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What a difference a name makes
There's an advert on TV at the moment for a well-known insurance company.
They're changing their name, and to emphasize the point, they've enlisted the help of Ringo Starr, Bruce Willis and Elle Macpherson. All three superstars tinkered with their name and attribute some of their success to the change.
It's early days for this west London trio, but things picked up for them when they changed their name from Fear Of Flying to White Lies and they've now spent almost a month in the UK album charts, debuting at number one.
They recently came second in the BBC Sound Of 2009 poll to find the hottest music tips for the coming year. Duffy came second last year, and went on to become the biggest-selling act of 2008. They also featured in the Critics' Choice list in the Brit nominations.
Singer and guitarist Harry McVeigh, bass player Charles Cave and drummer Jack Brown have been friends since they were 14, and played in bands together in Chiswick, West London, ever since.
Despite releasing a couple of limited edition singles as Fear Of Flying, they knew something had to give if they were going to take their music seriously.
'We changed our name, but the whole band changed as well,' says Charles, relaxing in the office of their record label.
'It was the same line-up and everything, but it was a completely different band. Fear Of Flying was a very naive and contrived project, and we were just trying to do what people wanted from us, or what we thought people wanted from us.
'We were listening to so much new music, and were trying to match that. It was all very dishonest, but then we were so young that we didn't know it at the time,' he says (even though they are only 19 or 20 now).
After taking a break from their former band, they wrote Death and Unfinished Business, two of their debut album's standout tracks. The rest came along naturally after that.
Leaving their indie-pop behind them, White Lies' music has now drawn comparison to the likes of Joy Division, Echo & The Bunnymen, Editors, The Killers and Teardrop Explodes.
'Those comparisons are largely to do with the way I sing,' says Harry, whose speaking voice sounds nothing like the deep, gloomy noise he emits when singing.
'It's just the way it comes out,' he adds.
'I don't sing like that on purpose.'
While they don't agree with the many comparisons they've had to the aforementioned bands, they are keen to see the positive side of being mentioned in the same breath as Joy Division.
'Fans of those bands come to our gigs, and lots of them have come up to us after saying things like "We were fans of those bands, and we love you as well",' explains Charles.
'They're getting really into us, and I think it's because they're 40 or 50 and don't care about being cool, or the pretence of not liking one band that sounds like another.
'When you get older, you don't care about all that, and they just want to listen to good music, and that's what they're doing.'
'I'm not going to deny our music leans quite heavily towards the 1980s,' adds Harry, looking up from signing a huge pile of vinyl singles and albums.
'But for younger people who weren't around then, including us, they'll be discovering it for the first time. I think a really broad spectrum of people will enjoy our music.'
With its fuzzy bassline and reverb smothering everything in sight, current single To Lose My Life is among the most Joy Division-esque on their album. It's a troubled tale about letting love slip through your fingers, and features the bleakly romantic refrain 'Let's grow old together, and die at the same time'.
'I think that was the most romantic thing I could think of,' says Charles.
'You know, dying at exactly the same time as the person you've loved your whole life? It's slightly unrealistic, but it's beautiful.
'The song's about balance too,' he adds.
'The first line is "To lose my life, or lose my love" and it goes on to say "I was always careless as a child" which expresses the idea that just because you were careless when you were younger, losing toys and clothing and things, you're more likely to lose your life or the person you love.
'Of course, that's complete nonsense, but it in some twisted romantic logic it makes sense to me.'
What then follows is a 10-minute discussion between the pair about what the word romantic actually means, and how it's been bastardised by card companies looking to sell more cards around Valentine's Day.
It's clear the impeccably spoken Harry and Charles are not your average mouthy guitar band. Harry's working his way through the novels of Cormack McCarthy, the Pulitzer-prize-winning author responsible for No Country For Old Men, while Charles admits to liking classical music and gothic novels such as Dracula.
'A lot of the classics in literature and art go over my head, though,' says Charles.
'I think we're operating on a level that's just as worthy as the bands we love and inspire us, but if we really were making high art, we'd be making classical music.
'I think that really is the best you can do. Sometimes I'll hear some classical music on the radio, and no matter how proud I am of what we're doing, I realise we're insignificant.
'But I think about bands that are one-hit wonders, so we definitely hold ourselves in higher regard than mere entertainment.
'There's a lot more substance to us than that.'
White Lies perform at the sold out NME Awards Tour date at Portsmouth Pyramids on Thursday.
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Weather for Portsmouth
Wednesday 23 May 2012
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