Interview with The Avenues: ‘We’re trying to find the space that’s not utilised enough between indie pop and punk’

Hull indie rock band The Avenues are gearing up to release their next two singles, ‘Every Morning’ and ‘Admit Nothing’ around July this year.

The band comprises Tom Foston (vocals), Ollie Brown (backing vocals and lead guitar), Joe Galloway (bass) and Kurt Jackson (drums). Foston and Jackson have known each other since primary school: ‘There’s a photo of us at Kurt’s birthday party when we were six,’ Foston said. ‘Yeah,’ Jackson deadpanned, ‘we had the standard spiky hair!’. (Foston shows me the photo and they look both sweet yet cheeky in it.) Their name is a reference to the area they live in in Hull: ‘Me and Joe live there now,’ Foston said. ‘We were at The Adelphi one night with our mate Lucy and trying to think of a name and she said “Why not call yourselves The Avenues?” And we didn’t hate it!’ It turns out that they used to be called Strangers: ‘I hated it,’ Foston admitted. Galloway jumps in: ‘We didn’t all know each other well then, it made more sense than The Avenues!’ Jackson joined the band last September, replacing Adam Pidd, who was playing in three bands at the time and decided to step back. ‘Me and Tom go way back,’ Jackson said. ‘We used to jam Green Day at school.’

Foston describes their upcoming singles as ‘close to ‘Part Of The Problem’, a bit punky’: ‘We’re trying to find the space that’s not utilised enough between indie pop and punk,’ he said. ‘The reason they’re both singles is that they’re both relationship songs. ‘Every Morning’ is about a couple who aren’t in the best place in their relationship but they’re not talking about it. It’s in a minor key, it’s very energetic.’ ‘Admit Nothing’ is his favourite of the two: ‘It’s about when someone tells you something when they’re drunk on a night out, do you believe what they say?’

‘It’s a place in Hull where real grunge bands go to take moody pics’

In September, they released their brilliant second EP, ‘The View Is Amazing’, which features an interesting dilapidated warehouse on the cover and I ask where the photo was taken: ‘It’s a place in Hull where real grunge bands go to take moody pics, right next to the Humber,’ Galloway laughed. Foston nods: ‘We had the title of the EP for ages, that line comes from ‘Part Of The Problem’ – “the world’s burning down but the view is amazing”. We were in the photo but we cropped ourselves out, it fitted better with the album title with the sky as the focus.’

Foston describes the six tracks on ‘The View Is Amazing’ as being about different problems, with the inherent sunniness of the melodies in sharp contrast to the sometimes melancholic lyrics. ‘The last EP was personal but this one is about problems that everyone faces,’ Foston said. ‘We always knew that ‘Something Stronger’ would be the opener ‘cos it sets the scene and touches on a lot of the topics the rest of the songs delve deeper into,’ he said. ‘I was trying to write punky/post-punk lyrics. I was glued to my phone at the time, glued to all the depressing news. You know when you just don’t want to read about it anymore? That’s where the chorus comes from “I used to hate the kind of songs that had nothing to say, now I pray we could have nothing to talk about”. I got into politics when I was 16 but after a couple of years, I was fucking sick of it.’

I tell them that my favourite track on the EP is ‘Moving Car’ and that I love the lyrics, which are both sweet, melancholic and funny in places: ‘It’s one of the ones that I’m most proud of, lyrically,’ Foston said. ‘The Smiths have figured it out – if you’re going to write depressing lyrics (laughs), you need a bit of levity. This one was pieced together from other bits. I write lyrics and chord progressions and take it to this lot. I write on my bed with the acoustic. The songs I end up liking are the ones that come out in one go. They’re the catchiest ones, they’re not forced. I was speaking to you, Joe, about it and saying that ‘Moving Car’ fits the theme of the world ending. It’s like the end of The Graduate film – he runs away with the bride but then you see that they’re in love with the moment rather than each other.’

That comes across in the lyrics: ‘Well if we had one more night left alive, would you wanna spend it by my side? ‘Cos I’ve got this sinking feeling I wouldn’t spend it with anyone.’

‘Sometimes, I might stay on the same theme for a couple of years’

‘Part Of The Problem’ was inspired by Biffy Clyro: ”We wanted to add in to ‘Part Of The Problem’ the bridge lead guitar at around 2:50-3:05 in Biffy’s ‘Black Chandelier’. We put something similar in after the first chorus in ‘Part Of The Problem’. I love listening to Biffy,’ Brown said. Jackson is laughing: ‘I’m not ripping off Biffy but ‘Admit Nothing’ is similar to one of their new ones.’ Foston agrees: ‘The ending to ‘Admit Nothing’ is similar, it’s syncopated (whereby the strong beats are weak and vice versa) but nowhere near as interesting as what they do!’

On ‘The View Is Amazing’, the track ‘Addicts’, was left over from their first EP and is one of the most moving and raw songs on the album: ‘It was about someone I knew who was addicted to taking anti-depressants and kept taking more than was allowed,’ Foston said. ‘You know when someone keeps on taking more and more even though they shouldn’t? It was that. It’s cathartic. Not the writing. What feels cathartic is when we start to play it live. Then I think, “I’ve done it, I can move on from it now”. Sometimes, I might stay on the same theme for a couple of years (laughs), so I’ll write 10 songs about it and show them (the band) two. I’m the only one who sees the other ones! I won’t show them a song until I’ve got a version of the story I think is worth telling. With this one, I wrote about addiction for three years, I had about 20 songs about it, it was a constant thing in the back of my head.’

As it kicks off: ‘Is it the nose or the lungs tonight? I guess I’ll taste it on you in time. Me and you are too young to die but I guess we’re giving it a try.’

It turns out that ‘Addicts’ is Brown’s favourite song to play live: ‘It’s our track that’s been played the most as well, it was on BBC Introducing,’ he said. Foston looks at him: ‘You’ve got two different guitar solos in it!,’ he said. Jackson’s favourite to play is ‘Part Of The Problem’: ‘I’m into my punk,’ he grinned. ‘We speed it up live!’ Foston interjects: ‘On that one, I start it on the guitar but I’m nervous on stage, I play it too fast.’ Galloway is looking at him: ‘You do! We can feel the guitar getting faster and faster,’ he tells me. ‘By the end of it, my fingers hurt!’

‘It crushes me, my biggest fear is of getting older’

I say that a lot of the songs on ‘The View Is Amazing’ reference getting older and their apparent fear of that, which surprises me, given that they are all in their 20’s and they laugh: ‘It crushes me, my biggest fear is of getting older,’ Foston said. ‘I’ve been moaning about my age since I was 16! I’m petrified about where I’m going!’

They all praise Hull’s tight-knit music scene: ‘Everyone knows each other, they’re very supportive,’ Galloway said. Foston agrees: ‘Dan (Dan Mawer, the promoter) at The Sesh and Mark Page (the founder and director of events at The Sesh) are up to giving advice.’ Jackson nods: ‘Bigger bands like LIFE (a local post-punk band) will also help younger bands.’ However, finding a wider audience can be tricky, according to Foston: ‘It’s hard to get out of the local scene,’ he said. ‘People elsewhere don’t want to pay attention to it but there are some great bands here.’

Another uniting thread throughout their songs is their massive, singalong choruses that get stuck in your head and I ask if this is deliberate: ‘When I’m writing songs, I don’t know if it’s intentional or not, but I think the chorus should be the most simple way to describe what the song’s about. The rest of the lyrics should be more complicated and interesting,’ Foston said.

This is particularly true of songs like ‘Beautiful Shoes’, which takes a gentle dig at the state of UK politics and is an indictment of everything that is wrong with society but which has a huge, anthemic, singalong chorus: ‘It’s based on rich people’s beautiful shoes,’ Foston said. ‘You know, those people who are rich enough to tell the news what to say. I’m envisaging brogues.’ They ask me what shoes I envisage and I say really beautiful, red, high heeled velvet shoes and it turns out they all have different shoes in their head. ‘I’m thinking about these, they’re beautiful, aren’t they?,’ Galloway quipped, showing us all his trainers and everyone laughs.

As the chorus goes: ‘Because trouble always walks in beautiful shoes, it doesn’t matter how many people they bruise as long as they can change the focus of the news, trouble will always walk in beautiful shoes.’

‘Meatloaf is what got me into rock ‘n’ roll’

Between them, they have very diverse musical influences, although they’re all fans of Arctic Monkeys: ‘It’s one of our best qualities,’ Foston enthused. ‘But it also leads to the most arguments when we’re trying to pull a song in three different directions!’ Jackson agrees: ‘I like prog metal, the weird stuff (laughs) and bands like Bad Religion (a Californian punk rock band) and 80’s hardcore punk. I really like Turnstile (a hardcore punk band from Baltimore), they don’t have generic rhythms.’ Brown, for his part, brings different influences to the band: ‘Kings of Leon, for my type of lead,’ he said. ‘Meatloaf is what got me into rock ‘n’ roll. And Biffy, for the progressions and massive sound.’ Galloway cites Blondie and The Clash.

That diversity feeds into their dream line-up: ‘I’ll go with The Smiths, they definitely won’t get back together,’ Foston laughed. ‘I’ve got to say Biffy,’ said Brown, enthusiastically. ‘I’ll say The Clash, who also won’t get back together!,’ Galloway said. ‘Death’, said Jackson and we all laugh. ‘What, the concept of it?!,’ Brown asks him. Jackson laughs: ‘What does it say about me that you all think I’m talking about actual death?! They were an American death metal band, the singer passed in 2001, they’re a fairly niche genre.’ Foston is laughing: ‘That is sooooo our band!’

Foston would love to hear ‘Moving Car’ on a TV show: ‘I’d quite like to see a TV series about the kind of story of ‘Moving Car’, where everyone finds out the world’s going to end so this new couple decide to spend their last days travelling together before realising they don’t like each other as much as they thought.’ he said. ”Moving Car’ could be the theme tune!’

(Photo from left to right: Joe, Tom, Ollie and Kurt)