White Lies: Everything’s Got To Be Love Or Death

White Lies may be one of the most hyped British bands in recent memory, and their highly anticipated debut, To Lose My Life, has reached #1 on the U.K. charts. The band is just now making their way to the U.S. for a full proper tour, featuring a collection of emotionally-charged songs that are best served live. Other bands have taken notice, and the White Lies have become a target of countless remixes. Most recently, Crystal Castles put their electro-spazz touch on the album’s opening track, “Death.” We recently caught one of their shows in Philly and became instantly enamored with front man Harry McVeigh. Filter Magazine was able to hook us up with an opportunity to speak to Harry (just hours before his Seattle gig) about his band’s penetration into the American market, the passion in his performances, and some of his favorite bands at the moment.

Fishpork: We were at your Philly show and were really blown away. How do you think the fans over here are responding to White Lies?

Harry McVeigh: It’s been very good, actually. It’s actually been a lot better than we expected it to be. A lot of these shows have started to sell out now, especially towards the end of the tour as interest starts to build. We’ve been playing some good shows, and people have been responding to it really well. Much better than expected I think, and we’ve been really pleased with it.

Fishpork: How is your voice feeling since that show?

HM: It’s much better now. Thanks very much for asking. Yeah, I was out for about five, six days, but I had to do all the shows, and I got through it. It was a struggle. It was definitely a struggle.

Fishpork: Do you find the U.S tour to be more of a challenge since most of your success has been in the U.K.?

HM: No, we had the same challenge in the U.K. about six months ago when we first started touring with the band properly. You know, it’s the same in any country. When you’re starting out, it’s gonna be a little bit harder, because no one’s heard your music, and no one’s had the chance to come see you play live yet. And that’s how interest is generated, and that’s how bands start out. It is a challenge, and it’s really good fun for us, and I’m really enjoying being on this tour. It takes us back to the time when we started. And I know it’s only six months ago. That’s the time we started in the U.K., our own headline tour or whatever. It’s really good fun to play these size venues, to play to people who haven’t really heard your music before and to try to win them over. It’s great fun. I’ve really enjoyed. I suppose the only challenging thing about touring in the U.S. is the distance between each show. And that’s obviously the big difference between the U.S. and England. Every night, we’re probably driving for eight/nine hours to get to places. And, in fact, I decided to fly, because I have my girlfriend out here in Seattle. I drove from Minneapolis to Seattle, which is a very, very long drive. Yeah, it’s cool. It’s really fun.

And it never gets boring playing live, ever. We love it, and we learn new things about the songs and, in fact, learn new songs every few months. And it’s great. The live show’s constantly stepping up in quality, and the performance is becoming better and better, I think.

Fishpork: Some of the songs on your album have been out for a while. Do you get tired of playing the same songs every night? How do you keep your live shows fresh?

HM: No, you’d have to be playing the songs for a long, long time for them to get boring. There’s always the excitement and the nerves when you’re playing live, that it might just go wrong at any moment. And you have to always be concentrating really hard and be really focused when you’re on stage to deliver the best performance. And it never gets boring playing live, ever. We love it, and we learn new things about the songs and, in fact, learn new songs every few months. And it’s great. The live show’s constantly stepping up in quality, and the performance is becoming better and better, I think. If anyone’s seen us this time around on the tour . . . the next time we tour the U.S., hopefully, it’ll be even better. So, it never gets boring. It’s always fun to expand on songs and to get the most out of them in every show.

Fishpork: You seem to put so much energy and emotion into your performances. How are you able to keep your sanity from night to night?

HM: You know, it’s exactly that. During the performance we’re obviously very focused, and we want to deliver the power and emotion of the song. And it’s actually hard not to deliver that power and emotion. They’re very emotionally charged songs and lyrics. It sounds like a cheesy thing to say, but it’s quite therapeutic to sing about things like that and to get that emotion off your chest. For the rest of the time, we’re pretty grounded, normal people. We enjoy the same things that everyone else does. And we enjoy them in the same way. For the show, we’re definitely very focused, but we try to leave that emotion in the show and during the show. Otherwise, we would go insane.

Fishpork: What’s been your favorite stop on the U.S. tour?

HM: I’ve enjoyed a lot of places to be honest. I’ve just spent a couple of days here in Seattle, and I really loved the city, first time here. Everywhere is different. New York and Chicago, the big cities, are great to visit. They’re really amazing places to see. And we always have a good time in the big cities. But there’s some wonderful small places we’ve visited as well. Ann Arbor, the show we did just before Chicago, which is obviously a very small university town. It was great fun, and it was a good show and a really beautiful city as well.

You don’t get a sound check or anything. You usually just set up the equipment and walk on stage. And, personally, I love that. It’s great that it’s so spontaneous. And it actually kind of separates the really good performers and musicians from the no so good performers. And, hopefully, we fall into the first bracket.

Fishpork: We’ve noticed a lot of festival stops on your tour. How do you compare the festival experience to more intimate shows?

HM: Of course, we’re playing Coachella in a couple weeks. Amazing, we’re really looking forward to that. The festival experience is totally different, not only for the people playing but also for the people watching it. A festival performance is a very immediate thing. You don’t get a sound check or anything. You usually just set up the equipment and walk on stage. And, personally, I love that. It’s great that it’s so spontaneous. And it actually kind of separates the really good performers and musicians from the no so good performers. And, hopefully, we fall into the first bracket. And we work very hard, as I mentioned before, on our live show. It’s going to be interesting. And we might have a few shows that are not quite so good, and we might have a few amazing shows at festivals. And that’s the genius of it. You never quite know what’s going to happen, and I love that. At the smaller clubs shows you get a long sound check, and you get to make sure everything’s working. And that’s still really good fun and really great. And, also, you get to use your light show and whatever. It’s not quite as immediate and spontaneous as the festival shows.

Fishpork: What is the songwriting process like for you guys?

HM: It’s almost entirely a democracy in the band. Usually it’ll start with . . . maybe Charles will maybe write some lyrics. And me and Charles will probably sit in my house with the keyboard in my living room, and we’ll start to work out the basics of a song, like the the basic chord structures and melody lines. And then we’ll go into the rehearsal studio, and we’ll work with Jack. It’s only usually a couple of days where we’re working on the very basics of a song, me and Charles. For the rest of the time, me, Jack and Charles will be in the rehearsal studio working long hours to get the song into shape, and it’s the same right way until we finish recording it, and then we have to relearn how to play it live. It’s very much a democracy between the whole band.

Fishpork: Who are some of your American music influences?

HM: Most of our musical influence comes from America actually. It’s very strange. We don’t listen to a huge amount of British music. And I don’t know what the reason for that is. We love the Secret Machines’ first record, I think is our favorite record as a band. That would be in all of our top three records of all-time. We love a band called School of Seven Bells, which is obviously the Secret Machines’ guitarist. They’re amazing. They’re actually coming out to play with us in the U.K. actually in May. And also a band from New York called Violence, a very new band that we’ve fallen in love with. They’re amazing. It’s strange, especially in modern music. We certainly listen to a lot more American bands than U.K. bands.

Fishpork: The visual component to White Lies is quite cinematic. Where does that interest in the visual come from? How do you guys come up with the music video concepts?

HM: The main visionary behind those videos is actually the director, Andreas Nilsson. And the reason we started working with him was because he did the treatment for our first music video, which was “Death.” And it was amazing. It fit so well with the band’s ethos, and what the band is about and, also, what the song is about. And so we chose his treatment and made a video with him. It was so good that we decided to make two more videos with him. He’s just a fantastic director and great visionary. We have a lot of trust in him to make really amazing videos. So that’s why we did a trilogy of videos with him. I’m not sure if you guys have seen the most recent one. It’s on our MySpace. It’s for the single that’s coming out in the U.K., “Farewell to the Fairground.” We shot it in Russia, which was amazing.

I absolutely love that remix. I love the way they’ve taken it completely out of context and changed the song but still made it their own a bit in a very unique and original way. I love their remix. I think it’s amazing.

Fishpork: Crystal Castles is one of our favorite bands. How did you like their remix of Death?

HM: I love it. I love Crystal Castles as well. I think they’re album is incredible. And I’m so, so excited about their second record. We were sort of introduced to Crystal Castles when we were touring with them in 2008 on a tour called NME New Noise Tour in the U.K. And they obviously heard us playing Death on pretty much every night of the tour, and they fell in love with the song. And so they decided to do a remix of it. I absolutely love that remix. I love the way they’ve taken it completely out of context and changed the song but still made it their own a bit in a very unique and original way. I love their remix. I think it’s amazing. Since then, they’ve actually started working with the same management as us, and we get along with them very well as people. They’re really lovely people. We often see them on the festival circuit, and often around London, and also we were in Toronto recently, we saw them out there. We get along with Crystal Castles very well. They’re great people.

Fishpork: What other bands are you guys listening to right now?

HM: Let me think. There’s a band called M83 who just did a remix of one of our songs called “Nothing To Give.” Also, I’ve just bought their album, and I’ve fallen in love with it.  I think it’s fantastic. Really great record.

Fishpork: What’s coming up in 2009 for White Lies?

HM: Pretty much touring. We’re touring around the whole world and around the U.K.  and Europe a lot. And we’re playing festivals all over the world for the rest of the summer. And it’s going to be great. We’re really, really excited about it. And we hope to see as many people as possible at all the festivals around the world. It’s going to be great.

White Lies has also been hard at work with music video extraordinaire, Andreas Nilsson, who is best known for his work with the Swedish electronic duo, The Knife. So far, Nilsson has worked with White Lies on a trilogy of music videos that capture the visual aesthetic of To Lose Your Life. Embedded below are his videos for “Death,” To Lose My Life,” and “Farewell To The Fairground.”

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