Fat White Family

Fat White Family
Fat White Family at Immergut Festival 2016
Background information
OriginPeckham, South London, England
Genres
Years active2011 (2011)–present
Labels
  • Domino
  • Trashmouth
  • Fat Possum
  • Hate Hate Hate
  • Without Consent
Members
  • Lias Kaci Saoudi
  • Adam J Harmer
  • Adam Brennan
  • Alex White
  • Guilherme Fells
  • Victor Jakeman
Past members
  • Ciaran Hartnett
  • Jack Everett
  • Joseph Pancucci-Simpson
  • Dan Lyons
  • Jak Payne
  • Taishi Nagasaka
  • Severin Black
  • Samuel Toms
  • Saul Adamczewski
  • Nathan Saoudi
Websitefatwhitefamilymusic.com

Fat White Family are an English rock band, formed in 2011 in Peckham, South London. Frontman Lias Saoudi has remained the project's sole constant member across multiple line-up changes. The band's current line-up also includes Adam J Harmer (guitar), Adam Brennan (guitar), Alex White (keyboards, saxophone, percussion), Victor Jakeman (bass, keyboards) and Guilherme Fells (drums). Former guitarist and vocalist Saul Adamczewski has been an on-again-off-again member of the band across its career.

Known for their energetic live performances and chaotic personal lives, the band has released four studio albums: Champagne Holocaust (2013), Songs for Our Mothers (2016), Serfs Up! (2019) and Forgiveness Is Yours (2024).

In 2022, Lias Saoudi and writer Adelle Stripe co-wrote the autobiographical book, Ten Thousand Apologies: Fat White Family and the Miracle of Failure, which chronicled the band's turbulent history.

History

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2011–2015: Formation, early career and Champagne Holocaust

[edit]

Brothers Lias and Nathan Saoudi grew up in Southampton,[1] Ireland and Scotland[2] before forming The Saudis with Alex Sebley in the 2000s, including a tour to their father's home country of Algeria.[3]

They later formed Fat White Family in 2011 with lead guitarist Saul Adamczewski - he was previously frontman of indie pop band the Metros, which also featured Fat White Family's bass player, Joe Pancucci.[4] Adam Harmer (guitarist) had been a solo artist before joining the original six-piece lineup which also featured Dan Lyons on drums. The band would rehearse at the Queen's Head, Stockwell.[5]

They released their debut album, Champagne Holocaust, in 2013, on UK label Trashmouth Records. It was released in 2014 in the U.S. on Fat Possum Records. The band released Fat Whites/Taman Shud, a split EP with Taman Shud, on 11 December 2013 on Trashmouth.[6]

On 10 March 2014, Fat White Family issued their first single, "Touch the Leather", on Hate Hate Hate Records.[7]

In early 2014, the band launched a PledgeMusic campaign to fund their show at the South by Southwest festival, with a subsequent US tour.[8] Pledgers were given the self-released EP Crippled B-Sides and Inconsequential Rarities. Next was the single "I Am Mark E Smith" (referencing singer Mark E. Smith of the Fall), released on 15 December 2014.[9]

2016–2020: Songs for Our Mothers and Serf's Up!

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Their second album, Songs for Our Mothers, was released in 2016 by the Without Consent label.[10][11] Lias Saoudi described the album as an attempt to "really to get at the shittiness lurking in the core of my own soul, and in everybody else's".[12] It was promoted with a single for "Whitest Boy on the Beach",[13] which was later chosen for the closing credits of the 2017 film T2 Trainspotting.

Fat White Family's next single, "Breaking Into Aldi", was released on 16 August 2016.[14] The single was recorded with Sean Lennon, as well as Cole Alexander from The Black Lips.[15]

On 9 January 2019, Fat White Family announced that their third album, Serfs Up!,[16] would be released on 19 April 2019 on Domino Records. This was followed by the singles "Feet" and "Tastes Good with the Money", the latter featuring spoken lyrics by Baxter Dury, and a video directed by Róisín Murphy.[17] The album was described as "triumphant" and "transcendent" by Adelle Stripe in The Quietus,[18] and The Irish Times said it "feels like a pop album you might slap on as the world is about to end or you’ve just learned Brexit has been pushed back to 2020".[19]

2021–present: Ten Thousand Apologies and Forgiveness Is Yours

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In 2022, a biography of the band – Ten Thousand Apologies: Fat White Family and the Miracle of Failure – was released, co-written by Lias Saoudi and Adelle Stripe.[20] Writing in The Observer, Miranda Sawyer described it as "the story of a band that's always on the brink: of stardom, of madness, of brilliance, of disgrace".[21] It was shortlisted for the 2023 Penderyn Music Book Prize.[22]

On 26 April 2024, the band released their fourth studio album Forgiveness Is Yours.[23] During the recording of the album, founding member and on-again-off-again guitarist Saul Adamczewski "permanently and acrimoniously" left the band, "leaving the record unanchored and at risk of never being finished."[24] Describing the album upon its eventual release, Lias Soudi stated: "Forgiveness Is Yours is about life as eternal contingency. About no longer suspecting, but knowing that this shit will never get any easier… in fact, it’s about to get a whole lot worse, your body’s going to go into decay and the people you love will slowly start dropping dead around you. But somehow, you’ve smashed enough of your expectations thus far in life, you’re sort of fine with it. You accept it. The overarching aesthetic themes at work here are torpor and further torpor still."[24]

Other projects

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In 2014, the post-punk and disco group Warmduscher formed and both Saoudi brothers and Adamczewski are on-and-off collaborators in the studio and at live sets. Other Fat White Family members with a more consistent role in Warmduscher are Harmer, Everett and Romans-Hopcraft.

In 2015, Adamczewski and Lias Saoudi collaborated with Adrian Flanagan and Dean Honer of experimental band Eccentronic Research Council on their album Johnny Rocket, Narcissist & Music Machine... I'm Your Biggest Fan. After its release, the partnership took concepts from the album to form a new band called the Moonlandingz. The act ended up touring together, as well as working with Sean Lennon, Yoko Ono, Philip Oakey, Randy Jones and Slow Club frontwoman Rebecca Taylor, resulting in the 2017 release of their debut album, Interplanetary Class Classics.[25]

In January 2017, Adamczewski formed the band Insecure Men with Lennon (guitar), Ben Romans-Hopcraft (bass), Jack Everett (drums), Jon Catfish de Lorene (keyboards) and Alex White (saxophone).[26][27] Lennon co-produced their eponymous debut album, released in February 2018.[28]

Lias Saoudi is a member of Decius alongside Liam and Luke May (founders of Trashmouth Records) and Quinn Whalley (Paranoid London/Warmduscher). The group released their debut full-length album Decius Vol. I on The Leaf Label in November 2022.[29][30] [31][32]

Members

[edit]

Current members

  • Lias Kaci Saoudi – lead vocals (2011–present)
  • Adam J. Harmer – guitar
  • Adam Brennan – guitar, bass guitar
  • Alex White – saxophone, keyboards, percussion, backing vocals[33][34]
  • Guilherme Fells – drums[citation needed]
  • Victor Jakeman – bass guitar (2024–present)

Former members

  • Saul Adamczewski – guitar, vocals [35]
  • Nathan Saoudi – keyboards
  • Ciaran Hartnett – bass
  • Benjamin Romans Hopcraft – bass guitar, various instruments
  • Jack Everett – drums
  • Joseph Pancucci-Simpson – bass
  • Dan Lyons – drums
  • Jak Payne – bass
  • Taishi Nagasaka – bass
  • Severin Black – drums

Temporary members

  • Chris O.C – drums
  • Dale Barclay – guitar (d. 2018)
  • Martin Dean – drums
  • Mike Brandon – guitar
  • Mairead O'Connor – guitar, bass
  • Chris Taylor – guitar
  • Rob Doyle – bongos

Discography

[edit]

Studio albums

[edit]

EPs

[edit]
  • Fat Whites/Taman Shud (Trashmouth, 2013)
  • Crippled B-Sides and Inconsequential Rarities (self-released, 2014)

Singles

[edit]
  • "Touch the Leather" (Hate Hate Hate, 2014)
  • "I Am Mark E Smith" (Without Consent, 2014)
  • "Whitest Boy on the Beach" (Without Consent, 2016)
  • "Breaking Into Aldi" (Without Consent, 2016)
  • "Feet" (Domino, 2019)
  • "Tastes Good With The Money" (Domino, 2019)
  • "When I Leave" (Domino, 2019)
  • "Religion for One" (Domino, 2024)
  • "Bullet of Dignity" (Domino, 2024)
  • "What's that You Say?" (2024)[36]

References

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  1. ^ Bromwich, Kathryn (18 March 2017). "On my radar: Lias Saoudi's cultural highlights". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 May 2021.
  2. ^ Campbell, Brian (19 February 2016). "Fat White Family frontman Lias looking forward to Irish 'homecoming' gigs". The Irish News. Retrieved 7 May 2021.
  3. ^ The Social https://www.thesocial.com/life-beyond-the-neutral-zone-5-lias-saoudi/
  4. ^ "How The Metros are making a big noise in Peckham". The Independent. 7 March 2008. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  5. ^ Pattison, Louis (9 December 2013). "Fat White Family: 'We want to make your skin crawl'". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 August 2024.
  6. ^ "Fat White Family* / Taman Shud* - Fat Whites / Taman Shud". Discogs.com.
  7. ^ "The Fat White Family - Touch The Leather". Discogs.com.
  8. ^ "SXSW and US tour Send The Fat White Family to America". Nme.com. Retrieved 12 September 2016.
  9. ^ "The Fat White Family - I Am Mark E Smith". Discogs.com.
  10. ^ Petridis, Alexis (21 January 2016). "Fat White Family: Songs for Our Mothers review – still testing the boundaries of taste". The Guardian.
  11. ^ Clements, Jaymz (25 January 2016). "Fat White Family - Songs For Our Mothers". Rolling Stone Australia. Archived from the original on 28 January 2016. Retrieved 25 January 2016.
  12. ^ Wood, Anna. "Silence Is Easy: Fat White Family Interviewed". The Quietus. Retrieved 7 June 2019.
  13. ^ "The Fat White Family - Whitest Boy On The Beach". Discogs.com.
  14. ^ "The Fat White Family - Breaking Into Aldi". Discogs.com.
  15. ^ Noisey Staff (15 August 2016). "Stop All the Clocks, Fat White Family's New Single Is Massive". Vice. Retrieved 28 May 2024.
  16. ^ "Facebook". Facebook.com. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  17. ^ Wood, Anna (10 April 2019). "A Conversation With Fat White Family & Róisín Murphy". Dazed. Retrieved 7 June 2019.
  18. ^ Stripe, Adelle. "Fat White Family Hit Paydirt". The Quietus. Retrieved 7 June 2019.
  19. ^ Power, Ed. "Everyone Thinks We're Complete C**ts". The Irish Times. Retrieved 7 June 2019.
  20. ^ Stripe, Adelle; Saoudi, Lias (16 February 2022). Ten Thousand Apologies. White Rabbit Books. ISBN 9781474617840.
  21. ^ Sawyer, Miranda (15 February 2022). "Ten Thousand Apologies: Fat White Family and the Miracle of Failure review – band on the brink". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 February 2022.
  22. ^ "2023". Penderyn Music Book Prize. Retrieved 8 October 2023.
  23. ^ Richards, Will (24 January 2024). "Fat White Family announce new album 'Forgiveness Is Yours' with new single 'Bullet Of Dignity'". NME. Retrieved 22 February 2024.
  24. ^ a b Briony Edwards (24 January 2024). ""It's about no longer suspecting, but knowing that this will never get any easier… in fact, it's about to get a whole lot worse": Fat White Family are releasing a new album and it's pushed them to the limits of their very existence". louder. Retrieved 4 March 2024.
  25. ^ Sendra, Tim (24 March 2017). "Interplanetary Class Classics - The Moonlandingz | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic.com. All Media Network. Retrieved 8 December 2017.
  26. ^ Cecilia, Woody (25 January 2017). "Saul Adamczewski from Fat White Family played his first gig with his new 10-piece band last night - Loud And Quiet". Loud And Quiet. Retrieved 28 January 2017.
  27. ^ Murray, Eoin (27 January 2017). "The Quietus | News | Insecure Men: Live Report". The Quietus. Retrieved 28 January 2017.
  28. ^ Wood, Anna. "Uneasy Does It: Insecure Men Reviewed". The Quietus. Retrieved 7 June 2019.
  29. ^ "Kudos-Proof: An Interview With Decius". The Quietus. Retrieved 3 October 2023.
  30. ^ "Decius". AllMusic.com. The Leaf Label. Retrieved 8 December 2017.
  31. ^ Petridis, Alexis (22 February 2018). "Insecure Men: Insecure Men review – slacker supergroup find redemption in pop". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  32. ^ Monger, Timothy (February 2018). "Insecure Men". AllMusic.com. All Media Network. Retrieved 8 December 2017.
  33. ^ "Serfs Up! — Fat White Family, tastelessly refined". Retrieved 22 February 2024.
  34. ^ "Serfs up!". Discogs. Retrieved 22 February 2024.
  35. ^ Briony Edwards (24 January 2024). ""It's about no longer suspecting, but knowing that this will never get any easier… in fact, it's about to get a whole lot worse": Fat White Family are releasing a new album and it's pushed them to the limits of their very existence". louder. Retrieved 4 March 2024.
  36. ^ "New Music Discoveries 29th March: Fat White Family, The Buoys, St Vincent and more". The AU Review. 29 March 2024. Retrieved 29 March 2024.
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