MY FEDERATION INTERVIEW
Here are three things that are true about My Federation.
1. For once in the world of new bands, their MySpace tag encapsulates and describes them perfectly: “psychedelic electro rock with balls and bells”.
2. They’re from Brighton.
3. They’re not completely restrained by the shackles of honesty.
To explain the latter, the rest of this biography will contain truths, half truths, and some downright porkies, because getting a straight answer from the exuberant fivesome is harder than having a Saturday night out in Brighton without bumping into a hen party.
By way of investigation we asked how My Federation met. “It started in Saudi many moons ago,” begins lynchpin Fed and founding member Lee Muddy Baker, an eyeliner clad, hirsute and be-suited giant who claims to have kissed most men and women he meets, even if you don’t remember it. “Greg (that’s Gregory “never gets remembered” Saunders AKA Broccoli Spears, who plays synths) was begging in the street. I came along and saved him from the horror. The year is 1932. Sorry – ’42, during the war. I brought him back to this country and raised him as my own, in the New Forest with the help of squirrels and elves.”
“Shall we say what really happened?” he asks finally. Please do: “I was brought up in Watford and used to steal cars for a living.”
When not dreaming up fantasy scenarios or hotwiring 2CVs (unsuccessfully), Lee spent his time working on dance and remix projects and producing an album for the band James, before he met Greg (“who was in a really bad place – Worthing”) and invited him to work on his own material. Keyboardist Robin Waterson had toured with Lee and Tim Booth from James, and quickly signed up to the federation.
The final additions were Dylan “I got a blow job when we supported INXS” Amey on drums and bassist Neil ‘Juggernaut’ Mackenzie, both of whom Lee had seen play in previous incarnations. “I went down to rehearsal and thought ‘this is a bag of bollocks’,” Neil remembers, “but things got better and better”.
Once assembled, Lee was quick to impose an eccentric regime. Band meetings took place over a lamb shish at the Orient Express in Streatham, and rehearsals at his Brighton studio begun only once each band member had kissed the image of Terry Wogan from the cover of his ‘Greatest Hits 2’ album.
Bizarre working practises indeed, but they paid off. From the West Coast harmonies of ‘Open My Eyes’ to the habit-forming pop brilliance of ‘Honey Bee’, My Federation have mastered the art of the modern pop song. Take forthcoming single ‘Don’t Wanna Die’, which combines scuzzy synths and futuristic excursions up and down the keyboard under a chorus with its sights set on your cerebral cortex.
My Federations website sets the tone for the energy and quirkiness that surrounds the band. Touring with James at the moment jump on board and join the FEDERATION now.
See also
My Federation Competition
FEATURED ARTIST
Sarabeth Tucek
Sarabeth Tucek is the very definition of understated. She’s physically small and her voice is quiet, but it still has the power to cut right through you – as anyone who heard her debut single ‘Something For You’ will testify. Released last February on the tiny indie label Sonic Cathedral it became a word-of-mouth success, being crowned record of the week on Steve Lamacq’s BBC 6Music radio show and raved about everywhere from Playlouder, where it was made single of the week, to NME, who summed up their Radar profile of Sarabeth by saying, “If you don’t think ‘Something For You’ is the most beautiful record released this year, then you might as well fuck off and die