Disco rockers High Fade on Tyneside pilgrimage
Scottish three-piece High Fade return to the North East on Sunday as part of Pilgrim’s opening weekend celebrations. Simon Rushworth caught up with frontman Harry Valentino.
How does a band from Edinburgh end up playing disco-fuelled funk rock? It’s a question High Fade’s deep-thinking founder and frontman, Harry Valentino, happily ponders.
“You know what, I actually ask myself the same thing sometimes,” he says, attempting to recall the genesis of a band that’s just sold out its latest UK headline tour and is poised to crisscross the US for the third time from February.
“I think — and don’t hold me to this — it simply came from the fact that I loved playing funk music more than anything else. I've always been into heavy metal but I’m also a big George Benson fan. Oliver [Sentance, bass] is into reggae, ska and jazz fusion. We’re all into very different kinds of music but we all love funk.
“Funk is the one thing that binds us all together.”
Funk might be High Fade’s glue but it made for a sticky start to life on Edinburgh’s famously unforgiving live scene. Harry burnt through band members and potential fans in the early days — a lack of focus as much as a feel for High Fade’s hybrid rock stalled any initial progress. “Our success — if we can call it that — was hard won,” he adds.
For a while it seemed as if Scotland simply wasn’t ready for the natural successors to Dundee’s soul and disco trailblazers Average White Band. “I just got sick of the original music scene back home,” adds Harry.
“It all felt very safe and very cool and very much what was popular at the time. Indie and rock have always been huge in Scotland and so has all of the singer songwriter stuff. Don’t get me wrong — I’m a big John Martyn fan. But there didn’t seem to be much room for funk rock. High Fade set out to change that but there was no instant recognition.”
Ultimately it took hours spent busking on the Royal Mile and Princes Street, regular trips south of the border and even that first trek Stateside before the people of Scotland began to take High Fade to their hearts. Settling on a streamlined, less bloated line-up also helped to focus minds and fuel fresh creativity.
“Eventually it started to catch on but for a long time what we did wasn't popular in Edinburgh at all,” admits Harry. “I think it's the same for a lot of bands. Wherever you're from, whatever you're doing isn't really widely accepted until you start doing it in loads of other places. Only at that point do you start to get some respect back home. People suddenly think ‘Oh, Ok, they must be doing something right’.
“Becoming a three-piece has also helped. I think that, if anything, it actually makes us have to think more about what we're doing and almost makes everything that we're doing count. There's not really anywhere to hide. At the end of the day it’s just guitar, bass and drums. When I started out, High Fade was a bigger line-up but with five or six of us there was just too much going on.
“There was never really any moment to let a certain band member focus on one aspect or one element of a song. Being a three-piece helps us to simplify the process and, at the same time, elaborate more on what we're actually doing. It’s also hard to find at least five other people who are as committed to the band as you are.” Less, as they say, is more.
It’s hardly a surprise that Harry and his band mates sold out Sunday’s headline show at Pilgrim. Formerly Hoochie Coochie, Newcastle’s home for music of black origin is the perfect platform for funksters blooded on Benson, Fishbone and Red Hot Chili Peppers. Following a stunning set at The Glasshouse last year, High Fade wraps up a weekend-long relaunch party celebrating a full refit and a significant rebrand.
“People from outside the North East of England love Newcastle to bits and bands love to play in Newcastle,” adds Harry. “We’re no different. So for Michael Lavery and his team to give a venue like Hoochie Coochie a new lease of life — and invite us to the party — is amazing. When you look at how many venues have been lost over the last year it’s time we celebrated the places that still give emerging bands a chance to shine.
“It’s easy to forget about these places and the amount of work that goes into actually running a venue — especially a good one. It’s very easy to run a bad music venue but to try and run a good one is incredibly difficult. Michael does that and that’s why we’ll be pointing all of our friends in the direction of Pilgrim!
“Michael met us at our first gig in Newcastle and liked what he saw. He wanted to work with us and got us on the bill at The Glasshouse last September. The music industry can be corrupt but it can also be the most beautiful thing on the planet when you meet people randomly who share your passion and become good friends.”
High Fade count Cypress Hill, Jack Black and Deep Purple’s Glenn Hughes amongst their growing army of celebrity fans and debut album Life’s Too Fast is already closing in on a vinyl repress. The hard work’s paying off for Harry and his band mates and next month’s return to the US can’t come soon enough for the DIY rockers.
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“It’s our third time over there and I always say you need to visit a place at least three times before you start to really make an impact,” adds High Fade’s frontman. “The first time we played the States we hired an RV and did the whole tour that way.
“We lived in the RV, slept in the RV, cooked in the RV, practiced in the RV and went everywhere in the RV. And honestly, it was very intense. But it felt like the breakthrough we’d been waiting for. The whole thing was very expensive but we didn’t go there to make money. We were there to put our flag in the ground and we were proud of the graft that we’d put in to get that far.
“It’s the same coming back to Newcastle and selling out a show. It’s taken hard work. Selling tickets is hard, selling them in January is even harder and selling them for a funk rock band from Scotland is really just putting the nail in the coffin!” Or so High Fade would have you believe. It turns out Harry’s game has always been the long game — and these days he’s winning.
Tickets for Sunday’s High Fade show at Pilgrim are sold out. To join the waiting list email guestlist@quiridian.com