Field Dispatch
The Fods | Matt Connarton Unleashed
Speaker 1: Oh, I love that. The track is called the Ineffectuals
Speaker 1: and the band is the Fods, and uh oh, that
Speaker 1: is so good.
Speaker 2: That is so good.
Speaker 1: And we've got Rob Critchley from the Fods on the
Speaker 1: phone with us via WhatsApp.
Speaker 2: Rob, are you there, I'm him? Can you hear me?
Speaker 1: I can? Yes, yes, Hey, I love this. I love
Speaker 1: that song. And I've been I've been anxious to talk
Speaker 1: to you. You sent us a couple songs. We're gonna play
Speaker 1: the other one at the end of the segment. But
Speaker 1: I love the sound of the Fods. But now it's interesting, though,
Speaker 1: so the Fods tell tell me if I'm if my
Speaker 1: perception is correct. Is it not so much a band
Speaker 1: but more of a collective? Would collective be a better word,
Speaker 1: because it seems to it kind of changes in morphs,
Speaker 1: and and tell us about the Fods.
Speaker 3: It absolutely changes the morphs. So there's basically two of
Speaker 3: us who write songs. Okay, I write the lyrics and
Speaker 3: I write the lyrics and some of the music. And
Speaker 3: I'm not particularly good musicians. So I send voice notes,
Speaker 3: you know, tinkerings over WhatsApp, and I send it to
Speaker 3: my old school friend of thirty five years and I
Speaker 3: send it over to him who's still in Manchester in
Speaker 3: the UK, and he's he's been in the music business
Speaker 3: with various bands for all that time, and he does
Speaker 3: the majority of the music and putting it all together.
Speaker 3: And we've got a mixed guy who is incredible and
Speaker 3: he's also dirt.
Speaker 2: Cheap for us release because of hate and he does
Speaker 2: the mixing.
Speaker 3: So there's three of us, and there's also we sometimes
Speaker 3: use a guitarist out of old old band, and we
Speaker 3: sometimes use a vocalist guitarist out of our old band
Speaker 3: from when we were at school. So all and I
Speaker 3: go all the way back to like the I'm trying
Speaker 3: not to age myself here, late nineteen eighties, okay, and
Speaker 3: we were we were in like, uh, you know, a
Speaker 3: school band, and we tried really hard and we didn't
Speaker 3: We wrote a few decent songs and we won a
Speaker 3: Battle of the bands, and then we all disappeared off
Speaker 3: to university and he carried on in a different morphed
Speaker 3: into a different band and they did okay, and we.
Speaker 2: Sort of lost contact a little bit. Like I was
Speaker 2: always like sort.
Speaker 3: Of following him, and when I was at university in
Speaker 3: London and his band came down and played in London.
Speaker 3: So I went and watched it, and so I knew
Speaker 3: them all and they were good guys, and you know,
Speaker 3: as the two thousands went along, I think he got
Speaker 3: a little bit, you know, chewed up by the music
Speaker 3: industry like a lot of people have done.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, and it happens, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3: So he he was writing really good songs and you know,
Speaker 3: playing half decent venues and you know, not getting any
Speaker 3: traction and not getting any you know, we've been promised
Speaker 3: deals by record companies and they've never come to fruition
Speaker 3: and all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 2: You know, a tailor's old as the time in the
Speaker 2: music industry. And during COVID.
Speaker 3: He he got hold of a couple of old bandmates
Speaker 3: and during COVID they just set up phones and started
Speaker 3: playing their old stuff and under the name of the
Speaker 3: good Stoff Project, they eventually released like six songs or something,
Speaker 3: and they were all done remotely, like in four different rooms,
Speaker 3: and they found a they found a singer who was
Speaker 3: really good.
Speaker 2: She did her part remotely. And this has gotten on
Speaker 2: to do with the Fogs, by the way, Yeah, yeah, no, I.
Speaker 1: Want to learn.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So during COVID.
Speaker 3: They did six songs all remotely, put it on an
Speaker 3: album six CP coord remote and released it. And one
Speaker 3: of the songs that's which they didn't do because was
Speaker 3: for whatever reason, they didn't want it on this EP
Speaker 3: and the new singer didn't like it or.
Speaker 2: Whatever it was.
Speaker 3: We're shopping, which you're presuming I think you're going to
Speaker 3: play later.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, so he said to me. He said to me,
Speaker 2: can can you you sort of rework.
Speaker 3: It and like change some of the lyrics which may
Speaker 3: be a bit outdated, and you know, we'll we'll re
Speaker 3: envision it and we'll, you know, see where it goes.
Speaker 2: So I'm like, yeah, I've always loved shopping. I think
Speaker 2: it's a great song.
Speaker 3: And while we were talking about this, we started talking
Speaker 3: about the old music we.
Speaker 2: Released and like the gigs that we played together and
Speaker 2: all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 3: So he goes, well, while we're doing this, why don't
Speaker 3: we go back and find the seven songs which we
Speaker 3: did together over a period of like two years in
Speaker 3: the late nineties and see what we can do with
Speaker 3: them as well. So that's what we did, and they
Speaker 3: don't argue. EP was the first thing in which we
Speaker 3: put out as the odds. And so there's the two
Speaker 3: of us and we used on that EP four different
Speaker 3: singers and so that's how we sort of developed into
Speaker 3: this collective. And so the four different singers like we
Speaker 3: sort of found because for the first one, we didn't
Speaker 3: have anyone. So we just said the first person who
Speaker 3: said yes, we were well, let's try it.
Speaker 2: Let's see it. And it went quite well.
Speaker 3: So he did a couple of mon and there's a
Speaker 3: few other people who got involved. And as as that album,
Speaker 3: all those songs off that album got a bit more momentum,
Speaker 3: it started to get easier to entice singers to actually
Speaker 3: come and do it for us. Right, So this is
Speaker 3: how we ended up with Joe Boo. As you can
Speaker 3: hear from his vocal performance in the Indefectuals, you can
Speaker 3: actually sing. You know, he's a real, real talent, and
Speaker 3: he liked he liked what we did in Dan Don't
Speaker 3: Argue EP, and we you know, we've chatted occasionally on
Speaker 3: other shows and you know, in a couple of Discord channels,
Speaker 3: and I've downloaded his songs and he's listened to ours.
Speaker 3: So I blindly sent a text to him, you know,
Speaker 3: a Facebook messenger or whatever and said, look, do you
Speaker 3: fancy having to.
Speaker 2: Go We've got a new song lined up, And he's like, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: give me, give me a couple of weeks and then
Speaker 2: I'll be in some of the other stuff.
Speaker 3: Over and when I've got time, I'll have a look.
Speaker 3: So we sent some other stuff over and literally been
Speaker 3: two weeks. It's sent back, you.
Speaker 2: Know, vocals for it.
Speaker 3: Wow, this is like he's so much better than we are.
Speaker 3: Like me and all are like, okay, we've got to
Speaker 3: like really sort of think about what we're going to
Speaker 3: do here, and we're going right, the lyrics needs changing
Speaker 3: and like it needs bumping up and like so we
Speaker 3: scrabbled around for a couple of weeks and send him
Speaker 3: back something and it's like, guys, this is brilliant, Like
Speaker 3: this is.
Speaker 2: Coming together really well. And he sent it back and
Speaker 2: we're like, wow, his vocals are even better on this
Speaker 2: first that's great.
Speaker 3: So so we did all this and all these things
Speaker 3: which we are doing are all remote. So Joe's in Florida,
Speaker 3: I'm in Joseph City, and Paul's in Manchester in the UK.
Speaker 3: You know, all these files and things are flying back
Speaker 3: and forth and uh yeah. So so eventually we got
Speaker 3: we got to a place where music was getting close
Speaker 3: to what Joe was was putting out. And you know,
Speaker 3: his his vocals are outstanding.
Speaker 2: He's done loads and loads, but stuff.
Speaker 3: Like he's constantly he I think that's what he does
Speaker 3: is collaborate. He's got like a couple of bands that
Speaker 3: he's getting a bit more serious with. Okay, but like
Speaker 3: he's a he's a collaborator and he's been on loads
Speaker 3: of people's and songs and yeah, people should check him
Speaker 3: out because he's outrageous.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, it's interesting because it's like something that comes
Speaker 1: up a lot on the show is you know, COVID
Speaker 1: and how COVID changed so much. And I feel like,
Speaker 1: obviously it was terrible, but we got to find those
Speaker 1: silver linings where we can. And I think one of
Speaker 1: the one of the few silver linings of the pandemic
Speaker 1: was it kind of forced people to think a little
Speaker 1: bit outside the box in terms of, you know, the
Speaker 1: technology already existed, you know, to share files back and forth,
Speaker 1: and and and and to collaborate via the Internet. But
Speaker 1: I think what the pandemic did it kind of forced
Speaker 1: a lot of people to really embrace it more. And
Speaker 1: so you see a lot more of these kinds of
Speaker 1: projects now where you know, people aren't even in this case,
Speaker 1: not even necessarily on the same continent, right, but you
Speaker 1: can you can collaborate that way, and you can send
Speaker 1: files back and forth, and people are more comfortable with
Speaker 1: it now. And I mean, and and you know, the
Speaker 1: FODS probably, I mean, without the Internet, I think it's
Speaker 1: safe to say the FODS would not exist as a project,
Speaker 1: right because you know, yeah, you wouldn't be able to
Speaker 1: connect all of this.
Speaker 3: So so if if you look at it like it
Speaker 3: used to be, like it used to have to get
Speaker 3: four or five people into a tiny little room, and
Speaker 3: that's how people used to make music.
Speaker 2: And it's not wrong with that. I'd love to do
Speaker 2: that again. Sure, you know, get get in a studio or.
Speaker 3: Get because we don't really see the end products. I
Speaker 3: send my bit off and I'm involved in the producing
Speaker 3: and all that sort of stuff, and then it goes
Speaker 3: to mix it and he does his stuff, and then
Speaker 3: it comes back to me and I go, I don't
Speaker 3: really know what more to add to that. It's outstanding, yeah,
Speaker 3: you know, And I could give him little tip bits
Speaker 3: and say oh, at one minute twenty three, can you
Speaker 3: do this instead of this? And he goes yeah, and
Speaker 3: it takes like seconds and and he's done. I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 3: that's good.
Speaker 2: And so the technology is so good these days. You know,
Speaker 2: he has a real job. He's not a real.
Speaker 3: Well he is a real mixer because he's incredible at it,
Speaker 3: but he also has a day job and you.
Speaker 2: Know this is his side hobby. Oh okay, yeah, and
Speaker 2: he's outstanding.
Speaker 3: And some of the stuff that we've got coming out.
Speaker 3: So these two songs, Ineffectuals and Shopping Like came out
Speaker 3: in January, and we've been we've had i think eight
Speaker 3: other songs in weird stages of like pre production and
Speaker 3: sitting with about another band or a singer or sitting somewhere.
Speaker 3: And there's there's one song that we've been waiting on
Speaker 3: a singer to do it for like six months and
Speaker 3: eventually we've just had to say to him, look, it's
Speaker 3: been far too long. We need to find someone else.
Speaker 3: Because and we found someone else and they did it
Speaker 3: in like two weeks. So this is this is one
Speaker 3: of the one of the pitfalls about doing it this way, because.
Speaker 2: Someone will with the best intentions. Yeah, we'll go.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a great song, like I think it will
Speaker 3: really fit my my voice on my tone, and and
Speaker 3: I'll get around to it, you know, I've got a
Speaker 3: couple of things to do, and then.
Speaker 2: You know, in three weeks, i'll be there. I'll be
Speaker 2: on it. So in a month later, I'll text him
Speaker 2: back and go, how's it going.
Speaker 3: I've not got around to it yet, you know, give me,
Speaker 3: give me a couple of weeks and I'll.
Speaker 2: So this little back and forth goes on, and it
Speaker 2: gets quite.
Speaker 1: Awkward, you know, yeah, no doubt and no doubt.
Speaker 3: And eventually I had to say to him, look, I
Speaker 3: know you really want to do this, but like you've
Speaker 3: had it for six months and pre want to try
Speaker 3: and get an album out in.
Speaker 2: January or February or March or sometime.
Speaker 3: I don't know whether you're going to get me any
Speaker 3: get me anything to to.
Speaker 2: Put on it. Yeah, yeah, I get it.
Speaker 3: And then we gave it to someone else who turned
Speaker 3: it around in three weeks. As much as you want
Speaker 3: a particular person, you think this song, I think will
Speaker 3: and you find a person who you know. I've trolled
Speaker 3: through all sorts of radio stations and streaming platforms just
Speaker 3: to find like someone who's got a sound which we
Speaker 3: think will be great for this particular song. And we've
Speaker 3: also done it right, just have it and give it
Speaker 3: a go and see what it comes up with. There
Speaker 3: was a there was a song on I'd Argue Epic
Speaker 3: which was never really meant to be like It turned
Speaker 3: out to be a bit of a shoot gaze indie
Speaker 3: song and it was never never meant to be like that.
Speaker 3: But the guy who we gave it to just gave
Speaker 3: it that vibe. Yeah, and it came back and we
Speaker 3: were like, well, we weren't expecting this, but this is different.
Speaker 2: Book great, you know.
Speaker 3: So one of the things that we really want to
Speaker 3: do is have these singers put their mark on our
Speaker 3: songs as well, because there's no point me's sending a
Speaker 3: settling something off and saying right, I mean this probably
Speaker 3: won't happen, but like we've got a sound, a song
Speaker 3: that sounds like europe m made this like Joey Tempest, right.
Speaker 2: Right, that's pointless.
Speaker 3: So we want them to put their own stamp, and
Speaker 3: we've got obviously Laura is a female, so we've we're
Speaker 3: looking to get female singers into it as well, which
Speaker 3: opens a whole new.
Speaker 2: Sort of sound for us.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, so you know we're not stuck with just
Speaker 3: like guys singing it like if we like, we've got
Speaker 3: two on the on the albums coming out that we've
Speaker 3: we're going to release them. We weren't going to even
Speaker 3: release this, but one of the songs sound came out
Speaker 3: sounding so good that we're right the middle of October
Speaker 3: we're going to release it and see what people think.
Speaker 3: And it's nothing, it's not I don't think it's even
Speaker 3: a rock song.
Speaker 2: Oh really, it's sort of a blues blues ballady type thing.
Speaker 3: Oh nice, you may fit on a James Bond theme,
Speaker 3: so we'll see.
Speaker 2: But like we love it, so yeah, see what people think.
Speaker 1: That must be exciting for you though, because as as
Speaker 1: you're coming up with these ideas for these songs and
Speaker 1: you're you're putting lyrics together and so forth, that you know,
Speaker 1: it sounds like it's it's kind of an adventure because
Speaker 1: you don't know once it leaves your hands, you don't
Speaker 1: know exactly what's going to happen to it, and obviously
Speaker 1: you know you've got to approve what I whatever happens
Speaker 1: to it. But with working with these different singers, you
Speaker 1: don't know until it happens what kind of a stamp
Speaker 1: they're going to put on it. And that just must
Speaker 1: be that must be very exciting. I would think, you
Speaker 1: know that.
Speaker 3: It's it's it's exciting, and it's also quite frightened as well.
Speaker 3: Like you say, you just don't know, so it's a
Speaker 3: huge step into the unknown. Yeah, so we're like, right,
Speaker 3: there's a song that I wrote and I was listening
Speaker 3: to a bit more dancy type of stuff and I'd
Speaker 3: love to love us to put out something because you know,
Speaker 3: we we don't tend to stick to one genre. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I'll just put out something a little bit more dancing,
Speaker 3: like with a bit of a boogie feel, you know,
Speaker 3: sort of like that. And I wrote these lyrics. It's
Speaker 3: a song called Fuel and hopefully we'll be out around
Speaker 3: Christmas all New York, okay. And I wrote it and
Speaker 3: it's called Fuel, and I was thinking about, like, you know,
Speaker 3: maybe a bit hedonistic and you know, dancing o'clock in
Speaker 3: the morning and all that sort of stuff. And the
Speaker 3: way it's turned out is like a I don't even
Speaker 3: know what the term for it. It's like sludge stone
Speaker 3: and metal, so it's gone into a totally different like
Speaker 3: genre and spectrum.
Speaker 2: I never thought it was, but it's brilliant. It's brilliant.
Speaker 3: And when we actually gave it to the band who
Speaker 3: did it, they were like, what you're expecting from this?
Speaker 3: And I explained this to them and they were like, right,
Speaker 3: just leave it with me.
Speaker 2: I've got this.
Speaker 3: And he came back and he's a vocal and he's
Speaker 3: also done a.
Speaker 2: Guitar solo for it.
Speaker 3: And if someone has said to me, I wrote it,
Speaker 3: you know, eighteen months ago, and someone said to me
Speaker 3: eighteen months ago, you'll have this.
Speaker 2: Five and a half minute long you know, goes on
Speaker 2: like that, and I'll be like, Okay, that's cool. But yeah,
Speaker 2: even writing the lyrics, you don't know where it's it's
Speaker 2: going to go, and you've always got something you know
Speaker 2: in your mind slightly yeah you know who knows?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, No, that's uh, that's really cool. And so
Speaker 1: where should well actually a quick question, what does what
Speaker 1: does the name mean?
Speaker 2: Where?
Speaker 1: Where does the name? You probably get this question what
Speaker 1: is a far.
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 3: So if you listen to me, I've got a bit
Speaker 3: of an accent, right, yes, from a place called Warrington
Speaker 3: in Cheshire, which is just that side of Manchester in
Speaker 3: the UK, and we all sort of grew up there
Speaker 3: and Warrington is like one of these it isn't like
Speaker 3: an old mill town and the Euston mill wire in
Speaker 3: the in the in the factories in Warrington. Yeah, and everyone,
Speaker 3: my accent is not too bad because I say in
Speaker 3: a broad that's the right word.
Speaker 2: Sorry, yeah, because.
Speaker 3: I went to University of London and then I was
Speaker 3: so down there for ten year is and then I've
Speaker 3: been over in the States for another ten years.
Speaker 2: So whatever accent, I had a sort of mellow Sure.
Speaker 3: Well, if you're from if you're from Warrington, you say
Speaker 3: things in a particular way, okay, And all our guitarist
Speaker 3: is a.
Speaker 2: Place called is from a place called Orford in Warrenton. Okay.
Speaker 2: And if you say Orthored in a Warrington accident, say orthored.
Speaker 3: Ah, yeah, see what I do, I do drop We've
Speaker 3: dropped the or off. And so basically, if you say
Speaker 3: it right, you would be the authors.
Speaker 1: Gotcha.
Speaker 2: Now we're just the fodds.
Speaker 1: Gotcha.
Speaker 2: Gotcha is Yeah, it's.
Speaker 3: It's a it's a shortened version of Orford said in
Speaker 3: a Warrington accent.
Speaker 1: That makes sense, That makes sense, well, Rob, Unfortunately, the
Speaker 1: time goes quickly and I want to make sure we
Speaker 1: get this last h this last single in shopping. But
Speaker 1: we'll have to have you back soon, definitely, when the
Speaker 1: next single is ready, we'll have you back, and we'll
Speaker 1: we'll book a longer block of time because i'd love
Speaker 1: to talk to you more.
Speaker 3: But no, that, yeah, that sounds great. The new single,
Speaker 3: I'll drop it over to you as well. Oh wonderful
Speaker 3: is very much enough and it's out on I think
Speaker 3: October seventeens.
Speaker 1: Okay, so I'll.
Speaker 3: Drop that over to you and you can have a
Speaker 3: little preview for for it and have a little listen
Speaker 3: and seeing.
Speaker 2: I would love to love to get on with you again, yeah,
Speaker 2: whenever it's good for you to be honest.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, great, No, that'll give us an excuse to
Speaker 1: get you booked again quickly, because I do want to
Speaker 1: have a longer conversation with you. But well, we're gonna good,
Speaker 1: We're gonna spend this track shopping and this is with So,
Speaker 1: this is with Ora Davis on vocals.
Speaker 3: Correct, Yes, okay, she's yeah. I found her when we
Speaker 3: first started looking for people, and I never thought you'd
Speaker 3: give us a shot either.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but people, people are generous with their time and
Speaker 2: generous with their talents.
Speaker 3: And you know, we're grateful for for all the people
Speaker 3: that we've worked with, and we hope they've had a
Speaker 3: good experience with it as well, because you know, we've
Speaker 3: got something really good out of all this experience and
Speaker 3: everyone that we speak to it seems to well, you know,
Speaker 3: people are nice and may not tell us the truth.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, gotcha. All right, Rob, we will let you go.
Speaker 1: We're gonna spin this track. But thank you so much
Speaker 1: for joining us. And yeah, well we'll have you back
Speaker 1: on soon for sure.
Speaker 2: Sounds good. I appreciate you, Thanks very much.
Speaker 1: All right, you got it, Rob, Thank you?
Speaker 2: Bybye, all right, sweet too, by bye bye bye.
Speaker 1: All right. That is that's Rob from the Fods. Let's
Speaker 1: give this a spin. I really love this too. I
Speaker 1: love their sound. Both of these songs are really good.
Speaker 1: But earlier we played the ineffectuals. We're gonna play this.
Speaker 1: This is Shopping by the Fods. And then after this,
Speaker 1: Jenny and I will be back for a quick minute
Speaker 1: before we run out of show. We'll tell you about
Speaker 1: what we're doing later today. If you want to join us.
Speaker 1: But here it is the Fods. The track is called
Speaker 1: Shopping
Podbean