Take a listen to the first official "single" from Insecure Men, ‘Subaru Nights’, easily one of the best tracks we’ve heard all year at tQHQ.
This is their debut track out now on Fat Possum (if we don’t count the stripped back album of covers Karaoke For One Vol. One which went up on Soundcloud at the start of this year that is).
Speaking to tQ recently Saul Adamczewski of the band said: "We really wanted [our music] to be very British, or English I guess, and suburban but with a Hawaiian vibe. We wanted it to have a 1970s dinner party vibe, like that Mike Leigh [TV play] Abigail’s Party but soundtracked by Martin Denny. A subaru is a suburban boy racer car. I’m not sure if this translated at all in how the song turned out but in a way we were trying to get a Robert Wyatt-style vocal, with me really singing my heart out."
Insecure Men was formed by Saul, his school mate Ben Romans-Hopcraft and (fellow Fat White Family member) Nathan Saoudi in 2015. The group eventually coalesced round Saul (vocals/guitar) and Ben (bass/backing vocals). Original lapsteel player Sean Lennon (who produced the LP) has now been replaced by Marley Mackey (Dirty Harrys) who is the son of Steve Mackey of Pulp. Victor Jakeman (Claw Marks) plays the organ; Joe Isherwood (We Smoke Fags) plays keyboards and saxophonist Alex White is on loan from Fat White Family. Arguably, the lynch pin is a mysterious South London music teacher known only as Steely Dan, who plays vibraphone and steel drums. And Saul’s old pal, Jack Everett (Fat White Family, Warmduscher) anchors it all on drums.
Saul, a true head and crate digger, as proved by his recent #DayOfRadio slot on tQ, listed some of his influences for us, mentioning the exotica of Arthur Lyman, the early electronic pop of Perrey and Kingsley, the supreme smoothness of The Carpenters, the songwriting chops of Harry Nilsson and the hypnagogic uncanniness conjured up by David Lynch; describing what they do as “pretty music with a dark underbelly to it”.
He admitted that the band was a project for sobriety, something for him to throw his energy into after taking serious, and so far successful, steps to deal with long standing substance abuse issues. He told us: “After getting clean I wanted to make a more wholesome type of music.” But he is quick to add: “I guess if you compare Insecure Men to genuinely wholesome things, then we’re not that wholesome really! Perhaps this feeling is more to do with the music – the pure pop it is.”
Watch this site for A Quietus Interview with Saul due later this year. Insecure Men play Scala, London on November 8
