Christmas is a bittersweet time but we're having some fun with it - The Futureheads on new album
“The response to the album has been dead good, people are really behind it. Christmas is a strange and wonderful time for us all,” says Futureheads frontman Barry Hyde as the Mackem maestros release their latest music.
Christmas is the first album of new recordings from the four-piece since 2018 and is a collection of re-imagined, much-loved Christmas classics and a new song, The Coldest Winter in One Hundred Years.
On the record, you can expect hits like Carol of the Bells, Stop the Cavalry, The Twelve Days of Christmas, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas and more - all delivered in the distinctive, high-energy Futureheads sound, with a Mackem lilt.
Meanwhile, new track The Coldest Winter For A Hundred Years is folk-inspired with its acapella chants that transports you to a bleak winterscape.
The record was recorded in the heart of Sunderland in the Birdland Studios, perched above The Peacock pub.
We caught up with Barry on the top floor of Pop Recs in High Street West where The Northern Academy of Music Education (NAME), the music college he co-founded, has just opened a fourth campus, to chat about the festive offering.
“Christmas is a strange and wonderful time for us all,” said Barry. “Especially with the eternal playlist of songs we love to hear at least once. But there’s also a certain bitter sweetness to it: it’s a time people come together, a time for people to remember, a time people feel under pressure to enjoy themselves.
“Our interpretation of the classics is a nice way of having fun with it.”
Barry says the concept album is one the band felt their fans wanted after a great response to their Christmas gigs over the past couple of years.
“The first one was in Newcastle a couple years ago,” said Barry who juggles music making and teaching with being publican of The Peacock. “Then last year we had honestly like one of the most enjoyable gigs of our lives at The Fire Station.
“We've done over 2000 gigs, but there was something about that one last Christmas. We love playing that venue anyway but that gig, performing those special songs, gave us a real boost. It was just one of those nights - and the audience loved it.
“Then we had a party afterwards and it made us want to do it again and maybe make a special record.”
Released on Nul Records on November 21, Christmas is available on vinyl and across a range of digital platforms here.
And Barry say it’s already garnering a great response.
“I think there's a well established playlist of Christmas songs that I suppose we all have like a bit of a love hate relationship with.
“But these songs are so ingrained in our culture, I think people are always interested to hear different versions of them.”
To mark the release, there’s a string of live dates including two at The Fire Station - on Friday, December 19 and Saturday, December 20, where they’ll be performing tracks from Christmas, as well as the hits.
There’s very few tickets remaining for the Fire Station gigs here.