Southampton quartet The Dead Freights recently released their new single ‘Fever and the Thunder’. Recorded at Mi7 studios with Daisy Palmer (Feverist, Paloma Faith) and mixed by Josh Ager (Beabadobee) with help from Pete Robertson (The Vaccines), the single comes straight after their previous single and BBC Introducing’s Track of The Week, ‘Stray Dogs’ which received lots of radio support, media coverage. Check out ‘Fever and the Thunder’ below!
We caught up with frontman Charlie James shortly before the release of the single!
So how pumped are you for the release of your upcoming single Fever and the Thunder?
We’ve been really excited about getting Fever and the Thunder out. It signifies our progression through to a more gritty sound. Still peppered with some close harmonies, it’s a “sassy” song with heavy undertones. Before our last single it’d had been a while since we’d released anything, so we’re loving getting music out. It’s about bloody time really, maybe we’ve grown up or maybe we’re running away from something, I don’t know!
Can you tell something about the single no one else knows?
When I first wrote it I thought that a part of it (the sort of tail-end of the chorus) sounded like one of my friend James’s songs, so I sent him a recording of me playing it like “mate, does this sound like one of yours?” He said ‘no’ and so I ran with it. There is a sense of “it’s all up for grabs” around song writing, but I’d draw the line at outright plagiarism!
The video has a very dark and almost comic feel to it, is this something you were aiming for?
Yeah, we wanted to go a bit ‘horror movie’ with it without it being too full on. It was a conversation Louis and I had one night, about how we could stage a hanging and film it in one shot. We planned the video in his living room which is where we ended up for the actual shoot. I definitely want to keep directing and filming our own videos, it’s just another creative process to turn our hands to.
What was it like working with the likes of Daisy Palmer, Josh Ager, did they all bring something different to the table?
Working with Daisy was great; she’s a brilliant energy in the studio and a killer musician. I know it was nice for Louis having a drummer produce us, especially one as established as her. As for Josh, he seems to really get the sound we’re after, he can make the mixing process an enjoyable thing which, for me personally, isn’t usually the case.
Is there likely to be an album or EP announced anytime soon?
We will keep doing singles for a while, I think, and then start thinking about an album. For now, I’m just happy we’re releasing stuff and making videos. The time it takes for us to get music from the practice room to the studio, to it being out has dramatically shortened and we’re going to keep it that way.
What do you think of the music scene in Southampton, are you hopeful that the independent venues such as The Joiners will get through this tough time?
What’s been good about lockdown Southampton is the support people are showing for venues like The Joiners and The Brook. They’re an integral part of the scene down here and it’s refreshing to see people stood together in their understanding of this. We’ve managed to play a few shows since restrictions and have plans to do more. People need live music now more than anything and it’s great for us as people are so starved of it they go mad! We were worried that the overall vibe maybe a bit like am audition, you know, everybody sat down and all. But as soon as we started playing there were sparks flying. Seated chaos is about as good as we’re gonna get for now.
How tough has it been on you guys during lockdown and did you ever lose motivation?
We only really started getting our shit together during lockdown. I got bored of day-drinking sharpish, and then we ended up in the studio. Although the whole end-of-the-world thing is a pain, it’s actually been a bit of a blessing and a boon.