After spending the last few months unveiling a wide array of bright and engaging psych-pop offerings, Brighton-based outfit Fragile Creatures recently returned to unveil their highly anticipated sophomore album ‘Punk Yacht’.
Featuring the previous shared tracks ‘Give Me The Rhythm’ and ‘Monster’, their newest full-length is filled with bold and captivating cuts from across the musical spectrum. Blending classic indie-rock troupes with their own distinct mix of flair and retro influences has given this new collection a familiar yet original direction throughout.
So with the LP now available, we sat down with them to discuss all things record related and what plans they have in the future.
Words by Chris Bound
Discovered via http://musosoup.com
Chris) Hi guys, how are you today?
Fragile Creatures) Very good thanks!
For those that haven’t heard of you yet, how would you best describe your sound and who have been your biggest influences so far?
Ah, the million dollar question! I don’t know why this always seems so difficult to answer, maybe we are just too close to the music to define it so easily. I’d say we are indie or alternative rock, which is quite a wide category. We’re big on melody and harmony, we like loud guitars with wailing solos, wide synths, big beats and up front bass. Big influences on my side are groups like Blur, Radiohead, Manics, Bowie… but everyone in the band brings their own flavour and would offer a different list! The writing is quite pop, the production is more DIY rock.
You have just released your new album ‘Punk Yacht’. Can you tell us the inspiration behind that release?
The inspiration was the realisation we could continue making and releasing music without a label and maybe even do a better job of it! It was the excitement of learning to record ourselves and then actually starting getting good results. The title is a bit of a play on the wide array of genres we’ve been described as. People get very tribal about a style of music like punk. People are obsessed with the ‘for real’ness of it, and forget that The Sex Pistols were a vehicle for fashion first and foremost – their radicalism was part of the fashion, for better or for worse. Smooth 80s yacht rock was dreadfully uncool when I was growing up, but we loved it anyway, and now we embrace both punk and yacht as being equally foundational to what we do, musically.
Was there a particular style you were looking for when you wrote it?
Yeah: punk yacht.
And which song on the album are you most proud of?
I think Happy Hours, it was one of the last ones to be mixed. I was on holiday in January and took my laptop with me and spent my time writing and recording the extra sting parts. It’s epic miserabilism is a nice crowning touch to the album. The lyric is about grim alcoholic pubs, one line is a quote from a pub board I saw outside a place in Weymouth: “meet your next ex-wife”. It’s the sad routine of people whose whole lives revolve around propping up a bar. I do think the next album may be a little bit jollier! I went through all the lyrics to Punk Yacht recently, and I guess I wasn’t in the happiest place when I did most of the writing!
The coronavirus outbreak has obviously affected everyone’s plans, but what have you got in store for the rest of the year?
We’re still taking it as it comes, somewhat. We’d like to record a performance of the whole album from our rehearsal room, seeing as we can’t do live gigs, but we’re still easing back into being able to rehearse, so it might take us a month or so. Hopefully we’ll be able to start booking some shows again soon, we have had some offers but, understandably, everyone's a little nervous about rushing back into gigs: I’m not even going to pubs. Besides recording some live session stuff I think we’ll spend the autumn writing, and recording demos for the next collection of songs: we already have some really strong material.And finally, what is your dream ambition to achieve as artists?I’d love to play a big sell-out tour across Europe; although between Brexit and Coronavirus reality seems to be conspiring against me on that one!