What inspired you to first start making music? And how did you come to be in your current incarnation? Or if you prefer, a brief bio about you.
Patric Nutton: I used to sing along to my parent’s stuff from a young age, Merseybeat, Motown, mod (mum liked the Faces and Kinks), and even some sixties West Coast stuff (Beach Boys) and glam (T-Rex), and then in my mid teens I was in a duo with a school friend who had a guitar. We did antifolk stuff that sounded like messed up psychedlic folk, tropicalia and punk mixed together, and I was writing lyrics but I couldn’t really play guitar yet so I got a chord book and I was listening to It’s A Shame About Ray and Nevermind at the time and loved them and vowed to learn both from top to bottom cos I loved the way those guys played it – I mean Cobain and Dando aren’t virtuosos per se but they have a way with the guitar that makes me love it, there’s a little bit of both in all my guitar parts even though it’s not obvious at times.
Guitarists I like now are Mark Bowen from Idles – his energy is mental, Laurie Vincent from Slaves – he’s like the new Jack White from Tunbridge Wells I guess, Archie Marshall (King Krule) – such effortless skill to watch when he plays. They are all brilliant performers. If you could meld all three they’d be my model guitarist for today.
Provide us with some info about your latest release…
Patric Nutton: The EP has five tracks, Wasteful, a loud slab rock, an ode to the ills of wasteful debauchery and my younger behaviours. Tupelo, is sort of a continuation of that more rocky River Fury side, it’s about sex, but not particularly the right kind of sex, the non-romantic kind – there’s a story there but it’s private stuff… Comfort is like a psych, country, romp with a big chorus that talks about similar stuff, it’s Dan’s story of unrequited love with robot sex dolls or something – you will have to ask him the true meaning.. Walking In Sand is about me as a kid, sometimes I used to pretend I was maybe on some kind of Truman Show or something with imaginary friends watching what I got up to…it’s a pop track with some nods to mid nineties Blur and there some Best Coast style guitars.
Five Year Plan is a kind of ballad I suppose, the tender side of River Fury, with some wistful musings from Dan again on his younger unsettled self… he could probably fill you in on that better than me, I channelled some Chili Peppers on my guitar on that one, it’s almost anthemic. The closest we have to a lighters up song!
Which ones would you consider your main influences both music-wise & non-music-wise?
Patric Nutton: Music-wise for me the River Fury sound takes from a whole bunch of different points, there’s; Beatles, Sabbath, Lemonheads, Nirvana, Soundgarden, Dinosaur Jr, Blur, Strokes, Clash, Tame Impala, Wonder Years, Weezer, Beach House, Smiths, Beach Boys, The Byrds, The Kinks, Mogwai, Killers, Cure, Thurston Moore, Arcade Fire, Flaming Lips… it’s a real mixed bag, we love a lot of music, but our sound is in the guitar pop rock bargain bucket.
Non-music influences is probably our everyday lives, some songs we write are biographical lyrically and our playing is biographic too, sometimes its overemotional and sometimes it’s gentle and soothing.
In what way does your sound differ from the rest genre-related artists/bands and why should we listen to your music? In other words, how would you describe your sound?
Patric Nutton: To be honest, we aren’t exactly the sort of band that breaks new ground sonically….I mean, to actually find a band or artist that does that is a rarity these days. We aren’t abashed by our early nineties influences since we are all at an age when that was what we listened to when we were younger. We are a band that is bringing back some of the classic elements of 90s grunge and indie rock, and maybe it’s right for now, there’s a bit of a revival in that scene under way and British bands are starting to make waves again, Idles, Sorry, Shame, Slaves etc.
I guess there’s the spirit of ’91 to ’94 being rebooted in us… We aren’t Britpop per se but it’s there in the mix along with the American alt rock influences.
If you liked those bands the you’ll love us, we try to encompass harmonious vocal stuff with a heavy guitar sound. When we write, there is a conscious effort to balance melody with the discordance, and when we play live we try and blow your ears off…
Please name your 3 desert islands albums, movies & books…
Patric Nutton: Movies: Taxi Driver, Easy Rider and Withnail & I.
Books: In Cold Blood, Midnight Express, Fierce Invalids In Hot Climates (although maybe I should say The Sound And The Fury)
Albums would have to be long players for a desert island, maybe…White Album, Siamese Dream and Speakerboxx/The Love Below?
Do you prefer studio or performing live and why?
Patric Nutton: Studio is great fun, because you can do stuff there that you can’t always do live, but nothing beats cranking up in front of people who are having a great time. Our last gig was lit. The first time we have seen people sing our stuff back at us and wearing our merch!!!!
Is there any funny-unique story you would like to share with us, always in relation to your music ‘career’?
Patric Nutton: Two friends of Dan have a duo called Luluc signed to Sub Pop, who came to tour recently and took my bass on tour with them. In return, I got backstage and sat between Thurston Moore and Richard Ayoade on the side of the stage. I like Richard but let’s not beat around the bush, Thurston is like a God to me. I stood next to him in the urinal feeling quite small and insignificant and quite understandably had to wait for him to leave before i could actually pee. And then I bumped into him and J Mascis after and all I could do was say hi to Luluc and see ya at the next gig. Totally starstruck by two legends of guitar. Embarrassing…
Dan Howe: I spent the evening hanging with Noel Gallagher at the Brit awards after party a couple of years ago. We were de facto best friends that night because neither of us knew or had even heard of the pop stars there. He kept going out for fags and dragging me out with him for company. Tim Westwood spent most of the night on his phone: no one had a clue who he was.
Which track of your own would you point out as the most unique and why?
Patric Nutton: I think Wasteful probably sticks out the most. It’s way more abrasive in parts than the others, and the way it kind of fell together – it was pretty much the last one we wrote and was done the quickest.
It’s got some absolutely insane drumming, a nice tight Zep/Sabbath/Foos style bass riffage in the verses, punctuated by some neat atonal guitar responses from Dan and an almost Buzzcocks/Sham 69 group shout style chorus, rounded off with ridiculously earsplitting feedback at the end fed through an organ pedal that sounds like bagpipes.
It’s the most fun to play too!! It’s River Fury turned up to eleven!
Would you like to share with our readers your future plans?
Patric Nutton: We have played quite a few shows recently, but now we’re readying to record a fresh batch of tunes, so we hope to head in the studio towards the end of the Summer. It’s all a bit exciting, but we aren’t getting ahead of ourselves.
Free question!!! (Ask yourself a question) you wish to answer and haven’t been given the opportunity…
What is the secret of your success?
Patric Nutton: Our secret to success is simple. We all adhere to a very strict diet of fruit and vegetables and Haribo, and indulge frequently in vigorous relations.
Curated by: Christos Doukakis
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