Welcome to the final episode of this series of Norwich Spotlight, a run of articles where I shout about an amazing band who do amazing things. This one seems like a great band to end on as two other bands in this series recommended them in their Recent and Decent playlists!
And quite right too. They create urgent, loud and dynamic noise and I absolutely love them. Ladies and gentlemen, may I welcome to the stage, FEASTS!
Introducing FEASTS
Their Spotify page describes them as: “A math-punk duo, described as an explosion in a fireworks factory, blend broken pop songs with chaotic instrumentation in a desperate attempt to get heads nodding and hips shaking.”
But I don’t know if they can be described using words. When I see them live, I almost go through an out-of-body experience. All my senses get shuffled up and I only realise I’m human once I step outside and breathe in some fresh air. They are a sight, sound and feeling to behold.
In reference to May’s gig, supporting Magnolia at Voodoo Daddys, I said this:
I went to this gig just because of the support band, FEASTS, who were phenomenal when they supported Bag of Cans a couple of weeks ago. They made such a beautiful, loud noise for just two people, they were ultra-talented, and they were all about the art. Near the end, the drummer shouted out a poem he had written earlier that day and me and my friend were just stood there, in awe, with our amazing pizzas, and a pint, right at the front. I bought the band a beer afterwards, which was a cool moment for me personally. But yeah, peak joy.
Here are my thoughts on their 2024 album, Real Songs By:
Real Songs By is an album full of urgency. Each song is at least slightly anarchic, with plenty of heavy distortion, cymbals, and shouty singing. These are essential tools to communicate their apocalyptic observations, yet there's still an abundance of poetry and authenticity there: Trees Are Talking is one such song that rather beautifully describes nature overcoming human dominance, to the backdrop of beefy instrumentation: “Now the trees are talking. I fear it’s clear that I won’t last long. The plants, they dance as I fall into the soil.” Having seen them live, I know FEASTS have the power and energy to give people the jolt they need to pay attention, and this album somehow manages to do that too. For me, I love this album because when I listen through it, I know I've listened through it, and I've always appreciated the journey.
And now for interview
I first discovered you supporting another band and I was blown away by your authenticity. You just went for it. When you write music, how much do you think about playing it live?
Almost all of our first two albums and some of our third have been jammed and improvised in the practice space live, so we never really considered its translation into a live setting. It was already essentially ready. What I suppose we had to consider was whether the stage essence translated that live performance in an interesting way. So, we very quickly decided to both be positioned at the front facing each other so neither of us was isolated on their own. We often have to play the songs a tonne through the writing process before it's ready. But we also don’t like to over rehearse or polish, I think we both appreciate a slight element of the unpredictable and improvised roughness. We sometimes play songs way way too early live to test them and get them out into the world and a lot of the writing progress and fine tuning can sometimes come from that direction. Hearing a silly guitar twiddle, or slightly off drum fill or improvised vocal delivery when watching or listening back can often find its way back into the final versions of the song.
There are only two of you in the band so I'm interested in how that partnership works. How do you go about writing songs together?
Nearly everything we do in the practice space is within the moment and not brought to the table. Just the sounds and improvisations of two people who have become so idiosyncratically fused together that we can predict almost everything the other is going to do. Like a shoal of fish. The main writing element of the first two albums was chunks of jams that Conor recorded on his phone. These recordings, sometimes lasting an hour or two, would then be cut up into interesting parts by me and then sent back. I/we still have all these hundreds of hours’ worth of jams and versions of songs that I am tethered too in an unrelenting battle of laptop memory space. Hopefully one day waiting to unload these onto an award-winning documentary maker who will make the hit FEASTS documentary before our homecoming gig at Carrow Road. But really I am just too attached to the little sections of ideas we couldn’t possible replay, or parts of songs that just won’t comply and fit into a real song. It’s nice going back and hearing the exact moment an entire song is born and then explored for 10 minutes.
Eventually I started splicing instrumentations together. With “Real Songs By” It was a similar approach to the first but with a couple deviations. Conor sent me the first half of “Ruby City” and had written the guitar for “Trees are Talking” and we had a chilled practice where I improvised the lyrics initially and then spent far far too long writing and ripping off Pavement. I’m not sure how Ruby City went from a John Carpenter sounding guitar piece, to Marilyn Manson/Battles ADHD instrumental which transitions into the Pink Floyd jam and then into the Lightning Bolt freak out at the end. But we spent a long time working on it, right up until the recording of the album.
I wrote “Grow A Face” and had an idea for the general music, but which then took a very long time to bridge the gap and jam the middle bit. Often, I try to sing a guitar line at Conor as I watch his soul leave his body and he starts to disassociate. “Monkey Goes to Hotel” was an idea I had for a song with a very rudimentary guitar line that I unconfidently mumbled to Conor, and he immediately played it, and it then just took a lot of work figuring it out in the practice space.
Our third and in progress is far more varied. With hundreds of jams to assemble, as well as the most songs that I had written and brought to Conor than the other two. The first two were primarily music first, with the second having a little bit of song first. But our third is much more “Song first”
If you could describe your most recent album, Real Songs By, in under 10 words what would they be?
Silly, irreverent, serious, honest, questioning, existential, weird, intense, fun, noisy.
A running theme in your recent album is the destruction of our planet. Do you ever think about music as a tool to challenge this?
The fruit of a message rots very quickly and rarely transcends time in a particularly graceful way. Our stupid little songs are our fruits, and I don’t want them to be tainted by the current political cycle, populist arguments, or idealistic wishful thinking. I think music has changed things in the past, but music has become extremely saturated and spread out. In the extreme unlikelihood of our music ever reaching a wide audience, it’s something I would consider more. But I don’t want to tell an audience what to think, or what’s right or wrong, just present them with the ideas. It’s also hard to be taken as a serious person or band when we also have songs about Goblins or lyrics where I’ve just thought “That’ll do for now” and never revisited it.
This isn’t a megaphone to tell anyone what to do, other than don’t be an absolute cunt. But I’m very happy to bore people in person with conversations about the inevitability of catabolic, capitalist, biodiversity, societal and environmental collapse.
Finally (and I've decided that I'm going to ask every band this from now until the end of time), would you be able to create a 7-song Recent and Decent Guest Playlist? This would be 7 songs that 1) you like and 2) have all been released in the last year. Diverse genres encouraged. I will also link your FEASTS weekly playlist here too if you don't mind!!
“Favourite Shirt” – Bag of Cans
“Elephant” - KEG
“Fitness” - Snooper
“Sewlong” – Anrufen
“Pile of Wood” – Pom Poko
“Feathers” – PALM
“1,000 Days” – RAD PITT
Sign off
I’ve noticed that the KEG some in FEASTS’ playlist is a couple of years old but I’ll let them off because FEASTS and KEG are both excellent and I love them. Thank you so much to Ben and Connor. Below is a link to their most recent album, Real Songs By and, as an extra special treat, Ben does his own favourite songs playlist, which he updates weekly. I’ve included a link to that too because that really is a thing of beauty.
Finally, if you’re seeing FEASTS play their version of Christmas music at Norwich Puppet Theatre, I’ll see you there! Otherwise, you’ll just have to wait for their Grammy-winning album out next year!
I’ve really enjoyed doing this series and can’t wait to get a few more interviews next year. In the meantime, please do check out the other Norwich Spotlights (Red Mar, Magnolia, Bag of Cans) and if you can, get yourselves over to Norwich to see them live!
