Interview: False Advertising

False Advertising are the Manchester-based band you’ve been waiting for. Put simply, the band are a unique mix of anti-anthem lyrics set against frustrated, gritty alternative rock music. If you hadn’t heard of them before, you have now. Despite their busy schedule, lead singer, Jen Hingley, took the time to answer a few of our questions.

Many bands have established their presence through their distinctive names and it seems False Advertising are following suit. With the band aiming of “being self-sufficient", Jen explains her take on the band’s name: “I suppose we had this weird inspirational vision that we would do all of these things ourselves to a really high standard and end up fooling people into thinking we had some amazing professional team around us, then one day the curtain would drop and people would be fascinated to just see us two standing there."

As a band that mixes grunge and alternative rock tones to create loud, energetic music, False Advertising are quickly making their mark through genre. Jen highlights how the trio share a lot of common ground with artists that have influenced the band. “I think it's a fusion of all of that stuff is what makes us sound like us. I've always been obsessed with original sounding chord structures and melodies, and artists who are able to develop a distinctive melodic identity rather than one that is purely sound, or production based.” In contrast to their signature sound, False Advertising are working on “capturing the energy and attitude” of their live performances into track recordings. “I've become really driven by bands that sound real, exciting and 'live' on record - bands like Metz, Pile, The White Stripes, DFA79. I'd hope we fit into whatever genre all of those are!”

If you haven’t caught the band's latest single, ‘You Said’, already then there’s a chance to catch the band playing it on BBC Introducing: Manchester. As an unsigned band, I ask Jen how it felt to gain that kind of recognition. “We massively value the support that we've had from BBC Introducing in Manchester over the last year and a half or so.” It’s clear the band appreciate the efforts of the BBC, but when it comes to their own management things seem a little more light-hearted: “We've always been unsigned and self-managed, so it's hard to know how we'd act if we had some fancy team around us organising things like this on our behalf. Maybe we'd be a bit better at playing our instruments if we had that!” Maybe I’m biased, but signed or not, I think False Advertising are doing just fine.

With the mark of ‘You Said’, I ask whether False Advertising are gearing up to releasing anymore new music. While I tried pushing for a little more information, Jen wouldn’t budge on details. “Yes, we are planning, and no we cannot yet tell! If I could say what was going to happen next and when with any degree of certainty, then I probably would drop more of a hint. ‘You Said’ does mark the beginning of a new phase though.” It might not be the bombshell we expected, but things sound optimistic on the side of new music – we’ll be waiting!

With the interview coming to a close, I ask Jen about the future of False Advertising (and not so subtly hinting at a tour). With the band having a range of invites to play shows and reaching their best festival season yet, the band have definitely been busy. However, it seems a tour might be a while away as Jen explains: “we do plan to tour again properly in the near future, but we're hoping to maybe team up with some other bands and do some other one-off dates before we go into that.” Besides touring and new music, it seems False Advertising have greater plans. “Lots more new things gradually culminating in eventual world domination. Hopefully a new music video soon too if we can figure out a particularly ambitious filming concept that keeps failing.” Maybe Donald Trump has lowered my standards but world domination by False Advertising sounds pretty good to me. Oh, and a new music video sounds great too. You can catch False Advertising performing 'You Said' on BBC Introducing: Manchester here:

Edited by Ethan Cumberland |

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