Meet False Heads

On social media, the dying romance of music and insights on the industry.

Image credit: @falseheads

If you’re remotely interested in alt-rock and have found yourself venturing beyond the discography of the giant mainstream band of your choosing, you might well have stumbled upon False Heads.

The grizzled London trio cut their teeth with an almost religious touring schedule across the country and quickly snapped up a record deal; soon bringing debut album It’s All There But You’re Dreaming into the world in 2020.

Despite appearances, working with 25 Hour Convenience Store – a label ran by Gary Powell of The Libertines fame – almost destroyed the band, rather than offer them essential stability and support.

“Very few people in the music industry actually like or give a fuck about music,” explains frontman Luke. “We learned that very early on.”

Luke’s referring to how the label was run. Now promoting promising young artists such as Dead Freights, Casino and Bear Park, False Heads’ experience with the group was far from positive: with stories of unpaid artists, staff acting unethically and demands to turn tracks around to incredibly tight timeframes rife among its former artists. It’s an issue that’s since reared its head on social media.

“They’re all at it,” Luke continues. “What’s more worrying is that so many labels are likely operating in the same way. It’s not about Gary: it’s solely that the issue wasn’t resolved privately and that there’s been no responsibility taken for how poorly 25 Hour Convenience Store operated. I dread to think how much young talent’s been wasted and crushed through an experience like that.”

Image credit: @liammaxwellphotos

This modern love

Luke’s clear-cut rebuttals aren’t born of fantasy. In fact, he’s unearthing issues that many emerging artists are facing daily. Take a platform such as Spotify.

“Most people know that you get paid next to nothing when your tracks are played through a streaming platform. That’s the tip of the iceberg. What gets me down is that – even though we all have full time jobs and millions of streams on our tracks – producing enough content to keep up social media engagement is a huge task.

“People at Spotify don't care about music either. They've stated that you've got more chance of getting on one of their curated and promoted playlists if you’re active on TikTok: what the fuck is that? The romance of music is dead.

“That’s something I nicked from [legendary music executive] Danny Fields. He told me that, because of how the industry works, you’ll have albums that are 20-40 years old that will always be in the top 100. And to top it off, changes to the likes of Instagram means that when we put a lot of effort into our content, it’s rarely shown to our followers. It’s so far removed from the music itself – it’s depressing.”

Reclaiming their vision

It’s not all doom and gloom for the trio. Now grizzled through their experiences and with time to reflect, they’re starting to reshape their identity and re-release some of their most treasured tracks alongside their exciting new singles, such as Day Glow and Mime the End.

“It’s why we redid Thick Skin: we felt like we'd rushed the writing of the first version and knew the main riff and chorus had huge potential. We thought it deserved a revisit.”

Given that many of us are now aware of the damage that even the most cursory glance of Twitter can do to you, Thick Skin was – with the benefit of hindsight – was ahead of its time. Released in 2016, it focuses on how the internet has reshaped common dialogue.

“I absolutely fucking hate the way people actively want to be tribal on the internet. It’s like Hate Week in 1984. In my opinion, it’s just like religion in that it makes people followers while convincing them they're leaders. That's the internet all over: whenever you feel good or optimistic about something, it has a way of destroying it.”

While the band’s barbed reflections will remain on their upcoming album Sick Moon, expect the record to be even more punchy in its delivery.

“We wrote almost all of it in lockdown. I tried to write three or four vocal melodies for each part and pick the best one – so I hope it’ll have a lot more melody to it. I also think it’s got a strange feel to it, as we wrote a lot of it individually and came together to record the result. Regardless, it's definitely more concise and to the point our debut.”

Keeping on top of social media might be a slog, but False Heads make it worth your time: check out their Instagram, listen to their latest single Haunted Houses – featuring Frank Turner – and pre-order Sick Moon to help them break into the top 40. In the meantime, catch them on their upcoming live dates and don’t forget to check out Rave Reviews in the meantime.