Quick-fire Questions: 10 minutes with Famous
After a long wait, London band Famous released their debut album, Party Album, earlier in October. An incredibly well-put-together record that sees the band’s singer, lyricist, and core member, Jack Merrett, display cogent aptitude, it is as authentic of a release as you’ll likely get this year. It fuses the popular music songwriting tradition with the contemporary approach of warping standard arrangements to full effect.
The album has a distinctly tangible feel about it, with Merrett saying it and the constantly-evolving band are like “a long coming-of-age drama that always threatens to end but goes on forever”. Across the nine tracks, he spins yarns with a human draw while also concocting a profoundly surreal and narcotic quality, resembling dreams in all their glory and horror, from heady pianos to unsettling rhythms and pulsating guitars.
Whether it be his strange delivery – which fits somewhere between Matt Berninger, Mark E Smith, and the mysterious Eugene Dubon – his odd snapshots of life in London, blaring synths, or the shifting nature of the moods included, this is a record that begs for complete attention. From the bizarro introspection of ‘What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life’ to the post-punk slime of ‘God Hold You’, Party Album bottles the jarring spirit of our times into a broad-ranging feast of the senses.
The earnest ballad that closes the record, ‘Love Will Find a Way’, stuns not only in its piercing outpouring of the emotions pent up across the record but also by featuring the apt violin of former member, composer, and Oscar nominee Jerskin Fendrix, the man behind the soundtrack of Poor Things.
Given that Party Album is such a triumph, Merrett answered our quick-fire questions, offering insight into the mind behind Famous. From naming his favourite pub in the world to his most controversial cultural opinion, this expansive berth of answers explains how his project is so concrete, with an array of flavours accompanying it.
Quick-fire Questions with Famous:
1. What song would you want played at your funeral?
“‘Disney Girls (1957)’ by The Beach Boys.”
2. What was the best album of 2023?
“False Lankum by Lankum.”
3. Do you believe in UFOs?
“I don’t think there’s any doubt that they exist.”
4. What’s your favourite comfort movie?
“The Searchers.“
5. Where’s the weirdest place you woke up?
“Merry England.”
6. What’s one gig in history you’d time travel to be at?
“Marian Anderson at the Lincoln Memorial.”
7. Where’s the best pub in the world?
“For me, The Volunteer in Tottenham. There I am once more young and no longer afraid.”
8. What was the first song you learnt to play?
“‘Folsom Prison Blues’ by Johnny Cash.”
9. What track features the greatest vocal performance?
‘”Slava v vyshnikh’ from Rachmaninov’s Vespers, as sung by the St Petersburg Chamber Choir.”
10. What venue do you dream of playing? And who’s your support act?
“Horse Guards Parade, no support.”
11. Have you ever had a weird celebrity encounter?
“I personally know no more than three people, all of whom are incredibly famous.”
12. What song do you hate most in the world?
“I’m yet to hear a song I don’t like.”
13. What’s your most controversial cultural opinion?
“The conversion of Emperor Constantine was a disaster for Christianity.”
14. Who the fuck is Mark E Smith?
“The Fall.”
15. Are The Beatles overrated?
“No.”
