Felix Hagan & The Family’s recently released new single Hey I Want You. The band released it along with the announcement of their debut album Attention Seeker, due for release November 20th.
The band are a seven-piece beast made of makeup, hairspray and rock and roll. They fuse punk, rock, pop and musical theatre into a seamless, high-energy blend of genres, all held together by masterful musicianship and an outrageous desire to entertain.
The new single is the second to be taken from the album following the release of Delirium Tremendous earlier this year. The band have had support from The Guardian and have been touring with Frank Turner,
Check out Hey I Want You below!
We managed to catch up with Felix Hagen below as he spoke about the latest single and more!
How has the release of your single Hey I Want You gone?
It’s been wonderful. We’ve been playing that song as part of our live show finale for a while now, so our fans are delighted to have it in its full glory. The response has been pretty damn ecstatic, which makes me very happy. I think we took a bit of a risk, stripping away lots of our traditional big arrangements and going for such a basic ROCK sound and sentiment, but I think people are really digging the passion and frenzy that we put into making it. It’s such a happy song for me, and I’m so thrilled we could share it with the world.
Tell us something about the single no one knows.
There are three verses, but they were the ones I picked out of a possible ten, all with more and more rampantly egotistical platitudes. I had people duelling to the death, tattooing my face on their face, burning all music except ours. It was a careful choice to get the right balance between romantic and unhinged. It’s also the first song I wrote in which Ellie and Tash sing a big chunk of the lead vocals. And they absolutely fucking nailed it.
How pumped are you for the release of Attention Seeker?
It’s been a LONG time coming. I feel we’ve been working up to this point since we played our first gig together. The sound of the band has evolved so much since I released the solo album that started it all those years ago, and now having been touring and playing together for so long, and perfecting what it is we do and getting to the heart of what it is that people enjoy about us, we have created this thing that is the perfect expression of what we believe music should do. We have been mixing and honing it for a year to get it perfect, and now we’re unbelievably excited to share it with the world. Our debut album! It’s got something for everyone, and you’re going to fucking love it.
What is your favourite song from the release?
It changes with every listen, but the groove in On The Double is just perfect, and the guitar solo on Gene Kelly is the best thing I’ve ever heard. Fall Away is a special one for me as well, as it’s the quietest song I’ve ever written and also the saddest. But the heights of joy we get to on songs like Be A Freak and the title track Attention Seeker are wonderful to hear.
What inspired you to write this album?
I love my band. They are my best friends and my closest allies. And I wanted to write something great that we could play together. Every song was written with their particular strengths in mind, and I painted the songs in broad strokes so everyone could take them away and work their own personal brand of magic on them. I wanted an album that we could properly collaborate on, in a way that we haven’t fully done in the past, and in terms of the lyrics I wanted to take all my personal frustrations, egotistical worries and hangups and blast them into the fucking stratosphere through the magical rocket launcher that is music. It is catharsis, exorcism, self-flagellation and ecstasy all in one.
If you could work with any band on a new song, who would it be and why?
Queen, so it would be beautiful. Run The Jewels, so it would be cool as hell, and Pharrell, so we’d all get rich.
What was your first gig you went to?
Endless musicals as a child, then my first gig was one I played at. I used to play drums with a covers band of old rockers when I was eleven, which was fun, and we did a big party on the Isle of Wight which was my kind of baptism of fire in the world of live music. And then the first proper gig I saw was the Duke Spirit at the Astoria when I was fifteen. All I remember was it being fantastically loud, and being completely entranced by the lead singer.
Will you be touring at all this year?
Hell yes. We’re going round the country at the end of November. Dates will be released soon on our Facebook page. See you there.