Futureheads Get 'Cosmic' on New Album

When Spinner caught up with bespectacled Futureheads member Ross Millard two years ago, he had taken a defiant stance against Facebook. On tour at the time in the UK, Millard found himself baffled to the point of annoyance by his bandmates indulging in status updates and joining frivolous groups like what he imagined could include the "I Want to Bring Back Doogie Houser Club." So it of course came as a wee bit of a shocker when Spinner found out Millard himself had recently been indulging on Twitter.

"I like the fact that you can sort of spark off a conversation or a little trail of messages through Twitter," he tells Spinner. "I think that it's a little more instantaneous really, and good for the band.

"The thing about that is, it's not designed for your past to catch up with you, is it?" he continues, extolling Twitter's virtues. "There's something about Facebook -- it's too much hassle for me, too interactive. At least with Twitter, I know it's an extension of the most egotistical elements of all the other social networking things, but I think, under the guise of the band, it's quite good to [have] a bit of a forum to spout off on sometimes."

Those who are already following the British post-punk four-piece's Twitter feed know the band has something new to spout off about: their upcoming fourth album, 'The Chaos.' The record will be released April 26 in their native UK and, having recently secured a licensing deal in America, will drop June 1 Stateside.

"It means we'll get to tour the States, maybe even twice on this record," Millard says of the US deal. "If you can find someone to trust, who you can put some faith in to kind of work on the album properly when you're not there, it can make a massive difference."

Produced in part by the band, Field Music's Dave Brewis and UK producer Youth, 'The Chaos' has a bit of a return-to-roots flavor for the band, who recorded it over the last year in their hometown of Sunderland, neighboring Newcastle and a little bit in London.

"There's a lot more of the sort of harmony elements that are coming through again," Millard explains of the new material. "We spent a lot more time deciding how we would have all four of the voices come through a lot more than we had on the last record [2008's 'This Is Not the World']. The thing about the first record [2004's 'The Futureheads'] that worked so well live was that people didn't really know where to look. Everyone was doing something different all of the time and there were so many elements to drag people in. I think we concentrated more on writing songs [in recent years], but we sort of lost a little bit of that sort of weirdness, if you like. I think we've got that back a lot more on this record."

That return to a focus on harmonies doesn't mean an entire retread of old ground; 'The Chaos' strikes its own -- almost celestial -- chord.

"I sort of dread to say it, but it's almost a little bit prog rock really, for The Futureheads," Millard says, laughing. "The songs are still short and fast, but it's got that sort of progressive development to it. It's a little bit cosmic, I suppose."