2000 Trees - False Advertising Talk Hard Work And The Ultimate Sweet
Breaking into the scene only a few short years ago with their 2016 EP 'Brainless', Alternative Rock three-piece False Advertising have been storming their way through the industry, climbing through the BBC Radio 1 charts and landing huge festival spots in the matter of months.
As they gear up for a possible forthcoming EP or Album, releasing new high-spirted, ecstatic tracks along the way like ‘You Won’t Feel Love’ and ‘You Said’, False Advertising are paving a horizon to phenomenal success. Speaking to us at 2000 Trees Festival the band explained their rise up in the industry, the symbolism within their music and which sweets are the best:
First off, you’ve been all across the board this summer from The Great Escape Festival to this, how are you- exhausted, tired, both?
Chris Warr: ‘Loving it! We’re having the best time.’
For those who might not have heard you yet, give us False Advertising in three words?
Jen: ‘Loud.’
Chris: 'Energetic.’
Josh Seller: ‘Sweaty.’
You’re still fairly new to the scene, you only released your EP 'Brainless' back in 2016, but since then you’ve been featured on BBC Radio 1 and toured with some pretty big names. What’s the secret behind it all?
Chris: ‘Don’t stop, just keep going! Opportunities will come and we’ve enjoyed every single one that’s come our way.’
Jen: ‘Yeah! When we first started recording we did it ourselves with Chris being our producer, put that out and since then something great has always lead to something greater. Since then we’ve never had a reason to stop.’
Josh: ‘You’ve got to try hard in everything you can possibly do and try and be as involved as much as you can. If you’ve got someone trying to help you, help them help you.’
Chris: ‘But don’t say yes to everything.’
Speaking of that, especially for smaller bands coming into the industry when it’s so saturated and daunting, how can bands coming up like yourselves protect and stop any advances of manipulation from the industry?
Chris: ‘Learn and adapt.’
Jen: ‘We’ve done a lot ourselves independently. It means that when we’ve got to the point of working with other people, which is awesome and we love doing it, we’ve taken our time to really find people we can trust.’
Speaking of your earlier days, Josh you once said in an interview with decade that your mom hated you playing music so much she threw your guitar out the window?
Josh: ‘She did do that! I always played guitar in my bedroom, it was an old Yamaha guitar, sparkly purple one that I bought from cash generator. I was just playing guitar and my mom was like “right you don’t listen blah blah blah” then she just launched it out the window while I was like “what?”’
Looking back on those days, what’s something you regret and something you’d never change?
Chris: ‘I don’t think we’d change a lot ‘cause hindsight is wonderful thing but you learn from your mistakes so if you don’t make them you’re not going to learn. Can’t say I’d change a thing myself.’
Now among all the amazing aspects of what makes your band you also have the lovely Jen, a woman. I wanted to pick your brains a little on the way women are treated in this industry, both from male and female perspectives, is there still a harsh tone of misogyny put against bands like yourself?
Chris: ‘I mean yeah, Jen has experienced it.’
Josh: ‘Yeah like people wolf whistling in the crowd today.’
Chris: ‘Within the band we’re all the same but outside of that Jen has the odd comment where it’s like “well done for being a girl.”
Part of our band is that me and Jen play all the same instruments and can swap. It was trying to illustrate the point in these gender bias times that y’know, gender’s irrelevant.'
Jen: ‘We want people to know that we’re all equal, but it’s hard to balance it I guess. We do really want to come across like we can all do the same stuff.
Like Josh you could probably learn to play drums and do it better than anyone!’
Josh: ‘There was one time Jen was loading in some gear whilst I was behind her and people were like “oh that’s so mean you have your girlfriend load in gear for you.” I’m like she’s the fucking nuclear of the band, what you on about?’
You guys released a new single “You Won’t Feel Love”, speaking to Jamie Lenman you said the single was about “indulgence”, signified by the lollipop art work. Is it important for you as artists to have symbolism in your work that isn’t always blantly direct and can be interpreted?
Jen: ‘I think so, for us we want it all to have a cohesive visual tone of voice. With the collection of songs we have self-indulgence seemed like a way of stringing it all together.’
With your latest releases they’re all sweet themed, in honor of that I think the appropriate send off for this interview would be a power ranking of the best sweets?
Chris: ‘Oh, I like the refresher bars! They’re my absolute favorites.’
Jen: ‘If you’re asking me right now it’s Tangfastics, but I go through either “that’s my favourite thing” or “no I just want starmix.”
Josh: ‘Specifically, in a star mix you get those jelly men. It’s all about them boys.’
Interview - Yasmine Summan
