The Futureheads See a New 'World' on the Horizon

Posted on Apr 11th 2008 10:00AM by Jolie Lash
Comments

In the last few months, everyone it seems has joined Facebook. Well, almost everyone.

While some of his musician buddies and friends may have hit up the popular portal, the Futureheads guitarist Ross Millard remains defiant.

"The thing about it is, I'm not fundamentally opposed to these social networking things," Millard explains to Spinner. "MySpace -- that was fine -- you upload your tunes and you kept in touch with people, but Facebook? It just seems to have amplified it by a hundred million times. The band, they can't spend two minutes without going on their mobile phones to check their Facebook to see if such and such's status has changed, I've poked somebody -- what is it on about? I don't understand why people would want to be part of that."

For someone who isn't on it, Millard, currently in the middle of a tour across the UK, knows a heck of a lot about the Web site. And as Spinner found out, he might actually be an expert from afar.

"Another one of the things that baffles me? All these blooming clubs like 'I Want To Bring Back Doogie Howser Club,' and stuff like that," he laughs. "All these little societies -- powerless societies I might add."

Fans of the locale shouldn't hold it against the spectacled axeman for his views. He needs something to rage against. After a year the band spent in the doldrums, things are buzzing at Futureheads central with their third album, 'This Is Not the World,' due May 27.

"I don't think we've ever been this positive about it to be honest," Millard says. "We've got this new label going [Nul Recordings], which is the four of us and our two managers, and it's all based on a majority show of hands. With the band being four, we have majority say over everything, which is amazing. We keep the copyright of the songs, which is a rare thing these days."

Having control of their career and the way their music is promoted has turned a new page for the band. Already -- in the UK anyway -- they've been welcomed back with the charging new single, 'The Beginning of the Twist,' which has netted them a happy place on the UK's iTunes chart after heavy radio rotation.

"If six months ago somebody told us that was going to be the situation then we would have bitten their hand off," he says. "Obviously, last year, it was really an uncertain time for the band. We weren't close to splitting, but we were thinking having a top 20 in the UK was out of the question."

And that is just the beginning, again. "It's pretty good, isn't it," Millard laughs. "For a band like us, who were on such a downer all last year, to comeback and have a single that did that was a really good start for us."

Download: 'Broke Up the Time' (MP3)

[Get Winamp] [Download Help]