Field Music are three twenty-somethings with a work ethic that would impress a Victorian mill owner. I meet them in between a radio guest spot, a visit to their label, more interviews and a gig at the weird and wonderful Tapestry Club. Over coffee and buttered toast at their favourite London cafe, they explain how their boundless energy and determination has made them what they are today.
“We’ve all worked hard outside music,” says guitarist/drummer David Brewis. “Me and Peter signed publishing deals straight after I finished university and I wasted that time, not that I went out boozing, I just didn’t know what I was supposed to do. Then I had to get a full-time job. I worked very hard; 8-6 every day. And if I can put that kind of effort into-” He catches himself, his eyes widening in horror. “Not that you could do 8-6 every day in a studio! You’d die!”
As David recoils at the prospect, his elder brother Peter the drummer/guitarist puts down his toast and picks up the story. “I think that’s one of the mistakes we made at the beginning of last year. We tried to transfer our work ethic at ‘Work’ onto our music and by the end of the summer we were totally exhausted. After our last UK tour we were almost ready to pack in. We cancelled all of our gigs after that.”
Knowing that, we are lucky to have Field Music’s brand new second album,
‘Tones Of Town’. The title and theme of the LP owe much to the title track according to David. “The title is a mistake, a mispronunciation of the lyrics really but it’s a reference to the sounds you hear as you walk around Sunderland and probably about how songs trigger memories. It became a catchall phrase; that so much of the album is about a sense of place, it’s about us living in Sunderland and what Sunderland is like and what that means to us.”
Which begs the question, is Sunderland full of post-punk Futureheads wannabes? “Sunderland doesn’t have that many bands at all. Out of the bands that I think are good there’s maybe four or five and there’s a couple more with a bit of potential then there’s loads and loads of band’s who’re rubbish really,” David says with unabashed frankness. “And there’s not an orthodoxy of angular punk in Sunderland. Most of the rubbish bands in Sunderland sound exactly like Oasis - but worse. Still. Incredibly. Sunderland being ten years behind fashion. Always!”
