With their fuzzy, grunge-like tendencies and hooky choruses, Leeds up-and-comers FURR have a growing reputation as ‘Think Sharp Kid’ and new single, ‘Padlocks’ showcase a melodic rebellious sound, putting them alongside the likes of Dinosaur Pile-Up and Puppy. While their admiration for 90s alternative rock also shines through.
So with that being said, we recently caught up with the quartet as we asked them to tell us about five influential songs.
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Reuben – Deadly Lethal Ninja Assassin
Jack Byrne: This song was a single from one of my favourite albums growing up. It’s incredibly simple, full of massive riffs and one of the best dumb pop hooks I’ve ever heard. I’ve always really liked the layered vocal section in the bridge, it’s one of my favourite musical tricks to overlap multiple different but complimenting vocal lines in this way. It’s a nice reminder that sometimes the best results come from keeping things really simple. That and singing songs about Trent Reznor.
Weezer – El Scorcho
Sam Jackson: I was a late bloomer getting into Weezer; circa 2008. This was around the time I was just getting into playing music with bands and their influence didn’t really come to the front until we started working on the ideas that would form the start of Furr. ‘El Scorcho’ distills all the elements I love about Weezer into one song – it’s ludicrously simple until the bridge completely wrong foots you when you first hear it, and it plays off that classic loud / quiet aesthetic. On top of this the vocal melodies are great, when I saw them in Brixton literally everyone was singing the chorus. Fucking great!
Kings of Leon – Charmer
Guy Read: One of the things I liked about this song was how untraditional it felt as a single, a two minute quick song with screaming vocals, it was never going to achieve mainstream success. It felt like a band making and releasing the music they liked. I loved the simplicity of the bassline – essentially four notes repeated – and how effectively it drives the song. That powerful simplicity is something that I always strive for during the creative process of writing songs.
Foo Fighters – Rope
John Roberts: I’ve chosen ‘Rope’ by Foo Fighters as a song that’s helped inspired me making music for Furr. For me it represents something polished and concise coming from a place that was originally grungy, practice-in-the-garage punk rock. When we’re writing a new song I feel like I start from that, throw whatever I have at it and try and have fun with it. But what pushes our songwriting as a band is how we strip it back, cherry pick the parts and aim to make something more defined, catchy and encapsulate an emotion to make it as relatable as we can to our audience. For me Rope is precise, well placed songwriting but above all is so much fun to listen to. That’s where I’m aiming when I’m putting songs together with the band.
Queens of the Stone Age – Little Sister
FURR: ‘Little Sister’ is one of the more loose QOTSA songs. The structure is off, the solo is out of time but it just works. It grooves and pulsates around a simple repeating drum idea, and ends in what should be the bridge. The only thing you can say that’s bad about this track is that it’s over too soon.
‘Padlocks’ by FURR is released on October 14th on Riff Pop Records.
