Mere days after ‘Thick Skin’, one of the feistiest, hottest summer records — and a fresh cut from False Heads’ upcoming album — landed, Luke dropped by to chat all things new tunes, organised chaos and using exercise and music as therapy in the current climate…

RECORD WEEKLY’S INTERVIEW WITH FALSE HEADS

Hi guys, how are you?

I’m [Luke] very well thank you, I hope you’re the same. 

All grand here, thank you! Big congrats on your latest single, ‘Thick Skin’, being released. I won’t tell you how many times I’ve played it since Friday (8th July)… How has it been received so far?

Ah thank you, that means a lot. Yeah, it’s been received well. I was interested to see how it was going to be taken because I think a lot of people wanted a ‘Rabbit Hole’ 2.0 with a lot of the riffs. But it’s not exactly what people expected, which I think is a good thing. 

Let’s go right back to the beginning then — when and where did you all come together to form the band?

About five or six years ago now we formed. I had the name for years, since I’d been at school, but I just couldn’t get it together. We came back from uni and we formed. We were friends from school so it just worked. Jake and Barn were in a band together at school and Jake and I would always jam on Pixies and Radiohead tunes. We knew straight away there was chemistry. 

How would you sum up your style in three words?

An organised chaos.

What have been your biggest achievements to date?

Ermmm, I still think having Danny Fields who managed Ramones and Iggy Pop describe us as “the best live band in the world” haha. But also playing with The Libertines, Queens of the Stone Age and Josh Homme — that’s all up there. Recording this album with Frank Turner is pretty sick as well haha. 

The pandemic posed a lot of struggles. What were the hurdles you faced and how did you overcome them?

Yeah it was fucked. I went on the dole and we didn’t know if we were gonna continue. Our whole album campaign was gone overnight and it never really returned. I have depression and insomnia and a load of other shit — I’m fucking nuts basically haha. That all came back quite strongly after the novelty of getting drunk every day on the dole wore off. My girlfriend then got me a job and we all started writing, and we just got stuck back in.

Things are still a struggle — ask any venue, tickets are slow still. It’s a weird one, I think we will feel the knock-on effect for years. 

After the lockdowns, where did you head first: the gym or the pub?

I did actually start exercising every day in lockdown after the initial few months. I recommend it to anyone, as it’s the only physical thing you can do to help mental problems. And you just feel better physically. So do that, then go down the fucking pub. 

Tell us all about your upcoming album — what’s it called, when’s it due and what can we expect from it?

‘Sick Moon’. The idea of the title was just the moon has no choice but to orbit the earth, and humans are just a horrible fucking virus most of the time, and the moon is an innocent bystander that has no choice but to get sick because of its forced proximity to earth. I sort of feel like that about the internet and how tribal and insane people have become. Honestly, young people and adults between like 14-35. I have no fucking clue what we’re gonna be like in 15 years. I feel like our brains are just fucking rewritten. It’s bleak, the album is definitely bleak…

‘Said and Done’ is the most personal song I’ve ever written. It’s just an ode to my brain when I’m depressed. I’m not sure there’s much hope on this album haha; there’s sarcasm and piss-taking but it’s bleak and full of rage.

It’s therapy for me, writing lyrics. And let’s be fair, music now is just so fucking dull. It’s just kids with parents in the music industry churning out the same asinine shit week in, week out, and I don’t think everyone relates to that. I certainly don’t so, maybe a bit of anger in music isn’t a bad thing for the moment. 

Can you tease anything else while you’re here? 

We’re already writing album three.

The Essex punk rockers are addictive to listen to, so become putty in their hands and have a good old play of their back catalogue now, before their sophomore album arrives.

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With thanks to Thom at Sonic PR for organising the interview.