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Their surprise Mercury Prize victory last night (October 29th) ‘doesn’t change anything at all’ according to the Edinburgh-based hip hop act Young Fathers.
The trio’s ‘Dead‘ album hadn’t been considered one of the front-runners for this year’s prize – Kate Tempest and FKA Twigs were the talk of the town going into yesterday’s London ceremony – but a return to the unpredictability which the prestigious award was once known for helped them to secure the £20,000 winner’s cheque.
“It doesn’t change anything at all,” they told Digital Spy in the aftermath. “We try and stay in this childlike mentality, just absorbing stuff as much as possible.”
“If you watch a child play they’re really into what they’re doing, there’s no other people about. So we try and create that atmosphere. To be honest we haven’t really heard most of the music on the shortlist or even the albums that have been nominated so it wouldn’t be fair for us to say this person or that person.”
Their victory also signalled a move away from the alternative, left-field indie which has generally held a grip on the Mercury Prize during recent years, what with The xx, Alt-J and James Blake dominating the judges’ thoughts in 2010, 2012 and 2013 respectively.