Friendly Fires
May 23, 2011
Britain's Friendly Fires have revealed that solitude informed the making of new album 'Pala' to be released May 24th via XL Recordings. The album has taken some months to complete.
Singer Ed MacFarlane explained that he deliberately shut himself away. "I mean I spent a month on my own in a cottage in Northern France. Just me and a bunch of music equipment, no internet, no TV, no telephone" he said.
"It was just a chance for me to reflect and work out what the record was going to be about. I like the fact you can become so lonely that your emotions become completely exaggerated and I think that has really influenced the direct lyrical style of a lot of tracks off the record."
The name 'Pala' is taken from Aldous Huxley's 1962 novel 'Island' and what MacFarlane terms the quality of "temporary paradise".
"Life feels very temporary to me, I don't know how long I'm going to be in this band for and a lot of my friends don't know how long they are going to be in their jobs for. It's very much about celebrating the here and now."
The band consists of: Macfarlane, Jack Savidge and Edd Gibson and to date they have released 3 EPs. Each grounding their career in 2006's 'Photobooth,' followed by 2007's Cross The Line EP containing the infamous anthem track "On Board" and the remix EP holding onto a new territory for the three. In September of 2008 Friendly Fires released their debut S/T album on XL Recordings. As their talent together grew and took them to bigger places, their support grew too. With a respectable press/media backing the band ended up with a nomination to 2009's Mercury Music Prize and even gathered nominations for the following years BRIT awards. Despite such a solid reputation and constant high quality deliverance, the boys truly worked the scene until taking time to get back to their roots and get ready to return with a masterpiece ready to impress all.
The lead single is "Blue Cassette."
Upcoming Friendly Fires Tour Dates :
- 5/24 - Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church
- 5/25 - New York, NY - Webster Hall
- 5/26 - Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
- 5/27 - Boston, MA - Paradise
- 5/28 - Montreal, QC - Corona Theatre
- 5/30 - Toronto, ON - Phoenix Concert Theatre
- 5/31 - Chicago, IL - Lincoln Hall
- 6/1 - Minneapolis, MN - Varsity Theater
- 6/4 - Vancouver, BC - Venue
- 6/5 - Seattle, WA - Neumos
- 6/6 - Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge
- 6/8 - San Francisco, CA - The Independent
- 6/10 - Los Angeles, CA - Music Box at The Henry Fonda