Everything Everything interview: A Fever Dream
Henry Boon caught up with the Manchester quartet ahead of their homecoming festival set at Parklife and an Antics afterparty at Night and Day Cafe.
Date published: 17th May 2018
Image: Everything Everything (credit)
In August 2017, Everything Everything released their fourth studio album A Fever Dream – a record that took the brashness of their previous album and turned towards humility and tenderness whilst retaining that infectious energy that has always made the Manchester group stand out.
With widespread praise from both fans and critics alike as well as chart success, Everything Everything are now in the middle of a world tour. As they prepare to fly in specially from Manchester, Tennessee to Manchester, England for Parklife Festival and an Antics Clubnight after-party DJ set at Night and Day Cafe that promises to combine their eclectic influences with the kind of fun and nostalgia that their DJ set’s always bring, we caught up with the band to talk wild nights out, favourite tracks and the future for a band still on the up.
How do you find DJing when compared to live shows?
It’s totally different! I mean to start with you’re not playing your own songs when DJing (at least not a lot!). I enjoy both, and you can inspire a similar feeling in the crowd when you really hit your stride. But playing live is still the zenith of the overall experience of being in a band for me.
How does playing and DJing in your hometown compare to elsewhere?
It’s nice to see familiar faces and maybe play stuff you know they love, but the most enjoyable sets can happen anywhere. It’s always the unexpected ones that end up being the most fun.
Did you go to many DJ sets when you were growing up in Manchester?
The odd one. Plenty of Indie and alternative and weird techno clubnights, back in the day. I’ve ended up as a DJ by default really, or as an extension of being in a band, so the clubnights and DJ sets I went to were always more about the music selection than who was behind the desk and how they were mixing it. I extend that to my own DJing now.
What are you listening to at the moment?
Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino, which I think I love from the off more than any other Arctics record to date. I’ve enjoyed all their records but this one has really captured my imagination immediately. It’s very Young Americans.
How does your taste now differ to when you first started as a band?
I’m more interested in stable songwriting and emotional sustenance than I am in 13/8 time signatures and really loud drums these days! It’s good to have both sensibilities though.
What’s your ultimate end-of-the-night song?
Ascent, An Ending by Brian Eno. I was at a wedding which closed this track recently and it was just so beautiful.
What’s the best night out you ever had?
Ooh now you’re asking. We had some really daft nights in America early on, at SXSW etc.. actually in a way the happiest I remember being was supporting Delphic at the Ritz and then DJing the Airship EP launch at The Deaf Institute in May 2010. All the Dutch Uncles and Egyptian Hip Hop boys were there and it was one of those rare moments where the projected scene that had been thrust upon us at that point appeared to be real!
You’ve played Parklife a few times in the past, how do you like it as a festival?
I think it’s a great thing for Manchester, which has always had such a vital music scene and needed its own festival to crown it. and it’s had some great lineups. It takes risks too, which I appreciate, like Frank Ocean a couple of years ago. The fact that they cooperate with local promoters so closely has been a great thing for the lineups for local acts, historically.
Is there anyone one the bill you’d like to see?
Loads. Liam, Skepta, Four Tet, Jon Hopkins, Sampha, Vince Staples...
It’s been almost a year since ‘A Fever Dream’ was released, how do you feel it’s been received?
Really well by the fans I think. The fact that we can still make music that excites and confounds people (including ourselves) in equal measure is the most important thing to us. And it seemed to be reviewed well. It’s noticeably harder to keep a long-playing album alive in people’s minds than it was when we first started making albums though. And there are inevitable concerns when you suddenly discover that you're a band in your 30s on your fourth album..!
Did you write the songs on 'A Fever Dream' with live shows in mind, how has it translated?
No not at all, if anything we scaled that sensibility back from where we’d been on Get To Heaven, where we had wanting everything to be quick and hard and intense. All of which lent itself well to the live show. We relaxed round the edges a little bit, and let some of the dreamier aspects that had typified our second album Arc make a return here and there.
What’s next for Everything Everything?
Touring loads. Lots of festivals round UK, US and Europe, starting with three weeks in America. We actually come back in the middle of a US tour to okay Parklife and they go back again! We’re actually playing back to back shows in Manchester Tennessee and Manchester, UK!