L'interview 2026 des Fruit Tones a été plutôt bien consultée cette semaine. Merci les gens ! Par conséquent, voici la première que j'avais faite en 2023 pour la sortie de l'album Pink Wafer Factory. Comme d'habitude, pour traduire, utilisez l'outil sous la tête de Frankenstein.
Enjoy !
First of all, how did you get into rock music? When was the first time you enjoyed music, and which band was it?
The first record I bought was Pulp's single Common People on cassette. I then became interested in rock music by listening to my parents' record collection. My dad had a Sex Pistols CD, which probably introduced me to punk, and my uncle gave me his old vinyl records, including lots of tracks by the Velvet Underground, the Beatles, the Stones, etc. An old man at the café where I worked on weekends saw me wearing a Rolling Stones T-shirt and gave me lots of old blues records that had also influenced the Stones. So I started exploring all the roots of that sound.
My grandfather had a piano organ that I used to play around on when I was little, and I also remember a little toy guitar, but I didn't really know how to play. I was 17 when I started learning seriously on a guitar that someone lent me, and I got my first guitar—the one I still use today—for my 18th birthday.
What was your first band?
My first gigs were solo performances in bars and folk clubs, where I played country and blues, sometimes on the harmonica. I played in several short-lived bands before founding Fruit Tones; Peace Signs was probably the longest-lasting. I also currently play in a band called HONK and in a new project called Products.
Did you know each other before forming Fruit Tones?
We kind of met through Fruit Tones. I started writing songs that became Fruit Tones after Peace Signs split up, and there were quite a few lineup changes until 2019. I met Walmsley (drums/vocals) and CJ (bass/vocals) while playing and going to gigs in Manchester. They were both in other bands. I started playing with Walmsley in 2017, I think. That's when we were able to start touring seriously and jamming all the time, developing that rhythmic drum/guitar interaction. CJ started playing with us in 2019, just before the Natural Selection tour, and we've been killing it ever since.
It doesn't mean anything in particular, I just liked the way it sounded and looked. It's not too serious, a little absurd, which fits well with the music. I used to make up funny band names and imagine what their music would sound like, and that's how it came to me. I think I had a colorful, dynamic cartoon version of a 1960s garage band in mind for Fruit Tones, and as the songs took shape, that name seemed perfect.
What are your influences? What bands and musical styles do you like most?
I'd say the Fruit Tones' sound is inspired by early rock ‘n’ roll, with artists like Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Bo Diddley, and Link Wray, but with a punk edge. We love old garage rock compilations, The Kinks, and Dr. Feelgood. A lot of our vocal melodies come from 60s girl groups and country music, particularly Hank Williams and Loretta Lynn, while our playing style is influenced by proto-punk, with bands like the New York Dolls, the Stooges, and the Velvet Underground. The sound of our low-budget rock recordings is heavily influenced by bands in the style of Billy Childish and groups like The Mummies, The Penetrators, and The Gories.
Have you ever met them or shared the stage with them?
Yes, actually, I interviewed Billy Childish for Salford City Radio when he was here for a conference, and we opened for the Flamin' Groovies and the Gories, who were both incredible. I still have a bottle of Thunderbird signed by the Gories as a souvenir from that gig!
I interviewed Odgie from the Manchester band The Worst. How old were you when punk hit your city?
None of us were even born when the first wave of punk hit Manchester!
I love all three of those bands, Buzzcocks in particular is definitely a big influence on Fruit Tones. Those early punk bands are my favorites from the old Manchester scene, bands like them and Slaughter and The Dogs.
Are there many venues or clubs in Manchester where you can play?
There are certainly a lot of clubs, but there really needs to be an alternative space or more options for organizing low-budget underground punk concerts. There aren't as many small independent bands touring the region as there should be at the moment.
After Natural Selection in 2019, Pink Wafer Factory is your second album. Why this title? Does it have a special meaning?
Our friend Dom, the original bassist for the Fruit Tones, used to work at the pink wafer factory in Wigan. I loved the idea when he told me about it and imagined it a bit like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. But he told me it was a horrible, mind-numbing job, and that he never ate pink wafers again. Still, I always dreamed of writing a song about it. We also chose this title for the album because we compose and play music to escape from everyday life; that's the theme of most of our songs and the feeling we try to convey. So the sugary model of a gloomy Manchester factory on the cover was a good visual representation of that.
We recorded, produced, and mixed the album ourselves in our rehearsal room, which is in an old factory in Manchester, during the last lockdown. The mastering was done by Mikey Young, who had already mixed and mastered Natural Selection.
How long did the recording take?
We recorded all the rhythm tracks for drums, bass, and guitar live in one day, as we did for the last album, then added vocals and additional guitars over several days. Since it was lockdown and we had set up a makeshift studio in the rehearsal room, the atmosphere was a bit like The Stones in Exile. So we spent a week fine-tuning the Rolling Stones' rock production on a few tracks, adding some crazy stuff like the tape loop between MSG and Space Angel, and the sound of drums rolling down the stairs at the end of Back In The Night (Again).
Who designed the cover?
We designed and made it with my friend Tash, two brilliant pastry chefs! It took about 200 pink wafers and it was completely edible, even though we were all sick of it by the end! We even had to redo it because I dropped the first one before taking the photo—ironically, I was trying to take it somewhere where the cat wouldn't break it!
We discussed the possibility of releasing a CD, but since we sell more vinyl and cassettes than CDs, we usually only make them for tours. We'll see if there's demand for it at concerts.
The first album was released on Greenway Records, the second on Alien Snatch. Why did you change labels?
Greenway is based in New York and we are in the UK, so distribution of the first album was quite complicated. We sell most of our records in the UK and Europe, but the LP was essentially an American import. As a result, it was out of stock at our concerts and everywhere you could order it here. The shipping costs to get more were very high. So it made sense to do the next one with a European label. We're really happy with how the first album turned out and hope to release another record with Greenway one day, perhaps in co-production with a European label to facilitate distribution. Alien Snatch! is a label we've been following for a long time, so we're super happy to be working with them on this album!
We hope to see you on stage soon. Will you be playing in Europe anytime soon? In Germany? In France?
Thank you Tom !
interview 2026
Fernand Naudin
Fernand Naudin
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