THE VIEW: KYLE FALCONER
I promise you this isn’t the opening to a really poorly written joke that you’d tell your friends over a few pints. An Englishman walks into a bar to meet a Scotsman. This Scotsman wasn’t just any Scotsman and the parka he was wearing wasn’t just any parka ‘It’s cool innit man? We’re good mates with Liam Gallagher and he sends me stuff to wear every now and again.’
Kyle Falconer sits, on a wooden bench, clad in a black Pretty Green suede parka in Wolverhampton’s Grain Store. The View frontman is relaxed and basks in the bright mid-evening sunshine. ‘I genuinely love the Midlands. We’ve played in Wolves tonnes of times but it’s great to come up here when the weather is like this. I’m trying to get up earlier and enjoy the days; rather than get up an hour before the show, drink and get on with it.’
Along with Kyle’s grown up wake-ups, The View’s new record ‘Ropewalk’ has a much more grown up sound, compared to anything the lads from Dundee have released previously. ‘I don’t notice it to tell you the truth. We’ve just gone into the studio and done what we do. We haven’t set out to change our sound and if it is grown up, it’s a lot to do with Albert Hammond Jr.’
Albert Hammond Jr, The Strokes guitarist, solo artist and now renowned producer has been a big inspiration for the band, before, during and after the recording process. ‘Everyone loves The Strokes don’t they?’ and he’s inspired The View to take a new view on the recording process. ‘We’re Scots and he’s teetotal, so it was a completely new recording process for us. We could concentrate on the music. We could actually wake up after a heavy night and remember what we’d recorded rather than ‘Ah shite, did we actually do that?’’
The marriage of The View and The Strokes guitarist has definitely been a great one and has been useful for the band and has seen the creation of namesake song ‘Marriage’ in a completely different tone to its original carnation. ‘It used to be some kind of ballad thing with all keys.’ Kyle sways, like a Stevie Wonder impersonator and hums an archetypal ballad before continuing ‘But I could never complete it, so I ended up putting two songs together, a real marriage.’
Being a musician as well as a producer, Hammond Jr did much more than just press buttons and this has seen a much darker sound. Opening the record ‘Under the Rug’ sees The View move in a more gritty, mysterious direction. ‘That was Pete’s (Reilly, guitarist) first track for a record. Once again, this track’s been changed so many times. It started really chirpy and joyful then Albert suggested we added a guitar riff and the song altered. It just felt right at the time and sometimes, you’ve just got to follow the emotional instinct of a track.’
Emotion and feeling has been vital in the recording process of ‘Ropewalk.’ With their fifth studio album, much like debut record ‘Hats Off to the Buskers,’ has really captured the rapturous, energy-packed shows that the Scottish bad boys have been touring for years. ‘Our debut is obviously our most successful record and we wanted to replicate the rawness of our live shows rather than spending a lot of time and money polishing and buttering things up. We’re at our best when we’re on stage and people love our live shows.’
The View’s live shows have always been exciting and rambunctious, but this year, they’re touring more intimate venues and Kyle is excited by the prospect. ‘We’ve played every venue, every stage and most countries. We love coming back to Britain and, although the weather is a thousand times better if you play Benicassim, it’s great to see the whites of people’s eyes because it feels closer and more personal to us to see our fans having fun while we do what we do best.’
Kyle does what Kyle has always done best. He has fun, he drinks, he plays guitar and sings his songs. ‘I don’t want to piss anyone off and I never aimed to, but I always seem to be branded a bad boy. I don’t know who I’ve pissed off up there.’ The media gods might not be on Kyle’s side and that’s no surprise if ‘Ropewalk’s’ album cover is anything to go by.
‘That all came about accidentally to be honest. I just didn’t like my photo on the original copies, so I just asked them to red me out. I’m the devil caught in between it all I guess. The other three boys were see, speak and hear, so I just wanted to be the odd one out. I kind of love it really.’
He might be the devil and if the band’s inspirations are anything to go by it’s no surprise. ‘Ropewalk,’ a literally German to English translation of the area the album was recorded, has a real Libertines feel to it, with its playful guitars, biting lyrics and childish playfulness. ‘Most bands would try to avoid those comparisons.’ But The View aren’t your average band. ‘We’re obviously inspired by them. How can you not? We leapt onto the scene at the same time as the Babyshambles and I’m always going to be inspired by Pete and Carl’s work.’
This playfulness extends to warming Scottish anthem ‘Cracks’ and tenth track, ‘Voodoo Doll’. The album closer, arguably the record’s best track, sees the band having fun with effortless rock and roll and holds an anthemic quality with its catchy, joyful melody for the boy’s with their beers and girls in their dresses.
This album has certainly been a long time in the making with three years between fifth record ‘Ropewalk’ and 2012’s UK Album Chart Number 9 ‘Cheeky For A Reason.’ ‘We know we’ve kept our fans waiting and we did intend to do this earlier but we think we’ve created a brilliant album that really shows what we can do. Then as we were due to record, we cracked America and it all took off.’
It’s always been difficult for British indie bands to break into an extremely picky U.S. market and Kyle just wanted to make the most of their success across-the-pond. ‘We released a kind of greatest hits thing and did a seven-night tour in America for the Seven Year Setlist. We’ve really been non-stop for our septuplet of years as a professional group and hopefully, the good times will keep coming’
It’s definitely been an eye opening experience for The View to go into the studio and record the album they wanted to make, sober, drunk or otherwise. However, this return to joyous form will see The View’s fans quickly scrambling for another album sooner rather than later.
‘Ropewalk’ is out now on Cooking Vinyl
Dan Shorthouse
