CHOON

Talking Pants: Getting to Know Favours For Sailors

Two days before the launch of their debut album, Choon chats to nearly all of powerpop/surf/new wave foursome Favours For Sailors about underwear, white espadrilles and the best hill in London…

Favours For Sailors are in the middle of a crisis – a crisis they plan to solve with pants. It’s days before the launch of their debut album, Furious Sons. The CDs are ready but the vinyls are still being pressed in the Czech Republic.

“The records won’t be here in time, so the emergency gimmick for the launch is to give people limited edition pants with every CD that’s sold”, says guitarist and lead singer Jon, as we settle into a packed pub near the Notting Hill Arts Club, where they’re performing later.

Jon has had a manic day. “There was no water on my street, so I couldn’t have a shower and felt really unclean and flustered when I had to run down to Primark and buy like 50 pairs of ladies briefs.” Despite this, he’s clearly a man with a vision: “They’ll be size 8 to 10. Just with an FFS logo on them. Nice and clean, wrapped around the CD in a nice… package.”

“We don’t really like band tshirts,” says bassist Alex, “So pants are maybe something a bit… secretive.” It also increases the chances of the audience throwing their underwear at on stage, adds guitarist Matt.

Jon, Alex and Matt are three out of four of Favours For Sailors. Missing from our get-together is Dan the drummer, who appeared briefly before the interview but disappeared. We designate the ketchup bottle at our pub table a substitute for him. I point out that as Dan’s in condiment form the others could air any grievances they have towards him. They gladly oblige. “He’s been a nightmare” says Jon, dead pan. “I mean, he’s got lovely eyes,” says Alex, “but he’s easily irascible.”

The boys have, in their own words, been swanning around and drinking before their gig at The Clash Saturday Social around the corner, in which they’re nestled between the likes of The Old Romantic Killer Band and Micachu.

Taking in our surroundings, their verdict on Notting Hill is a considered one. “It’s better than Stanford Hill, but not as good as Forest Hill,” Alex muses. “It’s nicer than Forest Hill”, Jon cuts in, and Alex concedes that yes, it probably is the best hill in London, although everything that looks like a pub on the horizon is actually a chandelier shop.

Favours For Sailors recently supported the Southern leg of a tour with a band whose name is possibly be the best in indie rock but also one I’ve been dreading saying out loud – Dananananaykroyd . “That’s quite a good attempt,” Matt says. “I think you might have missed a ‘na’.”

Scottish sensations Dananananaykroyd are undoubtedly fans of FFS, describing them as “scrunched up insane pop genius”. The FFS/ Dananananaykroyd partnership will be resurrected for gigs further North over the next few months, hitting big spots from Manchester to Glasgow. “Dananananaykroyd are great, really good guys,” says Jon.

Furious Sons is a striking debut, making up for its mini size with impressive variation over its 6 tracks. “We pretty much like playing everything on the album, but we’re quite restless.” Alex says. “We always wanna do things differently. It’s difficult to get everything we have on the record played ’cos we sometimes don’t have a keyboard or a timpani.”

As we chat I notice the band have an uncanny habit of almost finishing each others’ sentences – surprising considering they came together piece by piece, the jigsaw only completed by the arrival of ketchup bottle Dan in Autumn 2008.

Their formation is pretty much the classic yarn of arriving in London, jamming in a basement for months and, if things continue the way they seem to be going, unexpectedly making it big. Original members Alex and Jon met at Norwich University. They spent the summer of 2005 penning songs in a disused leather factory in Hackney that belonged to the dad of their former drummer. “He was sort of a leather impresario”, Alex smiles. Songs like I Dreamt That You Dreamt That I Loved You In My Dreams fermented among jackets, sewing machines and drinks.

“It was kind of a barmy summer,” Alex says, “Six months in the dark with only beer for company. It drove us a bit crazy.” “It was nice though” Jon says fondly, “nice to have a place where you could go anytime.” Did they ever try on the leather jackets, I ask? “Did we ever not try on the leather jackets?” comes the reply. “The tiny child styles”, adds Jon, enthused, “little white leather jackets, hard to get off actually.”

When they emerged from the basement, FFS began to make waves on the East London live scene and were joined by Matt – a.k.a. Maltese Falcon – who had left the brilliantly named 4or5 Magicians. “I had always thought [FFS] were really good,” says Matt. “I could have either started my own band with non-existent friends that I didn’t have, or…” Alex cuts in, grinning: “Are you writing that Matt has no friends?”

Before they were four members strong, there would sometimes be shows when things would go badly wrong, admits Jon. “So we thought another member would balance things out a bit.” “I’m like lukewarm water” summarises Matt. His addition came as a surprise to most of the band, who were on holiday at the time.

“I came back from Madrid with 10 pairs of white espadrilles and a t-shirt with a bull on it and all of a sudden there was a new guitarist in the band,” says Alex, “It was fait acomplis, there was nothing I could do about it.” Jon laughs loudly. “No, it was a happy union. I’m very happy” says Alex with sincerity.

At the beginning of February, listeners voted Favours For Sailors the winning track on Zane Lowe’s Fresh Meat on Radio 1. It’s fair to say the achievement passed them by a little.

“We thought he’d play it and maybe say that it was good, but then it turned out we were in a competition,” says Matt. “I listened back to it afterwards but I kept missing the crucial bit,” says Jon, “Matt phoned me up and shouted “We’ve won! We’ve won!” and I was like, “Where? When?”

Surrounded by guitarists, I have a forage around their memories of their first guitars. “My dad has this big burly polish friend” says Jon, “he had a music shop that went out of business. My dad drove me there and got me this really cheap guitar.”

“I used to play Spanish guitar when I was really young,” says Alex. “When I was 7, I got restless and took up the clavichord. Then I saw Buddy the musical where he played a Stratocaster, and I decided I wanted an electric guitar. So I worked for about 14 months as a shoe shine in Stoke-on-Trent, and eventually I got enough money saved up to buy one.”

Matt’s career choice came about while watching Glastonbury on TV. “I must have been 13 or 14 and Radiohead were playing. I don’t particularly like Radiohead but I remember saying to my parents ‘I think I’d quite like to play the guitar.’ And they were just happy because before that I used to just break everything.”

I discover FFS share other talents besides their tunes. “We’re quite a journalistic band actually” Jon says. He worked at The Methodist Recorder for years and is now back two days a week after taking a break (or what Alex calls a “crisis of faith”). “It’s not easy working in a Christian establishment and having Nietzsche as your best friend” Jon remarks, nodding at Alex. I’m told that the absent Dan is doing a PhD on the circulation of 17^th century manuscripts and also works for a magazine. “Jack of all trades, master of none,” Alex remarks wistfully.

And what of the literary references behind their album title? “I found out the other day that there’s a line in the Iliad about a harp which calmed the furious sons. That’s not where we got it from though,” says Matt. “If you’d come at that from a different angle you could have said ‘yeah, the title of the LP comes from Homer,’” says Alex. “It comes from a surrealist painting,” Matt says, “so it’s still pretty good. It was called furious suns, as in sun in the sky. We had a massive list with some great name ideas. My favourite was 20,000 Leagues Above Your Head.” “That’s horrible”, laughs Jon.

By Louise Ridley