Field Music
Interview by Tania Biswas
Photography by Jon Feinstein

When conducting an interview, it seems that every band composed of young British men is invariably nice. And while there's certainly nothing wrong with that, it does make you wonder where that punk-rock, angry-young-man spirit is hibernating. It seems silly, however, to expect anything other than congeniality from Sunderland's Field Music, made up of Andrew Moore and brothers David and Peter Brewis; for their eponymous debut, and soon-to-be released follow-up, are very nice music indeed.

Drenched in perfect vocal harmonies, shambolic melodies, spurts of sharp guitar, piano flourishes and various percussive novelties (handclaps, xylophone, et al.), the album tells us that the members of Field Music are accomplished musicians despite their youth (every member of the trio is squarely under 30); the arrangements and production are nothing if not solid. "Pieces" has all the charm of a bubbling brook in a pastoral pop setting, while single "Shorter Shorter", an under-two-minute treasure, has an infallibly catchy falsetto chorus set to a jaunty drumbeat. In places, the record swings between mildly psychedelic chamber pop and altar-boy surf rock, yielding a sound that probably wouldn't be out of place on a Nuggets compilation. It's safe to say that this release also poses a delectably alternative take on the musical foundations the Mackem trio shares with the current brood of post-punkers breaking into the charts.

With ties to the Futureheads (Peter was their original drummer) and fellow scenesters Maximo Park, as well as a promising debut, Field Music have found themselves on the music geek radar, even receiving a snarky pat on the back from good old Gawker for their efforts. 'Sup found the fresh-faced trio excited and affable, so we tried to get them to bare a few teeth and, while not entirely successful, managed to draw out a little of that touted British sarcasm. And to make up for it afterwards, we took them out for cupcakes-because, after all, sugar and spice do go rather well with all things nice.

Who do you think has the best falsetto in rock? And why did you incorporate the falsetto into so many of your songs?
[Laughter]
Peter: Brian Wilson's good.
David: Though sometimes he's kind of off but it's okay. The reason why so many of my songs are in falsetto on the recording is because, at the time, I was living in a flat where the neighbors would shout if I made any noise. So those songs were written really quietly. When you're playing quietly, even if you sing a loud falsetto, it's still quiet. And it's a really different thing from singing loudly in your full voice. Since we started gigging those songs, though, my full voice range has gone up and most of the falsetto parts now I sing in sotto voce!

Was it hard to sing like that in the beginning?
David: When we started to do a couple of the songs on the record live, it was really difficult to sing the falsetto because you can't really hear yourself properly. It was slightly too low for falsetto, and then, if it was in full voice to start with, I felt really uncomfortable. There were just some songs that I didn't want to do. We've since gotten better.
Andy: We've just started breathing exercises.
David: We're all gonna extend our ranges a few tones in either direction!
Peter: If we go up, only dogs will hear!
David: Well, yeah, it probably would be out of range for the human ear! Actually, dogs can hear quite low I think. You've started something now!

The singing style isn't terribly masculine; are you sufficiently comfortable in your masculinity to maintain it?
Peter: Oh, of course! If I thought that singing in falsetto would cast any aspersions on my sexuality, I just wouldn't do it.
David: I think we'll go to some country where possibly they don't think we're manly enough 'cause we don't sing low enough.

Are you twee?
David: Absolutely not.
Andy: Tweed?
Peter: Actually, we are more tweed than twee.
David: Yeah, we are actually quite tweed.
Peter: We've made a nice sounding record, maybe too nice for my personal tastes. The next one will be less nice. But we're certainly not sentimental. It's never melodramatic and we don't write things for them to be emotional.
David: We have done something and it sounds quite nice and maybe it doesn't represent the [puts on a voice] aggression in our souls as much as it could. And yeah, we sing high and in falsetto a lot of the time but if it's nice-sounding, that's because it's the only thing we have skill in doing. I think a lot of bands pretend to be more naïve than they actually are and I don't think we are. I think our music represents our acceptance of our own realistic level of naïvety.
Peter: What?!
David: Yeah, leave it. Next question!
Peter: [laughs]

Why all the strange time signatures? What's wrong with 4/4?
Peter: I'll be sitting and singing or playing bass and a little melody will be in my head and then later on I'll find out that it wasn't in 4/4.
David: We never ever say, 'Hey guys, let's do something in seven so no one else can play it!'
Peter: The irony is that we count everything in four; we only find out what time signatures the songs are actually in when we're--
David: Trying to write the string parts! It's like 'Oh my God, it's another song in six!'
Peter: But we counted it in four, which proves we're a rock band!

Can you be "rock" with a piano?
Peter: We're not a rock band.
David: [to Andy]: Are you comfortable in your masculinity playing a piano, as opposed to the phallic guitar?
[laughter]
Peter: You can make a keyboard phallic
if you wanted to!
David: If you use it in a correct manner. You could mount your keyboard.
Andy: You could get one of them strap-on ones.

I think people who are listening to mainstream rock radio tend to hear piano nowadays and think Coldplay or Keane, which isn't always a good thing.
Peter: Andy is probably the most "rock" piano player you'll find. He snapped keys on the last tour we did. He snapped two keys!
David: We've got to get a new keyboard because he can't fix them anymore.

What new music do you like?
David: I love the Futureheads, their new album-
Peter: In a platonic way, obviously.
David: You know, the Futureheads, masculinity aside, are all quite handsome and charming.
Peter: Not fey, though. Just charming.

Your lyrics are simple; by no means is that a bad thing. Is simplicity important in writing or did you just do them like that for the hell of it? Does it make the music stand out more?
David: We're idiots.
Peter: [laughs] I don't think lyrics have to have any pretense about them.

Why are you in a band?
Peter: (grabs Andy's shoulder) What better way to spend time with your friends?
David: [laughs] What else do we do? There's music which needs to exist and I've set a task for us: We have to discover how to make that music. There's music which should combine all of the brilliant things in the world and make people feel certain things and it hasn't quite happened yet, so we need to do it. And maybe - definitely - we won't achieve that-
Peter: Of course not! But we'll try.
David: It's a noble end.