Glaswegian rockers Fatherson have destroyed many stages and eardrums with their intense live shows and aggressive style. Returning for their much anticipated third album ‘Sum of All Your Parts’, Damian Robinson caught up with vocalist/guitarist Ross Leighton to talk new music, live shows and the importance of being honest.
Hi Ross, ‘Sum’ has been billed as the work of a band looking to rip things up and start again. What’s prompting the need for a new start?
It’s not so much of a new start this album, rather the culmination of a band ensuring they produce their best work. Our vision for the album was to make sure we all felt comfortable to disagree with an idea, or a sound, if it didn’t feel right. We wanted to have no fear of upsetting anyone else in the band and believed that this would help us produce our best work. We are all really proud of this album and I think it’s because it’s uncompromised.
Was that hard to achieve in a band dynamic?
Not really no, we’ve been friends for 17 years and have spent a decade in this band together already. Over the past year and a half we may have only had 10 days apart from each other, so we’ve worked hard to make sure we have genuine honesty in the band. It’s no good to anyone saying a song is good at the start then wanting it cut from the album, if a song’s not working it’s better to hear that at the start of the process.
How did working with producer Claudius Mittendorfer help this band dynamic? He’s well known for working with huge bands already in Arctic Monkeys, Interpol, etc.
Claudius has really become the fourth member of the band, he’s a real friend of the band. Production wise, he was able to slide right in and be part of our set up, joining in with the in-jokes and really understanding what we wanted from the album. He’s done amazing production work in the past and it was a dream to have him on board.
You’re out on the road soon to support the album, what can we expect to see?
We’ve got the Blue Americans supporting us, and they’re amazing, so between us and them it’s going to be a really good night of good music. From our perspective, we’ll play some old and new stuff. We’re really excited to play the new material but we also happy to play the better-known material. We love being in the North-East, we love the University venue, and we’ll be out to make sure everyone has a good night.
‘Sum of your Parts’ is out now. Fatherson play Newcastle University on 28th October.