English trio Friendly Fires rose to prominence in the late naughties with their self-titled debut album with sure-fire hits like ‘Kiss of Life’ and ‘Jump In The Pool’ cemented the group as indie-dance darlings. Fast forward to May 2011 and Pala the bands sophomore album was released featuring songs ‘Live Those Days Tonight’, soon followed by ‘Hawaiian Air’ by the end of the year Friendly Fires were embarking on their biggest tour to date. As with many bands, people grow and dynamics can change in a creative sense which may or may not have been the case for the trio but as history states, they were not what the once were, after two albums and global tours, Friendly Fires were on an indefinite hiatus.

Friendly Fires took a hiatus for 5 years from 2013. How quickly did that time pass by until you decided to start working on the new record? What were you focusing throughout that time period? “I suppose we were focusing on different things outside the band and stuff like that. I mean, honestly, it did pass quite quickly. I think there was a period where we were doing some recording in 2013 and it wasn’t… I don’t know. It was kind of working, but it also wasn’t really working. I think there was just a feeling that like, well, if we take some time off and come back to it, it may well be better.” When I was doing a bit of research, I did read somewhere that the band had planned to take a bit of time off or just completely can the band altogether.

“Yeah. I think it was kind of one of the two. I’m sure that had we decided to do things again and it hadn’t worked again then it would probably be time to disband the band. You know that kind of thing happens. It’s not something to be scared of or whatever. But, I think as such it’s been good since we started recording again since we’ve been getting this record together.” And when did you decide to start working on the third album? “The earliest stuff is probably like 2017. I think there was like a bit of a backlog of stuff that was going back to about 2013, but I think eventually we just kind of decided to make a bit of a clean break on some things which were unfinished and just forged ahead really. I think it was probably about the second half of 2017 when things started really moving I guess that was really when the starting pistol was being fired.”

Obviously, you guys have matured a lot since then from when you first released your first record and then obviously the second one as well. Did the process for you guys change at all when moving into the third record? “I don’t know to be honest. It is like the more it changed, the more it stayed the same kind of thing. I think you come up with a group of people who know each other really well. You fall into the same patterns.” You had a certain mould that each of you was used to as a collective? “Yeah. Do you know what I mean? And the chemistry or whatever, the mix of personalities just… It invites one to play that role or whatever. I think it’s the same thing I’ve noticed with friendship groups and stuff like that you don’t see for a while, and then you’re back in or whatever. I think of the way personalities are hardwired it just invites one to play the same role. It works the same way really. There’s no real alternative. I think we’re able to come to things with a tiny bit more maturity perhaps, and that’s good.”

It shows with the three songs that you have released within the last year. “Yeah.” You have been putting these songs into your live sets. How has that played out, mixing your older songs with the newer ones and with the crowd these days? Do you find that they are still engaged with the style of music that you guys are putting forward? “I think so. It depends on the gig, but I think that there have definitely been some gigs where the newer songs have been the ones that people know. Obviously, the old ones were… they’re between 7 or 8 and 10 years old. That’s kind of encouraging, because when the reception of these songs is good… I think we still have confidence in the older ones. I think that gives the whole thing confidence, really. We played in Spain at the B weekend and the new songs were by far, the ones that we got the sense people knew really well. I think that playing in England, it’s probably more towards the old songs. I suppose those are more in people’s consciousness. I think we try and make our sets quite an intense experience anyway. Hopefully, it doesn’t matter so much whether those people are really familiar with the stuff.” Have you found that the demographics of your fans has changed since before you went on hiatus to now, or are you still pulling an older crowd as well to your shows? “Again, it depends where we are. I feel like our first gigs back were really mixed, they were really young and old. Maybe people taking their young brothers and sisters down. There’s always going to be a bunch of people who are about our age because we got into music at the same time as forming the band. It makes sense for people to be in and around our age at our gigs. It seems kind of different each time. I think most of our audiences are probably in their late 20s to early 30s at the moment. I don’t feel like that’s been a rule of thumb. I think we always go back into the dressing room after the gig and try and think about who the crowd was a little bit, just because it’s an interesting bit of demographic research. It tends to always have a slightly different answer based on where we are in the world.”

That’s good though, it’s good that you’re reaching the fans that you’ve always had and then bringing in a new audience as well which is… obviously, as a band, you always want to be engaging with newer audiences as well. “Yes, I think so. It’s kind of important to keep regenerating that fan base. I think that like… the bands I’ve really liked in my lifetime I feel like there are periods I’ve spent on the bus with them, I feel like the maximum I’ve been really engaged with any band has been probably like a period of about maybe 8 or 9 years, maybe 4 albums or something like that.” Yes, I agree you tend to walk a path with a band and their music for some time then you head off in a different direction. Yet you still hold love for their music especially the albums you engaged with. “I think that people’s real engagement is finite, ultimately. However, It’s important that things stay very fresh.”

You have a string of festival performances across the UK and Europe for the summer festival season, but you are coming out for Splendour In The Grass and a couple of your own shows. Does your preparation change much between playing festivals and doing your own shows? “I think that festivals tend to be shorter shows so there is a lot of chopping and changing. I think that there is a lot of trying to… working out the set list is a bit more of a balancing act of new things we want to play but keeping everything feeling right. I suppose that’s the main thing. It’s not necessarily that the preparation is any different. I think festivals can be a bit easier planned as I guess any band will tell you because there is no real preparation, you’re just sort of shoved on. I think… something we always tend to do when we’re working new stuff out live is if we can kind of change the arrangements a bit, or draw it out a bit, or whatever. I think that can really… sometimes they have to be pinched a bit in festivals because the time tends to be short. Going on longer excursions can be not the one, but it’s cool.”

“It’s a nice thing to be coming to Australia and doing a festival and two shows, because I think that the festival is probably more of a grab-bag of Friendly Fire stuff, whereas going to the shows is potentially a slightly deeper experience and probably a tiny bit more intense. It’s a perfect little trip in many ways.” That’s great! It’s good that you touched upon the two shows that you’re playing in Australia. When I was doing my research for the questions and stuff I did notice that – I might be wrong here – I did notice in the venues that you’ve placed your sideshows you tend to choose more intimate venues, and the venues that you do choose in Australia are renowned for having quality sound. Is that by design or the promoter that’s choosing the venue? “[laughs] I’d love it to be by design, but that whole process happens a little bit removed from us. It’s more our agent talking to the promoter in Australia. I’m very happy that you say that. That’s really cool.”

I did read that you’ve planned to have your new album Inflorescent out by mid-year this year. When can we expect it to be released?” Well, I think we’re still working on the release date. I don’t know. I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag, basically, but I think the music is done, which is really exciting. I don’t know! I mean, I think there is going to be some stuff out before we’re in Australia which is kind of exciting. Yeah. I don’t think the full album will be. It’s one of those things where the answer keeps on changing based on everyone’s schedules. It’s kind of… We’re pretty heavily pregnant at the moment. It’s imminent.”

Since the interview was conducted with Jack. Friendly Fires third album Inflorescent has a release date of 16th August scheduled. And will be touring Australia and the UK you can check the dates here.