London trio F.U.R.S. made such a splash with debut single ‘Striptease’ that they landed themselves a slot supporting omnipresent indie hero Johnny Marr – and even, we might add, soundtracking our Babes Issue trailer way back in Feb. Here they are talking LA, LCD and LOVE.
How and when did the group form?
The band started with myself [Liam Wade] and Olly Bets re-recording some of my demos in his studio early 2012. We had been friends for a few years as our previous bands had played together on a couple of occasions. I always had a female vocalist in mind for the songs so eventually I asked my sister [Elle Wade] to come along and demo on what myself and Olly had worked on. It worked perfectly so we decided to go ahead and form what would become F.U.R.S.
Why “F.U.R.S.” ?
F.U.R.S. name came from the Leopold Von Sacher Masoch book, Venus in Furs. I was reading the book whilst writing the initial songs and it really fit with my what I had in mind for the band. I always wanted a female vocalist and the book has very strong feminine dominance running throughout like our music does. So I took Furs from the book title.
Musically, what are your influences and inspirations?
Musically there are lots of influences from each member. Initially I was listening to bands like the The Nerves and I just loved the short sharp direct music they made. They wrote ‘Hanging on The Telephone‘ which Blondie then covered and made famous. It was like Motown influenced punk. We all listen to plenty of music though…. current bands we really like are The Horrors and my friends from LA, Allah Las. We just love their record they out in 2012.
How did the song ‘Striptease‘ come about?
‘Striptease‘ came about by me just loving all those super chill California bands that you’re likely to find on the Nuggets compilation. Myself and Olly both spent a lot of time out in LA working with other bands and it was very easy for us to get that sound in the studio. Sticking to the ethos of producing short sharp pop songs that you can really get your teeth in to. The story is a pretty typical one of tainted lovers having a bit of a spat; I think we’ve all been there at some point.
How is touring coming along?
Touring has been awesome. We’ve just done over half of a UK tour supporting Johnny Marr. We’ve been getting a lot of love after the shows with people complimenting us on our music, which is always great to hear on your first times playing all your new songs. We love playing live whether its a tiny club in east London or Shepherds Bush Empire which we’ve done with Johnny.
If you could collaborate with anyone, who would it be ?
We all have different ideas on this, but one person we all agreed on would be James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem. We actually have a lot of electronic instruments in our songs and it’d be good to work with James to see what he could do with one of our songs. It’s hard for people to grasp that sometimes, as all they’ve heard is ‘Striptease‘. We’ve been called surf rock but really, ‘Striptease‘ is the only song we have that is remotely “surf”. Our musical tastes are vast, which people will get when they come see us live or when they listen to our future releases.
There’s a line of T-shirts on the your site – is fashion an area of interest as well ?
I’m glad you noted the T-shirt. It was done by a very talented young fashion designer Hannah Clayton, who’s done all of our artwork to date. The T-shirts are selling like hot cakes on tour. The Lazer Cat has been very popular! We all like to make an effort for the stage, music and fashion go hand in hand. Burberry very kindly gave us all some pieces for our tour which is always a bonus.
‘Striptease’ comes out on 25th March on Loose Lips Records. www.fursband.com
Words: James Lennon Tan