I’ve been following this band called The New York Fund for a few years now and they’re a great little band, very talented guys. I recently caught up with the singer, Joe McAdam, for a chat about their roots and what we can expect from the album.
For me, The New York Fund are one of the most exciting up and coming bands in the UK at the moment after winning over fans and critics alike with a string of festival appearances over the last couple of years. Having formed in 2005 the band have been busy building their reputation in intimate venues such as The Borderline and the 100 Club as well as broadening their appeal with high profile support slots alongside the likes of Ash and The Hold Steady. After bringing their style of swaggering country-rock to public attention 2007, despite their unsigned status, saw the band producing and distributing their limited debut release, the ‘Guns EP’, which was received well and gained them critical acclaim, noticeably from Dermot O’Leary on his Radio 2 show. Now, two years down the line, the artistic integrity of the band and the importance that they place on having control over their output has ensured that they remain unsigned but that hasn’t restricted their desire to succeed and they’re now on the verge of releasing their debut album.
Displaying a soft-American lilt to his vocals, a desire to have grown up in the American south masks singer Joe McAdam’s Glaswegian roots. So is this desire to visit America responsible for the name of the band? “We're named after my 'New York Fund'” he replies, “which is a collection of jars and bottles and tins, sitting on top of my fridge, full of pennies which I've been saving to buy a ticket to New York... The idea is to get to New York using only money that, if you dropped it on the floor, or you just saw it lying there, you wouldn't even pick it up... I think that'd be kinda cool, to be stood in New York knowing that you basically got there for free...” Having been to New York myself I know that getting there for free would definitely be kinda cool!
The band are not ashamed to wear their influences on their sleeve and when asked about them Joe replies, matter-of-factly, that “you can probably hear them”. It’s a list that further shows their debt to American country music... “I suppose the big ones on me” he continues, “are: Ryan Adams, Neil Young, The Band, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Teenage Fanclub… We’re all different though. The ones I mentioned are probably universal to all of us.” Indeed, The New York Fund have found themselves equally adept at slow tempo, Ryan Adams like songs as well as showing an ability to carry off the sheer exuberance of a band like Teenage Fanclub. As with many bands who display a wide range of influences it seems impossible to pinpoint any one person or event that could definitively be said to be the main flashpoint behind the music. “I don't think I could [pinpoint it]” says Joe “But I can definitely remember the first time I got 'into' music, which probably led to me learning to play guitar, then writing songs and so on and so forth... I was 12 years old and this guy called JF, who's kinda my uncle through marriage, gave me Led Zeppelin 4, a Jimmy Hendrix best of, and Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd. I doubt that all the rest would have followed if this hadn't happened... I mean, all the kids I was at school with were into shitty dance and 'euro'-techno-bollocks. It was definitely a turning point.”
So, having avoided the descent in to the world of ‘shitty dance’, Joe moved down to London where he met Adrian, the band’s virtuoso guitarist, drummer Reuben and bassist Jim and their first incarnation, Cherryfalls, was born. After a brief stint with Island Records they were dropped from the label, Reuben left and The New York Fund was born. Although integral to their development, the band are keen to leave their Cherryfalls days behind them. Their reluctance to talk about this time in their career is understandable after working so hard for four years to cement their reputation as The New York fund and now, with the imminent release of their debut album, 2010 could finally be their year. Having spent so long battling with potential labels over artistic integrity it’s understandable that the feeling of finally recording their debut album is “Amazing.”
“It's been a long process”, Joe continues, “but that's entirely down to the fact that we've done it all ourselves. No big budgets. No big producers. No big studios (well except for KONK, which we got on the cheap when it was empty...). Everything you hear is us... Played, recorded, produced, mixed, the whole lot.” (The band also recorded, produced and mixed their debut EP in 2007). “That's why it took a long time, but that's also why it sounds like us. There weren't any external pressures, no boxes to tick. We just made the songs we wanted, the way we wanted to make them.” So, with this creative control, what can we expect from the album? “I dunno... It sounds like us. Like all our favourite bands, but still, just ‘like us' really.”
The New York Fund’s album, ‘Wine, Women and Song’ is due to be released in spring 2010. I can vouch that their latest material is even better than on ‘The Guns EP’ with a mature and more ambitious sound. It’s also well worth catching them live as the energy they put in to their shows is fantastic!
You can find out more about the band at their myspace.
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