The Federals

The Federals

05 October, 2009
by: Gina Louise

Described as 'evil narco drone rock', The Federals are not known for their take-home-to-meet-your-mother personalities. Instead, their on stage antics have become almost as well known as their angst ridden music, and they have ripped up more than a few stages in their short time in the business.

Formed in 2005, The Federals have already released an EP, supported the Black Lips and received praise from The Times and Radio One. Even Fearne Cotton has been seen supporting the boys by sporting one of their T-shirts!

Though they sport Kook-esque haircuts and look innocent enough, don't let their cute indie kid look fool you: they are more than capable of holding their own, and it is apparent that behind the tough exteriors, there is a fair bit of talent hiding away. Their songs are short sharp bursts of noise, and have been compared to The Sex Pistols and The Who. Big shoes to fill you may say, but they are sure giving it a go.

Eager to get in before the hype takes over, we catch up with lead singer Jim Feakes for a bit of a Q and A. Despite his classic rock 'n' roll mentality, Feakes turns out to be a bit of a charmer…


Everything has started happening pretty quickly for The Federals, how are things going?
 
Yeah it's all going really well thanks, it's been a really fun year. When The Federals first started out we didn't imagine it would be like this at all; we didn’t expect anything, we just went with it and saw how it all went. It’s great that we are being recognised and stuff now.

Your sound has been described (and quite rightly so), as angry, feral garage rock. Do you channel your anger through your songs?
 
No, not really. I'd actually describe us as rather happy people! It's because when we first started recording, we were doing it on some rubbish equipment so had be noisy and shout to get it across to record. We kind of liked that sound and it all just progressed from there really; it worked well so we went with it and this is where we ended up.

Your behaviour on stage is notoriously bad, and you’ve been known to throw the odd guitar through the roof. That part of your happy mentality?

Err yeah, I shouldn't really have done that! I have done that a couple of times… but that was when we had some problems with the instruments and sound and nothing was working so I just got frustrated. You have to hit things sometimes. When you give things a good smack they tend to work better!

Is that what you used to do when you were a guitar tech for Little Man Tate?

No! I don’t think that would have gone down too well. That was my actual job so I'm not sure it would've been appreciated if I started smashing up all his instruments…

Perhaps not! Fearne Cotton has been seen out and about wearing one of your t-shirts. How did that feel?

Yeah that was pretty great, she’s a really cool girl. We met her at one of the gigs we played in Shepherd's Bush and got chatting to her so she brought one of our t-shirts. Then she got papped and we got spread around a few magazines and stuff which is obviously really good for us. Good publicity!
 
If you could see any celeb wandering around wearing some Federal's memorabilia who would it be?

Erm…I'm not too sure, I've not really got a preference; seeing anyone wearing them is cool. If I had to say anyone, I'd probably want it to be someone quite funny. Maybe Ross Kemp? I'm not sure if it’ll ever happen though…maybe if we sent him one he'd be up for it? Something to look into…

Or maybe Jeremy Kyle, coming onto his morning show wearing a Federals shirt. We’d never get invited on though…we’ve not got enough problems for that show.
 
How do you come up with songs, does the whole band have an input or does one person take the lead and everyone pitches in?

Yeah, everyone pitches in, that way we come up with something that everyone is happy with. We tend to all just get together and make loads of noise until one of us just stops and says 'yeah, there's our next idea right there' and we just work on it. It is pretty even, we all get involved.
 
When did you realise that working in the music industry was what you wanted to do?

I dunno, quite early on I suppose. It was weird, at school I used to play drums and Jack our drummer used to play guitar. Then as soon as we left we just swapped and fell into this band, that’s when it all started coming together. You just see how things go and play around until you find something that works.

So do you still get to play the drums?

Yeah I still mess about a bit on the drum kit, have some fun. But never live, I leave that to Jack.

What are The Federals plans for the near future?

We have got a gig in London next week, then we're gonna get together and concentrate on writing some new material, getting some new stuff before we head off on tour again.


Catch The Federals playing at Proud Camden on 14th October.

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Gina Louise