Futureheads Keep Rolling

"We're not a crazy sort of band," states Jaff, the no-last-name bassist for the Futureheads. "When we're on tour, we get up and try and go sightseeing around town. We're into taking in the culture."

Having already visited San Francisco's Alcatraz and Chicago's Sears Tower while on tour with Franz Ferdinand, the British rockers will get a chance to expand their sightseeing repertoire when their fifth U.S. tour kicks off June 1st in Atlanta. The new jaunt -- in support of their self-titled October debut -- will see band members Jaff, spectacled guitarist Ross Millard, frontman Barry Hyde and his nineteen-year-old drumming brother Dave performing to ever-expanding crowds, quite a change from twelve months ago.

"This time last year I was sitting at home worrying that the album was never going to get released," Jaff says. "We'd finished it in January and by May it wasn't out. I remember thinking, 'Are we even in the band? We're not touring, we're not recording, we're not released. Everyone's forgotten about us.' These days, I think I've been home for one week since September. It's all go."

The band has taken off in the U.K. too, thanks to its high-energy, four-part harmonized take on Kate Bush's "Hounds of Love," and the accompanying video, complete with gaggles of dogs. "Me and Barry went out in Sunderland and we couldn't really move," Jaff recounts of a recent hometown mobbing. "We went to an indie disco, and they all knew who we were. It's nice when people say hello and congratulations, but it's strange."

The Futureheads are spending April touring Canada with Hot Hot Heat, who have taken to covering the British rockers' latest U.S. single, "Decent Days and Nights." They'll then play Coachella on May 1st and squeeze in a U.K. tour before returing to the States.

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Song Stories

“I'm Yours”

Jason Mraz | 2008

Jason Mraz re-emerged after his disappointing second album with this lead single, a Jack Johnson-esque ditty about giving yourself fully to someone else. The success of the reggae-tinged song (it earned two Grammy nods and a spot on the Billboard singles chart for well over a year) was something the folk-pop singer never predicted when he wrote it in 15 minutes at home. "I played a happy-hippie chord progression that would probably work without 50 different Bob Marley songs," he told Rolling Stone. "I thought, 'It's too novelty. This is a nursery rhyme,'" concluding that "you can never guess what's gonna be a hit."

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