At least someone still likes Craig David...
Hype can be a poisoned chalice. The balloon can quickly burst on some poor feted next big thing, whether commercially or critically. Worse still, a band can be left trailing in the triumphant wake of their like-minded peers, labelled as Johnny-come-latelys to a party they might have helped start.
It’s a fate which could have befallen Everything Everything. Labelled part of a spurious ‘Manchester scene’ the band had been forced to play third fiddle through much of 2010 whilst fellow leading lights Delphic and Hurts saw their stock soar. They needn’t have worried, as debut record 'Man Alive' duly gatecrashed the UK Top 20, picking up open-mouthed plaudits en route.
Preparing to perform at a Spotify/3G-sponsored show at Shoreditch Town Hall, frontman Jonathan Higgs and drummer Michael Spearman hold forth on spats with Liam Fray and loving Craig David...
I read elsewhere that you made some disparaging remarks about Oasis and their impact on music in Manchester – is this right?
JH: We’ve never mentioned Oasis ever in an interview. The media likes to think that we hate Oasis. I really like Oasis – I loved them at the time they were good.
What about your reported spat with Liam Fray [from the Courteeners]?
JH: Errrr we shared a toilet cubicle together but we didn’t share any words. He probably doesn’t even remember or give a flying fuck about anything at all, in the same way that we don’t.
Apparently he told the press he didn’t think much of you.
JH: He did but I don’t actually think he has ever heard us, and if he had it’s fair enough that he might not like us.
Do you ever listen to the Courteeners?
JH: Well...
MS: It’s not to our tastes.
JH: I wouldn’t sit and listen to any amount of shit – it doesn’t mean I want to destroy it or make a city change its mind about one band. You know, “Manchester you better stop this now, they sound slightly like Oasis in a very tenuous way.”
'Man Alive' peaked at number seventeen on the UK Album Charts...
JH [Interrupting]: It was number ten for a day! That’ll be on my gravestone. It was number thirteen by midweek. It slipped a place a day until Sunday.
Were you happy?
JH: Yeah. If you’re a dead cert band from day one there’s no point in making it – you might as well be on the X Factor. Likewise, no one really said “I can’t make head nor tail of this: you guys need to be playing ATP in 2029 to seven people who heard your first demo.” You want to be somewhere in between. Seventeen is pretty good.
So you aren’t big closet X Factor fans then?
JH: I like it to begin with when they just get those idiots in. It’s quite funny.
MS: Is that still funny though? Some of the people clearly have mental illness, literal mental health problems.
JH: All this stuff used to happen behind the scenes but now you get your dead cert winner with the public before you sign them and before they make a record. It’s just like watching the mechanics of capitalism really, which is interesting in its horrific way but generally produces some terrible music.
[Thinks] JH: What about Leona?
MS: She had one good song.
JH: Two [sings ‘Bleeding Love’].
MS: Ok that’s a good song but she hasn’t done anything in ages.
JH: She’s been trying to break America. It takes a long time. It killed Robbie, it killed Craig.
MS: Don’t get him started on Craig David. [Laughter].
No, go on: tell us all about Craig.
JH: I really liked him when he first came out. I wouldn’t admit it then but I do now. His debut album was great. I think he really could have been an amazing artist but he tried to sell himself to America and buggered it up back home as a result.
Would Everything Everything ever ‘sell out’ or adapt yourselves to stay in the game?
JH: It’s hard to know. I don’t know if we could.
Surely selling out is better than a job in Asda?
JH: It is, but if you’re singing “I love McDonalds” every night whilst someone’s slackening their belt in the shadows, I’d probably rather go and chop wood somewhere.
MS: We would’ve made good whittlers.
JH: Chopping wood is sweet. You just chop wood in the summer and then burn it in the winter.
Lastly, and apropos of nothing in particular: what’s the most embarrassing thing in your record collection?
JH: I saw David Gray’s 'White Ladder in' Jeremy’s [Pritchard – bass] CDs. And I’m not letting that one go.
MS: There you go, we have a winner.
Everything Everything are DJing Fabric this Saturday, and perform at the Union Chapel on the 15th of December.
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