Furrowed Brow
Congregated on a table following their set at the Peer Hat (09/10/2019), I ask the members of Furrowed Brow (barring their absent drummer Cristy) a series of questions relating to their band, with a few off-topic ventures thrown in.
Angus: Your gig is about to start, what sandwich would you like to eat beforehand?
Ryan: Is this a serious question?
Angus: My initial question felt a bit predicable so I amended it.
Ryan: What was the first question?
Angus: What are your names and what instruments do you play…
Megan: Err, tuna mayonnaise…
Ritchey: Is each question going to be individual? So if the whole band says cucumber and tuna…
Megan: I never said cucumber…
Angus: Just individual answers… anyway back to the sandwich preference?
Ryan: Satsuma sandwich!
Alex: Yeah, every time. It’s one Satsuma before it and another Satsuma just after it.
Ritchey: Tuna Crunch, cheapest one you can get from Tesco.
Angus: I’ve read that you are going for an Iggy Pop meets Emily Bronte sort of style, yet you ‘failed miserably’… care to elaborate?
Ritchey: Basically, I liked the gothic-ness of…
Ryan: I think Iggy Pop had this 70’s stage intensity that anyone who came after attempting to imitate is bullshitting themselves… that’s why we failed miserably, and I’ve never read anything by Emily Bronte so I don’t know.
Ritchey: She only wrote Wuthering Heights…
Ryan: I know.
Alex: I don’t really like Wuthering Heights…
Ritchey: You don’t?
Megan: I’ve listened to the song…
Ritchey: What was the other part?
Furrowed Brow
Angus: Iggy Pop…
Ritchey: Oh he’s great!
Alex: What do you like about Wuthering Heights?
Ritchey: Just the whole thing, it’s just weird and…
Ryan: Iggy Pop and Kate Bush together, now that’s a match!
Ritchey: What didn’t you like about it?
Alex: So it’s meant to be a really intense love story but I feel like you don’t…
Ritchey: Nah, that’s what I like about it, it’s depressing. Heathcliff wins at everything…
Alex: You don’t get a sense of why they are obsessed with each other, there’s nothing you can see…
Ritchey: They’re not obsessed with each other, the love story is the weak part, I just like how Heathcliff fucks everyone over, and it’s the same with Morrissey’s first novel where no one comes out winning; that’s life and also why I like it. It relates to the band in that all the good guys lose and all the bad guys lose as well really.
Ryan: Is this an interview or an analysis of literature?
Angus: Going back on topic, what do you mean by a short film?
Ritchey: I wish Cristy was here…
Alex: Cristy would know…
Ryan: Who would be in it?
Ritchey: Oh, we were talking about a short film at the practice room earlier, expand on that…
Megan: Anything less than 50 minutes?
Ryan: Well rather than do a typical video of people in a room looking boring, we thought we would do a short video that represents something slightly unhinged about the band, just something new and inventive… a bit DIY.
Angus: Dwelling in the monolith that is Manchester, does it have any bearing on yourselves? Is there actually a scene here or is it just hype?
Furrowed Brow
Ryan: There used to be a scene, quite a lot of musicians clump themselves together but I wouldn’t like to think of ourselves as a part of that.
Angus: What inspired the title ‘Killed Myself and the Kids’?
Ryan: It was based on a passed experience that actually happened…
Alex: (Laughs)
Angus: Good grief…
Ryan: The only thing that failed is that he didn’t kill himself, he didn’t turn the oven on.
Angus: The dark humour is awfully prevalent…
Alex: Modern ovens don’t work the same.
Ritchey: I find it fascinating that success is money, you are put to the top of the queue, which is money or having kids etc, but as soon as you lose a bit of it you can’t bare to put your wife and kids through it so you have to kill them… You read these stories in the papers… it’s sad but funny at the same time.
Angus: Nice… are there any bands you wouldn’t want to play with?
Ryan: In the scene?
Angus: In general…
Ritchey: What like Dire Straits or something?
Angus: Just current bands…
Ritchey: Well I don’t want to play with Blossoms as they are shit…
Ryan: What was that band called… the Sherlocks!
(Collective disgust)
Ryan: I said earlier there isn’t a scene, a good handful of bands exist in the UK in various pockets, that’s totally fine. The Sherlock however are exempted from that, I would happily force-feed them their faux-leather jackets they probably got from a Topman jumble sale… I fucking hate them… they’ve done a car advert recently, Jesus…
Angus: Its rather worrying…
Ryan: It’s for Vauxhall I think…
Alex: What’s wrong with Vauxhalls?
Ryan: Nothing…
Megan: I bloody hate Vauxhalls…
Ryan: So yeah, Blossoms, Sherlocks…
Ritchey: Any sort of lad rock shit!
Angus: Courteeners?
Furrowed Brow: Yeah…
Ryan: Where are they from?
Angus: Manchester, unfortunately.
Ryan: Oh, and Catfish and the Bottlemen! Don’t like them either.
Alex: The Macc Ladds…
Ritchey: They’re the worse band ever…
Angus: In a hypothetical biopic made about Furrowed Brow, who would you each like to portray you?
Ryan: 1990s Jude Law…
Megan: Hmmm…
Ryan: Who’s the girl that played Matilda?
Alex: I think she’s retired now…
Ryan: What’s that?
Alex: She’s not an actress anymore, busy doing other things.
Megan: She’s an author now.
Ryan: I feel like Rhys Ifans would be a good Ritchey.
(Collective yeahs)
Ritchey: But he’s older than me.
Ryan: In his younger days…
Angus: You could use CGI to de-age him…
Megan: Ewan McGregor in Trainspotting would play Ryan.
Ryan: Or that other guy, Spud… I’d take any of the guys from that film. Apart from the drug dealer who hands out that suppository. Who plays Sickboy? Something Lee?
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Angus: It’s not Kevin McKidd? Or the guy with the moustache? Oh wait that’s Begbie…
Ryan: Oh, I’ll take up Robert Carlisle!
Alex: Not sure who would portray me, someone that looks like me but also looks cool… everyone is kind of old… Debbie Harry, that’d be fun!
Ritchey: That’s the thing, you’d have to get an actor that is younger than you… What do you think Meg?
Megan: What to play Alex?
Ritchey: No, you?
Angus: Didn’t the girl from Matilda get brought up earlier?
Megan: Err…
Ritchey: Mrs Trunchbull?
Alex: A nice artistic twist on this tale of Furrowed Brow!
Angus: Any plans for a single release anytime soon?
Ryan: We’re definitely going to be recording shortly, going to focus on releasing songs rather than videos. Potentially released soonish…
Ritchey: It’s gonna be really shit and homemade…
Alex: Wait, what? It’s gonna be good.
Angus: Is there a singular record that you can all find common ground on?
Megan: I’d say there is a few, probably…
Ryan: Err…
Ritchey: Roadrunner by the Modern Lovers…
Ryan: Yeah Roadrunner or Hospital…
Alex: Yeah Hospital… that’s our favourite band song! Can we do a cover of that?
Ryan: Yes…
Megan: The Spice Girls…
Ritchey: The Teardrop Explodes…
Ryan: Which one?
Ritchey: Sleeping Gas…
Angus: Final question… did that snare ever materialise?
Ryan: We don’t know where it is…
Alex: You’d have to ask Cristy…
Ritchey: Cristy bought one, but messaged me asking if I had a snare. He said the one he got was really shit, so we’re gonna have to get another one.
Alex: So he sort of has one? The band is semi-snared.
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Recent career decisions have compelled me into the journalistic... thing; I could list my literary influences or even debate which 3rd rate beverage has the best economic value per litre (But I won’t). Oh, in addition, I write reviews for the Independents Network.
