Space interview: Give Me Your Future

Image: Space (credit)

Scouse, genre traversing outfit Space aren't looking to abort mission just yet, with a huge tour penned into the diary for 2018 and a new album, Give Me Your Future, to give a live debut to, the band are looking to blast off in 2018 with some serious clout. 

Ahead of that the band have already teased us with 'Dangerous Day' - a single that shows off one particular aspect of the band perfectly, but as such a multi dimensional outfit, this non album release may give a taste of just a small portion of the new release. With Space gravitating toward post-punk, ska, techno, hip hop and vintage film in the past, who knows what GMYF will present.

Either way, we can't wait to hear the tracks that will join 'Female Of The Species', 'The Ballad Of Tom Jones', 'Me and You Versus the World' and plenty more Britpop bangers through which the band became best known for.

Ahead of 2017 dates at The Garage in Islington on Saturday 9th December and Arts Club Liverpool on Friday 22nd December, followed by a huge run of shows in 2018 we caught up with the band's lead singer Tommy Scott.

Hi Tommy, how are you man?

I'm good, I'm just writing songs for the next album. I've been touring away, it's been boss, we've been really enjoying ourselves having a great time at the weekends playing shows.

You're writing for the next album, is that correct? But the forthcoming one isn't even out yet...

Yeah yeah, I know, it's good at the moment.

We've gone back to more like the easy listening stuff we did. It's proper like easy listening but a bit mad, we started with two songs of it then it became a whole album. 

I think I've heard one track ('Dangerous Day') already and really enjoyed it...

That's actually just a pre release single, it's not even going to be on the album itself. It'll just be for the, what's it called, the anthology that we're making. The album itself, Give Me Your Future, apparently the vinyl is coming for it in about 6 weeks and the CDs too so it should be out around then. It's took us ages to get it out, we did it with Steve Leveine who has been involved with all the big culture club hits, he's worked with Joe Strummer out of the Clash, the Bee Gees, everyone, The Beach Boys, all that stuff.

This fella's worked with everyone, he was like top man in the '80s so we thought we wanted that sort of sound on it and it just so happened he lives in Liverpool now which is cool. He's got his own studio in town, in that new bit of Liverpool.

We met at Camper Calling festival this year, how was that for you?

That's the one we did where we never had our keyboard player and we were about to not go on because everything broke and we just about made it on stage. Our bass amp broke and Reef couldn't lend us their amp for some reason. I don't think they trusted us to tell you the truth [laughs].

When you see you contemporaries , say like Reef for example, at a festival, do you feel inclined to reminisce ? You've been in the industry for two whole decades now...

I wouldn't say necessarily with Reef just because we don't know them that well, but say Dodgy and people like that, we have a laugh with them. They're just as mad as us. 

You seemed like you were loving being in a bad as much as ever when we met...

As we're getting older, it's getting more rock'n'roll. It's like a stag weekend all the time, and we only play weekends now because that's the way the world of music has gone, it's not really worth playing on a Monday night or a Tuesday any more. So you play weekends, Friday through to Sunday so we just get bevvied and have the rest of the week off.

And surely that makes you want to carry on writing, recording and playing live...?

I couldn't do it if it was just nostalgia, I'd rather just die. It couldn't be that. I'm an artist, I've got to create, I've got to bring new stuff out. I love playing the old songs don't get me wrong but I like mixing it up. We don't play a whole set of new songs, we play all the hits but put new ones in between. Obviously most of the audience are there for the old ones but they have to understand our point of view too.

It's because we're into so many different styles and Space songs are so different from one to the next, it's like being in a different band half the time. It was good but also a curse in a way because we'd get people who would absolutely love one single and didn't like the next, so we couldn't get any bigger than we did because we kept swapping fanbases.

And what do you like?

Musically, I love a bit of everything, I love punk, I love Sinatra, I love hip hop, all styles.

What hip hop are you into?

Cypress Hill is my favourite, A Tribe Called Quest, all that stuff. More the 90s era was when I properly listened to it. I went to see Cypress Hill in Royal Court in Liverpool and people were shooting guns off into the ceiling so it was scary like, in the crowd. It was exciting as well though. it was a totally different vibe.

How different is the process of writing, recording and promoting now, in comparison to when you started in the 1990's?

I feel sorry for bands starting now, I know its a different age and there's different technology but its like when we did 'Dangerous Day', it didn't even get a CD release, it was just on Spotify. I like being old school I wanted to hold it. Now I suppose its dead hard to get a deal and make money because you don't seem to make any money off downloads.

Did you get on with a load of the Britpop bands around at the time?

It was mixed really. We knew Dodgy, Catatonia, people like that, so if we saw them you'd be all matey backstage but then there was other bands who were just part of a different scene and all that.

I remember we were playing a festival in Germany and we were stood by the tourbus and next minute Marilyn Manson and his band walked round the corner, and it's dead funny, the lad we used to be in a band with was a redheaded lad so Marilyn Manson came over and pulled our other singer's trousers down to see if he was a true redhead. Next minute, Marilyn Manson showed us his pubes and he was a redhead. They were all like 9 foot tall, proper huge. We were little scallies [laughs] but they were scary.

Find Space tickets below

London - The Garage, Saturday 9th December 2017

Liverpool - The Arts Club, Friday 22nd December 2017

Norwich - The Waterfront, Friday 16th February

Sheffield - O2 Academy, Saturday 24th September

Maidstone - PizzaExpress Live, Friday 2nd March

Oxford - O2 Academy, Friday 9th March

Milton Keynes - MK11 Live Music Venue, Friday 16th March

Birmingham - O2 Academy 3, Saturday 17th March

Bristol - The Fleece, Friday 23rd March

Cardiff - Clwb Ifor Bach, Saturday 24th March

Chester - The Live Rooms, Friday 30th March

Manchester - The Ruby Lounge, Saturday 31st March

Glasgow - O2 ABC2, Saturday 7th April