and do what you want.’ It was a very liberating experience to go into the studio every day and not have to worry about the commercial side of things.”
Which isn’t to say that White Lies are averse to shifting truckloads of records.
“We’ve never been afraid to write songs that are melodic and, well, pop music,” Jack Lawrence-Brown confides. “We’ve discussed quite a lot recently how genuinely interesting a lot of pop is these days. Of all the genres, it’s the one that’s really pushing its boundaries and incorporating elements of other music, which it never used to do. We’d definitely go and see Alicia Keys and Take That if we were offered tickets, and while I’m not a huge fan of her music, I’ve a lot of respect for Lady Gaga and her wanting to be a female David Bowie and not giving a fuck what anyone else thinks. There’s always room for someone to be that inventive and that ridiculous. I’m actually amazed that a major label was willing to invest so much faith and money in somebody who’s not your typical chart fodder.”
I’ve also received some top grade intelligence as to what all of White Lies were doing at five to nine on Sunday December 12.
“Watching the X Factor final!” Jack says unapologetically. “I thought Rebecca should have won, but there you go, I’m no Simon Cowell or Louis Walsh. People expect us to slag it off, but it’s really good entertainment. The people entering it know that in all probability they’ll be forgotten in six months time, so I don’t feel sorry for them. And every now and again it throws up a genuine talent like Leona Lewis who’s gone and conquered the States.”
White Lies have made American in-roads of their own, touring there as mentioned earlier with Kings Of Leon and treating Letterman viewers to a rousing rendition of ‘To Lose My Life’.
“We felt like kids on Christmas morning in that studio!” Jack says of their Late Show experience. “We sat at his desk when he wasn’t there and mock interviewed each other. It was us, Mary Tyler-Moore who I only really know from that Weezer song, and Blake Lively from Gossip Girl who was lovely.”
Is there another Gwyneth ‘n’ Chris-style Hollywood star/Brit-rocker hook-up in the offing?
“Sadly, no,” the drummer sighs. “Letterman was one of the most amazing experiences we’ve had as a band though.”
Before we release them into 3FM’s custody – showtime is now just an hour and fifteen minutes away – if White Lies were able to time travel back to Eurosonic 2009 what advice would they have for their younger selves?
Jack: “Aim low…”
Charlie: “… and sell high! Being serious, what I didn’t know two years ago was that I was about to work harder than I ever had done before. You’ll get angry at being woken up at six o’clock three mornings in a row – which has happened this week – but that’s the gig.”
Harry: “Ignore your critics. With any measure of success comes people who’ll try to shoot you down. Don’t under any circumstances let the fuckers succeed!”

See hotpress.com for more White Lies shots and a full Eurosonic gallery