Manchester rockers The Courteeners – exclusive shoot for FAULT Issue 14
Three years after their second studio album, Falcon, was released, The Courteeners have returned with their new record, ANNA, which takes listeners in a completely new direction. Both hyped and criticised throughout their career as being a “lad band”, The Courteeners have set out to prove that they can write and execute an album much deeper and more intricate than skeptical critics thought possible. While the emphasis with ANNA is on new techniques, electronic effects and catchy hooks, the band haven’t lost their original charm and undeniable capability to write stadium-filling anthems. FAULT sat down with frontman Liam Fray to talk about their newest release.
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Did you set out to make an electronic record from the start?
No, not really. It’s getting a lot of attention. This record has more guitars on it than the last one, but I think it’s because Joe likes twiddling his knobs, putting all these different synth sounds in. The weird thing is when you’re in the studio you don’t think about it. You’re so involved, you’re so closed to it, you’re almost not thinking what people are going to think of it.
What would you say are the main highlights of ANNA?
I think it honesty is a highlight, I think it’s refreshing to have ‘cause the songs are quite personal. They’re not difficult to write but they are difficult to sing especially when I grew up with those boys. We pride ourselves on the fact that it’s real. I’m not writing them for a radio station or to get in a certain publication or so a certain clique in London falls for us, I’m writing it ‘cause it’s real and if people like it then happy days.
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What does your typical tour rider request list look like?
Like opposite ends of the spectrum. You get all the shit like fucking coconut water and that. Pineapple juice for onstage, it’s good for singers but it looks like you’re drinking a fucking Piña Colada. We’d like to live fairly healthy but then get absolutely fucking wasted, so it’s like what can you get that’s going to repair your body from twelve ‘til eight pm? Then you go on stage and you come off and go what can we destroy ourselves with?
The Courteeners’s new single, ‘Van der Graaf’, is released this Monday 6th May ’13
FAULT MAGAZINE ISSUE 14 (Spring ’13) – THE TASTE ISSUE – IS AVAILABLE TO ORDER HERE NOW.
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