It’s impossible not to be tempted to dance at a Friendly Fires show. The dance-punk trio, hailing originally from St. Albans in Hertfordshire, England, makes the beat the central element of every single irresistible pop hook they write. That of course, translates to a sweat-laden live show.
“It’s a huge thing, physically, for me and for all of us really,” says drummer Jack Savidge of the band’s live shows. “There’s always a big sense of achievement by the end.”
The band has just dropped their sophomore album, “Pala” to follow up their self-titled debut album, which earned a Mercury prize nomination in 2008. Their new material is as catchy as ever, with the sort of celebratory air, such as in their single, “Hawaiian Air,” that builds on the exuberance of the first album.
“I don’t know that our approach to this album was all that different really,” Savidge explains of the sound on “Pala.” “I think we learned a lot of lessons from making the music that came out on the first album. On this album we just wanted to elaborate on some of the things that we’d done of the first record a bit, rather than totally wipe the slate clean and try to make something totally new.”
Savidge sweetly admits that the feel-good fun of their music is something that they’ve purposely decided should be their calling card.
“I think we decided fairly early on that we wanted to be a dance sort of band. That was really important to us,” he says. “With a lot of good bands there’s a sort of overall theme to their music and I think that’s kind of true with us.”
L.A. vs. New York
Q. Who dances more at your shows? East Coasters or West Coasters?
New York I guess is like London. In the shows there’s a lot of cool people and they like to watch and take it in, but they’re not going to get too enthusiastic about it. In L.A. everyone seems a bit more happy and probably more likely on something and physical and stuff. One of the best shows we ever did was in Philadelphia.
Follow Heidi Patalano on Twitter @HeidiatMetro.
