Essex based five-piece The Fantines are independently launching their debut single Three Kings, out 6th January, 2022 (aka Three Kings Day). A contemporary post-punk twist on 00’s indie rock anthems flows through the veins of the single. A tale of three kings is chanted above the distorted synth and bass before the guitars drive a hook that won’t leave your head (nor will you want it to). Talking about the single, songwriter and guitarist Tommy Terry-Green described it as “a prelude to an album that will be full of songs and stories about the limbo of your late twenties.
By Kamil Bobin
Discovered via Musosoup
Hey The Fantines, super nice to have the chance to chat with you. How did you first get into music?
We all had different paths into music in our early days. Karl accidentally stepped on a keyboard when he was younger, loved the sound it made and has been trying to get better sounds out of it ever since for example. But to really condense what could be a very long answer we would just say that music was (and is) an escape. It started with listening to music to get away from the real world but evolved into writing music to reflect on our lives now. It’s like writing a journal, but with drums, guitars and synth so it sounds better. We all work 40+ hours a week, so music gives us a chance to look back on everything, take stock of where we’ve been and what we’ve learned.
How do you balance your time in the studio with other commitments such as a part-time job, family, admin?
Well we don’t really balance it haha. It’s about integrating it into our lives because it’s important to all of us. As we mentioned, we all work a lot of hours in jobs that we’re dedicated and passionate about, but we still make time for family and the other laborious aspects of everyday adult life, but it’s crucial that our music is on the same pedestal of priority. The same way you have to make time every day to eat and drink, we make time in our lives for The Fantines.
Your latest track is 'Three Kings'. Can you share with us the background of its creation and did any unusual things happen during its creation?
In basic terms, each verse of ‘Three Kings’ uses a king as a different metaphor for smoking weed, but on a deeper level it’s a nostalgic song for that time of our lives when that was something we did a lot. It was a big part of our social and cultural life in our early twenties. That’s probably why the song feels like a bit of a throwback to indie anthems of mid-to-late 00’s, because that’s what we were listening to then. And the gritty and raw edge comes from our current frustrations of being a bit too old to still live like that.
When you are working through problems in your work, who do you talk to?
Each other. That’s one of the reasons we all wanted to be in a band instead of solo artists. It’s so important to us to be able to create our songs collaboratively. All of our songs would be so different if you take out just one piece of the puzzle. Tommy could write some lyrics, then Adam could sing them in a totally different melody. Then Karl can change the atmosphere with his synth and Joe could turn a punky rock song into something you want to dance to. Plus we have a great network of friends, girlfriends and fiancés to bounce ideas off of.
How useful has social media been for you?
Well it’s still early days, but it’s already been exciting to see comments from people that we don’t know saying they like our music. Tommy, Adam and Joe were in a different band together 10 years ago, and whilst social media was around back then, it’s a whole different playing field now.
How do you structure your day?
We all have fast paced, high intensity jobs that we put a lot of our time and energy into, but we always find time to work on our music, whether it’s writing some lyrics or a new riff. But when we’re together in rehearsal we can get easily distracted. We often end up writing song after song so we sometimes struggle to focus in and work on whatever we’re recording next. Often we’ll take small breaks to smoke, or get some air, talk about football or life, but then we take some time to make a new plan of attack and then we find that we get our best work done, so the second half of practice sessions is definitely more productive than the first half. But whenever we’re in the studio it’s straight down to business - even if we’re hung over and operating on 2 hours of sleep after a night out, which happened on one of the days in the studio with ‘Three Kings’.
What are your long term goals?
Well, we’re pretty ambitious, not going to lie. We want it all. But if we were to break that down a bit, what we really want to achieve is consistent, quality music that’s honest and uncompromising. We want to write and release a bunch of albums that we’re satisfied with and proud to put our names on.
When faced with making a big decision, how do you decide what is the right thing to do?
That’s easy for us, it’s all about democracy. We’re all equals in the band so we talk through big decisions, and cast a vote. More often than not we’re all on the same page anyway, but if one person is out-voted there’s never any bad blood, because we respect and trust each other.
Do you have a mentor or coach?
Not traditionally speaking, no. But there’s aspects in each of us that makes us a mentor to each other in some ways. We all go way back, so we don’t want to let the band down. We all know we’re only as strong as our weakest link, so that motivates us and pushes us just as much as you’d want any coach or mentor too. You could also say that the bands that we love and that inspire us the most are our mentors. The Stone Roses, Arctic Monkeys, Kasabian, The Streets, they all taught us something. Even some of our contemporary bands today like The Utopiates, a.cause.in.distress, Cedes Crush, they all make great music and we’re always learning.
What are your plans for the future?
We’re looking forward to getting our debut album finished in the near future and then we’ll put a little tour together around Essex, London and, honestly, wherever else we can book, we can’t wait to get back on stage and share our latest music with whoever will listen.