9. Fleet FoxesFleet Foxes
I was working with a guy called Vince at Absolute Radio. I say working, I was just doing a voiceover gig, and this is before you could do them from home. I would have to go into Golden Square to record the week’s voiceover – ‘Get your Paul Weller tickets now!’ and all that shit. Vince was one of the young producers there and he became a really good mate. Whenever anything interesting had been sent to the station, he was the first one to say, ‘Listen to this. We can’t put it out ‘til Monday, but I think you’re going to love it.’ Fleet Foxes were one of those bands. I can’t remember which track it was, but the album hadn’t come out yet. When I heard it I had such a geeky reaction to the production of it, the fact they hadn’t stuffed the sound spectrum with drums, which was a risky thing to do if you wanted to be on the radio, and I loved the songwriting. I saw them at Shepherd’s Bush Empire not long after it came out, and I don’t think [Robin Pecknold] even turned around for the first two songs. I have never seen such a nervous man. It makes sense, because they went from seeing how their album would do to it being played everywhere before they could get their heads around it.
