Music

Masters in waiting

August 3, 2010

Aidan Farrelly interviews Masters in France

I’m not in denial, I am completely aware that I am somewhat hard to please when it comes to new music, some may say that I don’t give new music a chance. They may have a point as I do harness a certain distaste for the endless supply of bands that emerge, possibly because the only difference between them seems to be on which side of their head their whiney lead singer parts his hair. But just because I don’t get sucked in to the media vortex telling me that I should be listening to the latest flavour of the month, doesn’t mean that I can’t be convinced by genuine talent.

One such example of this talent is the North Wales based Masters in France. I had crossed paths with this band once or twice before I had the pleasure of seeing them live. I was instantly impressed with their energy and confidence on stage, they seem to command the attention of the crowd with their driving riffs and the cocksure swagger of frontman Eddie Jones.

Greyhounds – Masters in France

I recently spoke to Masters in France guitarist Matt Sayer about their impressive performance at Wakestock, deers, and where they want to be in the future.

You guys have had a great year! what has been your highlight to date?

MS: Loads of highlights! First play on Radio One was cool, then on the same playlist as Rage Against the Machine, Bombay Bicycle Club, QOTSA amongst others on the Zane Lowe show was another. Then the record of the week on radio one capped it all off. It’s nice that when you work hard at something, you get something back.

For anyone out there who isn’t familiar with your stuff how would you describe your music?

MS: It’s Alt/Indie, splash of rock, slice of pop, I don’t know, you’d just have to listen and decide for yourself, I wouldn’t like to put it in a box for you. I guess there’s only two boxes, good and bad, so put us in the good box and we won’t come round and nick your cat.

I have heard quite a few of people mention your set at Wakestock as a highlight of the festival, how was Wakestock for you?

MS: Wakestock itself is great, it’s just down the road from us, loads of nice girls go, so the views always nice down those parts. It was nice to be treated like a band for a change. We usually get treated like a pack of bums, so any promoters reading this, all we want is free food, free booze, free clothes, and we’re happy, plus the performing fee, take note. Honestly though, it was just another gig, we love them all.

You love them all? Really? Do you never have days where you are at each others throats?

MS: It’s all love hate, we hate each other, but we love what we do. We really do love what we do though, it’s amazing! We’ll drive 4 hours to a shit gig, drive 4 hours back, get home at 3am, go to work at 8am, and love everything about it. Then we’ll drive 8 hours to Inverness to another shit gig that turns out to be amazing, drive back, get lost, kill a deer, write off a car. You talk about it with people and you think that you’re lying, but we do see and get up to some random shit.

You have been getting some airtime on some major radio stations, what effect has that had on you as a band?

MS: Not much really, it means we get paid better, we’re still the same. The only thing that changes is that the songs are getting better. We’re a relatively young band, been together just over a year, so our style is still at it’s early days, the songs are getting there though, we’ve got an arsenal of tracks that we want to record, so we’ll be looking to get an album out 2011.

What’s next?

MS: We’ve got our second single “Little Girl” out in October on iTunes, then it’s a third single before the end of the year, and we take it from there. We just take things step by step.