General Fiasco

Ella Selfe

Indie-rockers General Fiasco are proving very worthy of their music career, with a brilliant EP released in November and several impressive new songs emerging in light of another scheduled EP in March, the band’s next album will be released later this year.

The northern Irish boys have been busy writing their follow-up album to ‘Buildings’, but now they are raring to get fully back into touring and I caught up with the band on their first (of many, we hope!) headline tour of 2012 at the Manchester Academy 3.

Your newest EP ‘Waves’ has been out for a few months now, were you pleased with the response?

Owen: Yeah…

Stephen: People were very receptive of it, we had some nice reviews.

Owen: I think it’s showing more now that we’re out playing the stuff and people know it, so it’s got through to them anyway, so that’s good!

What can we expect from the new album and how will it differ from ‘Buildings’?

Owen: I think it’s just slightly more varied, it’s sort of less pop-punk and hopefully slightly more interesting instrumentation. We’ve just tried to approach ‘Buildings’ sound a little differently and now that we’ve got Stu in the band there’s another layer that we can do stuff with and it’s not just us three guys playing as loud as we can!

Stephen: I think the EPs represent where the music is kind of going because obviously a few of the songs are going to be on the album, and a few slightly different tracks. We’re very happy with it.

To those who haven’t heard you before, how would you best describe your music?

Owen: It’s indie-guitar music, it’s melody based. We get asked this a lot, I wish there was a cool answer for it but there’s really not, it’s just indie-guitar music! *laughs*

Which is the favourite song that you’ve ever written?

Enda: Well ‘Don’t You Ever’, the new single..

Owen: Aye, I don’t know, there’s a few tracks, it just depends what mood you’re in on the day. I definitely think with the new album we’ve moved on to something different and I think it’s better. Well, I think it’s better anyway so, just anything really off the new album.

Which is your favourite touring experience so far in your career?

Stu: We went to New Zealand about a year and a half ago and we played a show to as many people as we played to in Belfast, which was kind of incredible going half way around the world playing to big full rooms full of people. That was really nice and kind of stands out!

Owen: Just anywhere that you play and people come to the gigs or come to hear your music. We’ve done a lot of amazing support tours and played with a lot of really cool bands, but I think it’s the most fun whenever it’s people who care about your music rather than who you’re with.

What would be your dream tour line-up?

Owen: Would we be headlining it or are we first on?

You can be a support band if you want, it’s up to you..

Owen: I would probably be first on just so you can go out, play half an hour and then just enjoy the rest of it so, we’d be on first, then..

Stephen: Stick Nirvana on there, for my teenage self.

Stu: Yeah, we never got to see them so..

Owen: I don’t really know, I saw Weezer a couple of summers ago and that was really good so..

Stephen: Weezer from 1996..

Owen: Weezer, but just ‘The Blue Album’and ‘Pinkerton’, and then let Nirvana headline.

Stu: Dave Grohl is going to be there anyway so why not get Foo Fighters?

Stephen: Might as well!

Stu: Just for half an hour or something..

*Laughter*

Enda: The Beatles.

*Laughter*

Are you planning to play any summer festivals this year?

Owen: Yeah, we are planning it. We have some stuff in but we’re not allowed to announce it just yet because they haven’t announced it, but yeah we’d just love to do as much as possible! I think last summer we just did Reading and Leeds and maybe some Irish festivals, just because we were writing and away from the habit of touring so this time now that we’re back up and going we’d like to do as much as possible just anywhere and everywhere.

What is one thing you would love to achieve this year?

Owen: I would just love the album to be received well and just go on to do bigger shows and play to more people and just continue doing what we’re doing and to have people care about it.

..and the album is coming out in Spring, is that right?

Owen: It’ll be out just before the summer I think!

We’ll keep our ears peeled! Thank you!