Spoonfed's Ones to Watch in 2012: Fanzine

Spoonfed's Ones to Watch in 2012: Fanzine

21 December, 2011
by: Domzig

A proper cut and paste job

As their name suggests, Fanzine are a pretty DIY outfit. A four piece built around Stoke Newington natives Ed, Billy, Jock and Kit, they record all their records in a tiny bedroom studio, make videos by skimming YouTube and even released their first singles and demos with a lovely, hand-made fanzine that you could flick through while listening.

So it’s almost like twisted irony that the rest of the internet has decided to label them ‘slacker pop’. I can certainly see how people have got there: the band’s laid back blend of ‘60s jangle pop and Dinosaur Jr-style stoner rock recalls hazy days sitting on your mum’s sofa eating Wotsits and flicking between P-Rock and MTV2. However, just having the term ‘slacker’ in the description seems to be a massive disservice to four dudes who literally pour their lives into making Fanzine the band today. Then again, post lo-fi indie-psychedelia doesn’t quite have the same ring as slacker pop, so people may have a point.

Emerging back in the summer when North London felt like a fertile breeding ground for blissful, ever-so-slightly psychedelic indie pop, their Fat Possum released debut ‘Roman Holiday’ was a standout, even when compared to the tracks put out by Weird Dreams, Girls Names and Gross Magic. I’ve embedded it for you below, and I defy you dislike it.



So you’re called Fanzine and your music sounds like c-86 meets early REM. Are you guys like the perfect indie band ever?

Jock: Ha ha, I dunno. That’s a cool tag to have. I mean we never consciously wanted to be champions of DIY music or anything, it’s just that we didn’t have any money for recordings or merchandise, so we’ve had to do it all ourselves.

Luckily the things that we’re into and the music that we make fit into that whole thing really well. It’s worked this far.

How far are you taking this DIY thing. Is it a case of as soon as a record advance comes along, all that’s going out the window?

Well, I think we’re aiming to record the album ourselves. I like the way we have a lot of control of it right now, and while I know there’s deals where you can keep a lot of that, you’re always going to have people who want things to be done a certain way at a certain time.
 
We’ve tried recording with other people of times, but it’s never worked out. We’re all polite people, so we sit there saying yes to everything, and when the record comes back we’re a bit like ‘errrrrrrrr, but it doesn’t sound the way we wanted it’. I think we’re probably better off recording ourselves.

What made you start Fanzine?

Well me, Ed and Kit have known each other since primary school. We’ve all learned our instruments together – we bought the tab book to Californication – and although we’ve tried a bunch of other bands, we’ve always kept coming back to each other. It just works and feels simple; everyone knows what each other likes. We also have a great manager who deals with the boring, complicated stuff.

With you guys, Weird Dreams, Echo Lake, Mazes, and Yuck is there a danger of a scene breaking out in Stoke Newington?

We were just talking about that. It feels as if there are a lot of bands who are at a similar stage to us round here at moment. I mean, there’s this band Old Forest who we’ve played with a few times, who are way sludgier than us, but are kind of into the same thing.

I suppose that’s the great thing about Stokie at the moment, all the bands have similar starting points in terms of their music, but sound wildly different. I mean, I’ve never felt like we’re in a ‘scene’, mainly because we tend to keep ourselves to ourselves, but when you think about it, then maybe there is. Whisper it though.

As far as I can tell from the limited research I’ve done on the internet, Fanzine is a hard band name to Google.

Yeah, it is pretty hard to find. I check Twitter some times to see what people thought of a gig, and it’s just pages of guys chatting about Man U match programmes or whatever. It’s pretty unGoogleable.

Also, is 'Roman Holiday' the only thing you’ve got out?

Yeah, at the moment. Like I said earlier, we’re recording an album that we’d like to put out next year, and we’ve got 4 or 5 other songs we’re working on, so we’re hoping to release another single around February/March time.

Are we going to get a fanzine with that too?

Ha ha. Maybe. It was our manager’s idea to put out the last single with a ‘zine, I was a bit worried that it would be a bit cheesy, but everyone really liked it, so I’d maybe be up for doing it again...

Cool! What are your top three tips for making a Fanzine then?

1. Try and get your personality across as much as you can. Put a comic in it.
2. Photocopy it, and remember that your making it in black and white.
3.  Give away a CD with your first one. It’s hard to sell fanzines without free stuff.

Fanzines' single 'Roman Holiday' is out now on Fat Possum. Want to see more of Spoonfed's Tips? check out Eagulls.

http://fanzine.bandcamp.com

Domzig