Just call it colonial punk...
When I first saw Fair Ohs, my friend was putting them on upstairs at the Old Blue Last supporting Human Hair and Demons. It was ages ago, and I can’t remember much, but I do recall that they sounded a bit like Jawbreaker and I had a particularly sore head the next morning.
A couple of months later, I watched them play again at the old Barden’s or something, and it was almost like a different band was playing. Gone was the nosebleed garage rock and in its place was a kaleidoscope of Afro-pop, new wave and barefooted dancing. In the history of hardcore band u-turns it was (and still is) pretty out there, but hey, it worked: in the intervening years Fair Ohs have gone on to become one of East London’s favourite bands. Just their name on a flyer usually means the show will be a crazy party filled with drunken girls and off colour banter.
With a new album ‘Everything is Dancing’ for release across the western world, now, hopefully everyone should get the chance to watch three guys who are definitely contenders for the Best Live Band in London Award.
Before all that, I caught up with the guys in a boys' toilet before they supported tUnE-yArDs at the Scala. Don’t worry, nothing weird happened.
Right, you guys ready to get started?
Eddy (guitar): yep, although If we get any shit questions, I’m just going to hit the hand-dryer.
Fair enough. First question, didn’t you guys used to sound like Black Flag?
Eddy [gesturing towards the hand-dryer]: That’s a statement, not a question. Do you want us to give you the questions like in Jeopardy?
Wait! I’m trying to establish the narrative of you guys starting as a hardcore band and ending up doing Afro-pop.
Joe(drums): Oh right, shall we just answer that?
Yes please...
Eddy: It started out as Joe and I doing free, freaked out jazz bullshit before we got Matt in and went a bit more punk. I think that being in a punk band teaches you how to be in a band really quickly. It really helps you to figure out your chemistry.
The only problem is that we got bored of doing punk and garage rock pretty quickly, and that’s when we realised that the only record that connected us all together was Paul Simon’s ‘Graceland’. There’s a real link between the post-hardcore that we wanted to do originally and the sentiment on that record.
I hear you guys being compared to Vampire Weekend sometimes. Does it bug you?
Eddy: It does bug us, only because that’s not where we’re getting it from. The inclination is that we saw the success of Vampire Weekend and wanted to ape it, which is just not true. We all come from different musical backgrounds and it’s frustrating to be told that we’re just stealing our sound from New York, when in fact we’re stealing it from Africa.
Matt (bass): Basically, we’re colonialists.
Both Ed and Matt run labels right? Care to explain the reasoning behind that?
Matt: Yeah, I run a tiny little label called Suplex Cassettes. It was mainly hardcore punk bands like Trencher. I had no money, but I really wanted to get some stuff out there, so I decided to release on cassettes.
I do it because it’s cheap and I can afford it. I can’t afford to spend £600 to a grand on a release, have 400 7” in a cupboard and have my girlfriend scream at me. I’m doing a Christmas comp though, so I’ll be asking every crap band in East London to write a Christmas song.
So did putting out records yourself influence your decision to put out ‘Everything is Dancing’ as a self-release?
Eddy: We had offers to work with other labels, both big and small, and it came from just realising that every deal we could have done would depend of compromise and relying on other people.
Joe: We’d already paid for the recording, and we didn’t need anyone to slow things down. Almost every band I’ve ever been in has had their record delayed for some reason or another, and we didn’t want to kick our heels while we waited for a quiet month. We’re ready to record the next one.
So this next one is a bit stupid – do you still play barefooted?
[Sound of the hand dryer]
Eddy: What’s the next genius question?
What’s the worst thing Eddy’s ever said at a gig?
Matt: “I don’t remember how to play this guitar line, just like people don’t remember the holocaust.”
Ouch, that’s bad.
Matt: I know. That was at an acoustic show where we couldn’t hide behind a delay pedal as well.
Eddy: I’ve said worse...
Fair Oh's new record 'Everything is Dancing is available for pre-order here. The guys will be playing a boat party and the Rich Mix this weekend.
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