Counterfeit: "It's about rising above the doom, gloom and bullshit"

With their debut album done, Jamie Campbell Bower had a moment of reflection with bandmate Tristan Marmont. They've known each other since they were eig...

With their debut album done, Jamie Campbell Bower had a moment of reflection with bandmate Tristan Marmont. They've known each other since they were eight, and twenty years later they're closer than ever. On paper, though, they "shouldn't be mates". "He's a very intelligent guy with a degree in computer science, I'm this crazy musician, actor thing," explains Jamie. So what drew them together all those years ago? "Tristan said, ‘You're a weird dude, I'm a weird dude. I saw that, and I wanted to share in our weirdness'." Simple, really. That spirit of community, of being weird, of banding together and celebrating who you are is the beginning, middle and glorious end of Counterfeit's ‘Together We Are Stronger'. Written in the latter stages of 2015 and shaped by a year on the road, Counterfeit's first full-length has been a long time coming, but now it's time to relinquish control. "There are days when I wake up and realise, ‘Oh God, I've got to give this away now'." There are nerves. There are always nerves. "It's in my nature." But that doesn't take away from just how excited, stoked and super-happy the band are to let people in on what they've been building. "If you had told me three years that I'd be making a record, releasing it with my best mates, touring the world and having a really good time doing it, I would have told you to go away," laughs Jamie before dialling up the denial. "I would have told you to get fucked."

"Do I think it will freak people out? I don't think it's expected."

The songs took shape while Jamie was at his most stressed. "I seem to be able to tap into whoever this monster is inside me for the writing process when I'm super slammed, up against it, or I'm over emotional. I'm one of those people who is everything or nothing." Once the rough idea was sketched out, they were fired over to Tristan, Roland Johnson, Sam Bower and Jimmy Craig to colour them in and make ‘em whole. Sometimes a song comes together in a day, sometimes it takes longer, and sometimes it's not right and is left by the wayside. "I'll always keep those in the bag," grins Jamie. "Just in case Taylor Swift wants a song." From the walk in thrash of ‘Washed Out', Counterfeit are out to cause the sort of trouble that you knew they would. "The main thing with the record was that we wanted it to sound frantic and like a bunch of guys playing some rock songs in the room, as well as having that modern feel and glistening edge to it." Naïve and frayed around the edges but perfectly formed, the album relishes the unexpected without thinking too far ahead. "Do I think it will freak people out? I don't think it's expected," grins Jamie. There's a moment in ‘Close to Your Chest' that quotes a passage from The Bible's Book of Mormon' just because one happened to be laying around the studio. "I have no idea what the fuck it was doing there. There are moments where people will think it's crazy but I think they'll be able to grasp it and hold on. It's our first record, and it says who we are. I want people to be freaked out and love it at the same time. I'm not asking for much, c'mon."

From self-releasing their music to dreaming up, writing and recording their album, Counterfeit are a band who have done things on their terms. It's been an education, but "it's important to learn these things because it's our art, our craft, it's what we love to do, and it's who we are. The moment someone starts messing with that is the moment you lose the soul of the band. We're very lucky we've been able to hold onto the soul of the band. The record was made by us; it's all our own doing, so we've only got ourselves to blame." Laying themselves bare, ‘Together We Are Stronger' doesn't waste a moment in hiding. "When we first started the band, we used ‘Together We Are Stronger' as a message to let people know what we're about and it seemed so fitting that we continue that message. Our message is one of acceptance and music. That, for us, is what we're about as a band." Where once Jamie felt like a black sheep, years of touring and togetherness has found him a flock and a peace of his own. "When we play live, I've realised all those people there are just as weird as me. We're all weird in our own way, and it's nice to be able to share in that. The music scene has been very embracing all my life, and it's where I feel the most comfortable and the most at home. I still feel like an outsider, but I'm much more accepting of that than I was as a child. I'm now more comfortable with who I am as a person instead of feeling like I should conform or that I have to conform to be able to, not necessarily succeed but continue to move forward in whichever way I choose." The record, united by the beating heart of togetherness, deals with a lot of ideas. "Listening back I've noticed I'm quite a possessive person and it's great to be able to check yourself in those moments. There is this general feeling of acceptance and love, though. We're not a band who sit around and get fucked up. We like to share ideas. We philosophise about current political situations, who we are as people and what it means to be young adults because for me, and everyone else in the band, our generation is looking around at everything going on and asking what the fuck. What the fuck is happening? There's this camaraderie in being a young person, in being weird and in thinking differently. We should be thinking differently." From ‘Enough''s inception in the aftermath of the Bataclan attacks and beyond, "it's confusing for my generation, there's this feeling of fear, anger and frustration. Those themes are present throughout the record, whether personally on my shoulders or a shared feeling."

"I still feel like an outsider, but I'm much more accepting of that."

That unease seeps into ‘Together We Are Stronger'. The band move quickly, their ideas are a push back against the walls that feel like they're closing around them and the snarling fury carries them forward as they try to keep their heads above water. "There is that feeling of helplessness. As an artist, I've never felt more helpless or terrified than I have in the past 24 months. That's a really big thing for me ‘cause that feeling of helplessness has been present throughout my life." Banded together, though, Counterfeit champion "that feeling of rising above it, but not fighting it. I never want to fight how I feel or be aggressive towards how I feel. I want to accept it and work through it, and that's what a lot of the record addresses. It's about rising above it, rising above the doom, gloom and bullshit and the crushing despair of everyday existence. You wake up and look at the news and every day, it seems like something worse has happened. We can choose to lie down and give up, this is going to end everything, or we can choose to push against it. We can choose to try to rise above it, be better and change because nothing ever happens without change. Change is a terrifying thing, especially to change oneself. ‘Together We Are Stronger' is the acknowledgement of the people who have come to shows and supported the band thus far, they have helped me on a level that is so deeply personal. Without those people, without the support of people, I don't think I could have done what I've done over the past 18 months with this band or personally. It's pushed me to try and be a better artist. It's pushed me to do things out of the box. It's pushed me everyday to hammer down doors, to keep going and to keep trying to make it better." After all, together we are stronger. Counterfeit’s debut album ‘Together We Are Stronger’ is out 17th March.

Counterfeit: "It's about rising above the doom, gloom and bullshit"

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Counterfeit: "It's about rising above the doom, gloom and bullshit"

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