The LaFontaines are ready and set to release their third studio album.
At LMLL we’ve been fans of the Fonts for years, their addictive blend of Scottish rap-rock and outstanding live sets keeps us wanting more – and it seems we’re definitely not the only ones.
The LaFontaines have always remained true to their distinct sound and ‘Junior’ looks set to be no different. Expect a high momentum genre-blend with energy oozing from the seams of every track.
With their third studio album due out this month, and a forthcoming intimate headline UK tour to celebrate, we caught up with Darren McCaughey from The LaFontaines to discover five tracks that influenced the new release.
Pusha T – The Games We Play
This album came out last year when we were on tour with Don Broco in Europe. I remember going out to the van myself a few times after we had played and listening to the whole thing start to finish off of a wee Bluetooth speaker. The combination of Pusha’s razor-sharp drug rap and Kayne’s classic production is the sound of two masters in their field operating at the highest level. I really liked the guitar riff and sound in this track and wanted to do something in the same vein, which ended up becoming the verse of ‘Tomorrow Won’t Worry Me’.
Twenty One Pilots – Jumpsuit
We had the verse and chorus or ‘Tomorrow Won’t Worry Me’ and had lyrics written but needed a way to finish it. This song had just came out and I think in a rehearsal we were listening to it and just messing about and from that the end riff section idea came about and we knew then that was the way to go.
Primal Scream – Slip Inside This House
I was walking home from somewhere listening to the Midnight Chats by Loud and Quiet podcast last November, which featured an interview with Bobby Gillespie from Primal Scream. During the interview, their breakthrough album Screamadelica was mentioned quite a bit and they spoke about how it won the first-ever mercury music prize in 1992. I’d never really listened to it before, so decided to give it a bash. This is the second track on the album and as soon as I heard the drum groove I felt instantly inspired. I got home and quickly put together some loops around the same tempo and made the demo for ‘Alpha’ in around 20 minutes.
Logic & Wiz Khalifa – Indica Babu
‘Pro’ came about in a similar fashion to ‘Alpha’. Sometimes I will ask Kerr to send me a list of songs, as inspiration for beats and this was one of them. I liked the walking bass line and how that added a lot of groove to certain sections and how laidback the whole track was. ‘Pro’ is definitely the most different sounding track we have ever done, but it felt pretty natural and was interesting to make something in this lane fit our sound and do our own spin on it.
Yungblud, Halsey & Travis Barker – 11 Minutes
The final track on the album ‘Body’ was only finished at the end of last month and the opening guitar tone on ‘11 Minutes’ was a big inspiration for the middle section. It’s definitely picking up where Lil Peep left off and leaning into the more poppier side of the emo-rap sound, but I think they nailed the balance and the chorus works so well. We toured with Yungblud at the beginning of last year and you could tell instantly that he has what it takes to be a massive pop star.
The LaFontaines third album ‘Junior’ is due out on June 14th via SO Recordings, pre-order the album now via http://hyperurl.co/Junior-Album!
You can listen to the first taster of the album with latest track ‘Alpha’ below: