Fat White Family Hope for Music
Fat White Family first graced our pages in issue three and they’ve been
and we just put it together. But at the same time, I mean, it can be
our Mothers’...
one really, I think it’s just a case of how much of an idiot you are and
walking the line between genius and madness ever since. Georgie Jesson interviewed Lias Saoudi ahead of the release of their iconic, ‘Songs for Its unsettling to see a band so comfortable in their own chaos, so sure
about their own uncertainty, like they’re sitting pretty snug in an oozing
really difficult at times, you can spend all fucking year trying to write
something and nothing good comes out. I don’t know the answer to that how far you want to go with it.
You’ve said in previous interviews that you’re still naïve enough
pile of mess that was their own creation. The Fat White Family came
to believe that you can achieve some sort of change or ignite a
the calm after the storm. They boldly left their mark with ‘Champagne
away?
seems very wild, very risky anymore, the unpredictable has become
to write, quite difficult, frustrating, I usually end up finding it quite
crashing in on the scene a few years back, they were mad, bad and
cultural shift through your songs. Is this a feeling that intensified
naked, but we catch them now at a precarious time in their lives. It’s
after you completed this album? Or can you feel this hope slipping
though this band has never been so vulnerable. At a first glance nothing
I don’t know… For me, on a very basic level, although its very painful
‘Songs For Our Mothers’ is unnerving, restless, constantly waxing and
involved professionally, when I’m doing it to make a living, it changes
Holocaust’ and Saoudi has put his clothes back on, and yet it feels as
predictable, but this is their most dangerous album yet. The new record waning between extremes of sound and emotion. It’s drenched in
paradoxes and contradictions, mirroring the bands own conflicts and tensions- how are they going to stop the fat cats capitalizing on their chaos? And this frustration is relayed onto us, creating this beautiful and destructive relationship: we love the Fat White Family and they
loathe us, they’ve revitalised and restored our faith in music while they slowly claim to be losing all hope in it. This is an album that fears its own assuredness by a band that seems to fear its own success.
‘Songs for our Mothers’ is pretty hard to put your finger on, it’s not an easy listen, there’s an uneasiness and a slipperiness about it. Was this intentional?
therapeutic. Having stumbled into this to the extent in which I am
things a little bit. I finish one thing and then I have to start working on
the next thing straight away… So you’ve basically got to try and survive, which at the moment is not an impossible thing but, I mean, there’s no money, there’s no safety net and I guess being able to say exactly what you want to say exactly the way you want to say it is getting er… Difficult to find the balance between security and chaos?
…Yeh, I mean its getting harder all the time so that’s kind of at the forefront of my mind.
Are there any bands coming out now, especially in that whole South London scene, the young bands playing in what few decent venues
I think you just kind of make it up as you go along, don’t you? Start with
there are left, like the Brixton Windmill, that interest you or give
feel is cohesive to you specifically. Obviously doing that with a group of
I like Meatraffle. Meatraffle are good. Its not that there isn’t any good
...And touching on that friction, there’s a lot of tension that prevails
Its been watered down to non-existance. So, you might get a great band
a few basic ideas, some of them are floating around for a long time,
you any kind of hope?
people can create all kinds of friction.
music being made its just that the facilities for people making stuff like
some of them are new and you just put it together in a way that you
throughout the album, for instance between sounds of the songs in contrast to their subject matter. ‘Hits Hits Hits’ and ‘Satisfied’ could be examples of this. Did you ever find it difficult to harness or consolidate the messy, pretty fucked up things you were trying to expose through the new album? Um… well I kind of have a technique which I employ roughly when I’m writing, and I have lots of ideas sketched out, floating around,
that, stuff that is less easily digested by the masses, is no longer there. like Meatraffle, but the chances of them getting the money or the time
they need to grow and develop is nominal, and I think that’s really the main problem. Basically, all the wrong people are getting the funding and the breaks, because it is an industry that is totally controlled. All of these shit bands knocking about are the ones calling the shots as
opposed to the people that are on the ground. I don’t think there’s a lot of hope for music, to be honest with you.
Words by Georgie Jesson, illustrations by Sac Magique, Grace Wilson and Jean Jullien
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