Okay I confess I was in a band in the Eighties. We were the shoe-gazing, shuffling, indie kids with floppy fringes and songs about girls drowning. We were indebted to the Housemartins and the Smiths and hated Thatcher. All indie boxes ticked.
We were called The Passmore Sisters and we were four boys. We did two John Peel sessions and released four singles and an album and then split up. I was 26 and decided I was too old to be in a band. The other boys went on to form the Hollow Men and got a major record deal. The band failed and we all ended up doing real jobs and living separate lives and getting married and having kids etc; and the years flew by and we were suddenly in our late forties early fifties. Guess what? We decided to start a new band and make a record. Why? Who gives a damn? Well, in the end being a musician is a lifetime affliction, a chronic condition you can't ever shake off. So 12 years ago we started writing songs and this week our album is available to buy or steal online.
Twelve years... yes that is a long time... The Stone Roses took five, the Blue Nile take decades, Kate Bush is in no rush, Portishead 11 years, and I think the winner may be My Bloody Valentine, 22 years!
Of course it doesn't help that we all live in different cities and so we only got together every other six months for a few days and then it's hard to get in the groove when you can't remember how to play or sing together. But the thing is we did it. And it's no big deal. It's certainly no big record deal. Kate Bush may release an album after a decade of silence and she'll get media frenzy. We released our album on music sharing site Band Camp and available to buy online as a CD. In two day we sold two copies and we were ecstatic. because our two sales were from people we did not know! Someone had played a track from the album on Band Camp and loved it enough to buy the CD.
We think our songs are lovely and evocative and melancholic and we have have some amazing guest players, Madonna and Killers producer Stuart Price plays piano, because he loved the tunes
and Davide Rossi who has worked with Coldplay, Goldfrapp, The Verve and Röyksopp brought his beautiful violin playing to grace the album and Tim Hutton who has played with Groove Armada, The Prodigy and Ian Brown blasts his trumpet out. These musicians were kind enough to like what we had written and were keen to sprinkle their magic on it. So we were lucky and they were generous.
Now of course we are in a digital and social media world. There are many bands out there, young, hungry and with time on their hands, and they deserve to be heard. We are a bunch of old guys who love music and wanted to put our music out there. Even if tens and not millions hear the album and like it we will feel vindicated. And we encourage others to start up a band whatever their age and put their music out there. So spread the word. We are Fever Hut. We make sweet sad music and you can find us online - You can download us. You can comment on us. We are a real band. We don't play live because we never see each other but we have written songs and we just want to share them.
I said a bunch of old men releasing an album is no big deal - the world is not waiting with baited breath. But actually to us it is a big deal. It's a vindication that we are musicians. I'd love to say that the record was available in all major record shops. It's not. There are no major record shops anymore. Maybe that's a good things. Small is beautiful. Please buy our album.
We don't hope to die before we get old, we hope to make another album!