Interview: Liam Frost

by Jon Fletcher

New Noise chats to Liam Frost about funerals, farts and fear

"It's like that Alan Partridge sketch. How many friends have you got? I've got 102."

Two years ago Liam Frost was just another name hammering the Manchester gig circuit. Now he's on his second UK tour with backing band The Slowdown Family and plugging his debut full length, 'Show Me How The Spectres Dance'. He talked to New Noise before his London show.

NN: Why did you get into music? Do you come from a musical family, or was it a girl thing?
LF: [laughs] Pretty much a girl thing. No-one in the family can play - none of them are musically gifted, but they were all fans of music. When I was about 6, 7 or 8 there was always good music in the house - grunge and things like that. I had a brother who was slightly older than me who was really into it and played loads of early nineties stuff. That was where I formed my musical tastes, really - I was more into the alternative side of things.

NN: Your website says that you 'ditched shouty punk for acoustic pop'...
LF: Yeah, pretty much. I started with an acoustic guitar, then when I was about 15 I started doing open mic nights in bars that I shouldn't really have been in. Then I joined a music course where you had to form a band. I was really into punk and hardcore and stuff at that point so I just turned up with this hardcore band and did that for a bit.

NN: What were they called?
LF: Blue Tile Lounge. We only really did a bit of stuff in Manchester, nothing beyond that. I kept up with the acoustic guitar and it just won through. I ended up leaving Blue Tile Lounge and carried on with the acoustic guitar.

NN: Was that because of the reaction you were getting to it?
LF: Not really. I just grew tired of that sort of scene. It all just got to be one sound. It was at a point where all that sort of riffy Funeral For A Friend stuff was going on. Everything got to sounding like that and I was just like, this isn't what I want to do any more. I kept going with the acoustic guitar and recorded this demo at the end of 2004 with the wages I earned that month, which meant I couldn't buy any Christmas presents. That was the demo that started it off. I started handing it around in Manchester at the start of 2005 and it kicked off from there.

NN: You're signed to Lavolta now. Were they quick in coming to your door?
LF: They were the first people there. I played a gig down in London, a Ones To Watch Levi thing. I was first on and no-one really got it, but one of my friends from Manchester was down in London and had just started working for Lizard King Records, which was Lavolta's original name. She was really into the demo and really into the gig and passed on the CD the head of A&R. They didn't make an offer on a deal until August, by which point I'd got on the Stephen Fretwell tour. That generated a bit more A&R interest and it all went a bit mad around that time. I signed to Lavolta as a loyalty thing really. They were nice at the start and they were there first.

NN: Talk me through the album. Are there any tracks that particularly mean a lot to you?
LF: Yeah, I guess the songs that mean the most from a lyrical aspect are 'The Mourners Of St Pauls' and 'Try Try Try'. That's just because they're about situations involving loss and things like that - not necessarily for myself but other people as well. I think the lyrics are pretty plain for all to see on the album. I'm not one for masking stuff with weird phrases.

NN: Do you ever find that kind of honesty difficult?
LF: I did at first. I remember the last tour just after we finished the album, we were going out doing the songs. Working on the album was such an intense period of time I found it quite difficult doing the tour and singing the lyrics.

NN: 'Mourners Of St Pauls' in particular has quite strong imagery...
LF: That's the key song on the album that kind of sums up all the events that the album is about - two deaths - my Dad and my brother - in the space of about ten years and how they affected me and affected people around me.

NN: Slowdown Family - where does the name come from?
LF: When I was in Blue Tile Lounge, I was still doing acoustic stuff. I recorded an EP down here with a friend who lived in Wood Green. When I came back up I had the intention of playing just a couple of shows and then putting out the CD just for fun. I pressed a few myself and made cases out of cardboard. I didn't want to call it 'Liam Frost' so I just took a lyric from a song that just said 'slow down' or something. I think the way that I sang it stuck out and I just called it 'The Slow Down EP". Then...
[To tour manager] JAMES! Have you farted? If you're going to fart go somewhere else!
JH: No I haven't.
LF: Yeah you have, I can smell it. I was in mid-flow then as well. Knob head.
[To NN]
Yeah and then we kind of got the band together and it became The Slowdown Family.

NN: What jobs did you do before this?
LF: As soon as I left school I went into a job. Just boring call centre stuff and admin stuff - just, like, easy shit. I've got a bit of common sense but I don't really know how to do fuck all else other than write songs and play guitar. I worked in some place in the NHS where I had to count prescriptions. I had to put in all this boring data and stuff - it was fucking horrible. I did that for about three years. I should have got sacked a bunch of times because I didn't show up at work, but my sister in law was the boss. Then I did a bunch of temp jobs and fucked all those and got sacked. I eventually decided I needed to get my shit together and just work in one and I worked in a call centre for a credit card company. It was soulless as fuck and that kind of took me up to when we got signed.

NN: Is there anyone you'd love to share a stage with?
LF: Bruce Springsteen, Nick Cave, Elliott Smith (which will never happen), The Shins, Iron & Wine.

NN: Are you into much new stuff?
LF: I really like Jeremy Walmsley, Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly - people like that. I was really great at keeping up with what was going on for ages and then all of a sudden while we were out touring, all these bands showed up in Manchester and I was like, where the fuck have I been? 

NN: Are you ever surprised at which songs turn out to be the fans' favourites?
LF: Yeah, I don't really spend much time looking at forums but I was on our website the other day looking around after a sound check and there was a thing about the album - what's everyone's favourite track. Pretty much everyone was into 'Shall We Dance' which is like one of the last songs we wrote for the album and wasn't necessarily a favourite going into it. It has become one since, but I was really surprised. I thought everyone would like 'Try Try Try' or 'Mourners' or 'Paper Boats' but it ended up being 'Shall We Dance'.

NN: Is that the same at gigs?
LF: Yeah. There's a couple of odd tracks that aren't on the album but which are favourites live. I chose not to put them on the album - it was a conscious decision really.

NN: Have they got single potention or...?
LF: No, not really. They're just a bunch of live tracks from the old days that people still really like.

NN: Who sweats most in your live performances?
LF: Me.

NN: Is that the suit?
LF: Yeah, yeah. Plus I get really nervous. I get ridiculously nervous. Well not nervous as such but I get this horrible weird nervous energy.

NN: Does that disappear as soon as you're on stage?
LF: I'm usually too drunk to notice, but yeah I think it probably does disappear. I keep my eyes closed as much as possible.

NN: Would you describe yourself as a shy guy then?
LF: Probably off stage, yeah.

NN: Have you had a moment so far when you've gone, "fucking hell"?
LF: Probably the Academy 2 gig on this tour in Manchester. Obviously it was a home town crowd and I always view success by the size of the venue I'm playing in. For me, the level that I always wanted to get to was the Academy 2 in Manchester. There was 900 people in there and it was full capacity and everyone was singing along to all the songs. I was like, "shit this is amazing". Obviously we're still playing in the rest of the country to 100 people at a time.

NN: What's the capacity here then?
LF: About 900. We won't fill it.

NN: Does that make a difference to you?
LF: We played in Oxford on the last tour to about 20 people and had the best time, so no.

NN: On your myspace you've got 3,808 friends. Do you have trouble keeping in touch with them all?
LF: [laughs]

NN: Sorry.
LF: It's like that Alan Partridge sketch. "How many friends have you got? I've got 102."

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