After first coming across the group 18 months ago as they released their first single ‘Take Turns’, Live4ever contributor Carl Stanley returns to the Manchester band for a talk with lead man Liam Faherty on line-up changes, the success of their last single ‘Rode Your Luck‘ and recent tour with city neighbours The Courteeners:
Where are you now and what are you and the band up to?
We have just finished a week on the road with The Courteeners which has been absolutely brilliant; playing to the biggest audiences we have had so far. Finished off nicely on the last show in Oxford where we played at the O2 and then travelled down to London to play our own show the same night. Liam Gallagher was there, watched our set and he was backstage with us too after. That was a great end to a week on the road. A true gent.
Much has changed since the last time I caught up with you – for a start the line-up’s gone through a few changes hasn’t it? Tell us about your new drummer.
Yeah, we have a new drummer, Zara, who has been a great addition to the band. Apart from that nothing’s changed- we’re still working hard, playing loads and trying to reach the most people as possible with our music and show people a good time live!
So has the addition of a new band member had any new or different influences on The Tapestry’s new material? They do say you’re only as good as your drummer.
The addition of Zara has certainly helped the writing of new songs; she is on the same wavelength musically and gets where we’re coming from on new ideas, so things gel a lot easier in that respect. The rhythm section of Katy and Zara is sounding really tight and powerful too.
New material: what new songs have you been putting together, and if so how are they sounding?
We have a lot of new stuff in the pipeline. We have been playing a new song, ‘Tear Up’, on the road this week with The Courteeners for the first time. This is heavier than other previous songs in the set. Still sounds like the Tapestry, with a big chorus, but is definitely more leaning towards our dirty, ‘glam-ier’ element. Pushing things a bit further too rather than confining ourselves to 3-minute pop songs. It’s been nice to have a song with a great groove, and at 5 minutes long, but still making heads turn in the same way our immediate poppier stuff does. This is giving us more confidence to push our sound to other places.
So will we be seeing a new album from the group this year?
Hopefully. It all depends on what happens in the immediate future. There will definitely be something out at some point. We have been building and growing all the time on the back of playing a lot live. As proved this week on the road with The Courteeners, we are happy enough that our single’s available. ‘Rode Your Luck’ and ‘Take Turns’ are a good enough introduction to the band, and we sold a lot of CDs. Hopefully this fanbase will expand and they will stick with us until the timing is right to release a record, which we want to make as big an impact as possible. We are growing all the time so to release an album prematurely wouldn’t be right.
Again looking back on last year – another single of yours, ‘Rode your Luck’ is a fantastic single – best thing is it sounds like no one else but you. Have you noticed the group’s fanbase growing now, really reaching out to those?
Definitely, we are thankful that The Courteeners gave us the opportunity to open for them because we knew that given the chance to play to a big audience we would gain new fans, especially in the south. Our show in London last week at the fantastic ‘This Feeling’ night was unbelievable. One of the best crowds we’ve ever played to. People were going crazy- a very humbling experience indeed. To have Liam Gallagher watch it too was nice and shout, ‘Fucking tune’, to our new one was a highlight!
Live shows – you’ve all been busy on the recent Courteeners tour, another Manchester band sounding good right now, how did it go and how did your newer tunes go down, as well as the new line-up?
Was a great week for the band, not only playing to audiences up to 2000 people a night, but gaining new fans too. It was also good for us in respect of experience of playing big gigs on a proper tour, and we feel tighter musically too as a result. The Courteeners were the perfect hosts and a band at the top of their game right now – played a blinder every night. It made us try and up our game and learn things along the way too.
In your eyes how is the Manchester music scene at the moment? We were hearing plenty from groups like Frazer King, Dirty North and Janice Graham last year.
There is still some good things out there. Danny Mahon for example is doing extremely well. He’s on tour at the minute with Inspiral Carpets, going from strength to strength. Everyone needs to go and see him live. Also a band called The Watchmakers everyone also should check out too – an extremely well dressed psychedelic indie band. Go and listen to them on YouTube now! They have a tune called ‘Before Questions Became’ which is ace.
How about stand out shows on the tour? Were the crowds digging the Manchester line-up of both groups?
Every night on the tour was stand out. All the crowds were brilliant. The Courteeners fans are extremely loyal which is nice to see in this day and age when music and bands are quite disposable. They seemed to take to us well. It’s always difficult for a support band when the crowd are waiting for their heroes to arrive on stage, however we won people round, sold a lot of CDs, and got a larger following on Facebook and Twitter. People danced and cheered and it was great winning people over by the end of the set. A shout out and praise every night by Liam Fray helped too so we were thankful for that also!
The group has a great name for putting on knock-out live shows, where can we catch you playing this year, any festivals, tours?
We have some great gigs coming up – the Manchester leg of the ‘This Feeling’ tour on the 23rd March at Fac 251. This will be like a homecoming for us as it seems like ages since we played to our loyal fanbase in Manchester so everyone needs to get tickets as it will sell out. It’s also been mentioned in the Sun and the NME today too! Also on the bill are The Sundowners from Liverpool who are a great band, and also an Andy Bell DJ set. Hoping this one will be a mental one and I’m looking forward to showing our crowd how much we’ve come on recently. Also we are playing Clitheroe with The Young Knives, and Warrington with Clint Boon next month. And in talks at the moment with a few other big gigs and festivals so join us on Facebook and Twitter to keep an eye on upcoming stuff!
