Interview: Reflective Hard-Fi are ready to go back into battle again

Few bands illustrate the decline of record sales quite as well as Hard-Fi. The four-piece emerged with their debut album, Stars of CCTV, in 2005 and promptly shifted 1.1 million copies worldwide.

Two years later, the halcyon days of guitar bands selling lots of records was seemingly over. They followed it up with Once Upon a Time in the West, but while the album went straight into the chart at No 1, sales were significantly lower, with 261,000 around the globe. “Those glory days of guitar music lasted about two years in the middle of the last decade,” says frontman Rich Archer. “It was vicious, the bottom dropped out of the industry almost overnight. There weren’t many big guitar albums after that point, none that had the same impact as before anyway.

“We toured the first album for two years, then we were suddenly making another record. The label were involved and had loads of ideas, at the same time as being worried record sales had fallen off the edge of a cliff. Downloading had kicked in and no one knew what to do. Despite that, the label wanted our second album to be even bigger than the first, delivered to a deadline to fit in with their sales targets.”

Despite the relative disappointment of Once Upon a Time in the West, Archer is still fond of the album, although he admits making it wasn’t the happiest time of his life. His mother passed away from complications following a kidney transplant just as it was released, giving the second batch of songs a melancholy note. Now, however, Archer is back to his best and Killer Sounds, released on August 22, crackles with the confident swagger that made Stars of CCTV so popular. “The label [Atlantic] have been really good and were happy for us to go off to LA to make the album we wanted,” he says. “They could have said ,‘Guitar bands are out of the loop for the next 10 years, no thanks and goodbye’, but they didn’t.

“Now we’ve had this time off, at the back of my mind I’m thinking about coming back and doing well, but no one knows what people are going to be listening to. The only thing we can do is be true to our hearts. That’s why people bought into us in the first place. We just wanted to make a record people can dance to. When we made the first album, we were listening to hip hop and soul, as well as rock bands, and that’s what we’ve gone for again.”

There’s a sense of rediscovered excitement on songs such as Stay Alive and new single Fire in the House, while other track titles – Feels Good, Excitement and Bring It On – add to the positive themes running throughout the record, showing a band which has fallen back in love with making music and benefited from a lengthy break. After touring Once Upon a Time in the West around the world for 18 months, Hard-Fi played one of their last shows in Nashville, Tennessee, which led to a trip around the United States’ other cities of musical heritage: Austin, New Orleans, Detroit and Memphis.

“We’re huge geeks, so we went to all the classic places. We went to the Motown studio in Detroit, soaked it all up and got really inspired. By the beginning of 2009 I had a new batch of songs written and ready to go.”

All Hard-Fi had to do then was wait for producer Greg Kurstin, known for his work with Lily Allen, Marina and the Diamonds and KT Tunstall, to find a window in his schedule.

“We want to work with the best producers, so to get those people, you have to fit in with them,” says Archer. While he’s in no doubt about the quality of the album he and his bandmates have made, he’s approaching the next few months with no expectations.

“Everyone thinks that every album released has to be massive, and that every show should be an arena sell out.

“But you can’t be on The X- Factor every week, getting millions of pounds worth of advertising for free. You just have to get out there and do it, and we’ve gone back to that harsh reality.

“We’re excited to be back, to be here and be touring again. We haven’t played much for a while, but what we have done has been amazing. It feels like the first time around again.

“We don’t expect to be walking in to No 1 albums again, or sold-out arena tours. We have to let people know what we’ve got to offer again. And that’s enough.”

LINE UP OF THE BAND AND ITS HISTORY

* Hard-Fi are Rich Archer, guitarist Ross Phillips, bassist Kai Stephens and drummer Steve Kemp.

* Archer had almost tasted success with Contempo who supported Coldplay.

* Hard-Fi’s debut Stars of CCTV was nominated for the 2005 Mercury Music Prize and two Brit Awards in 2006 (Best British Group and Best British Rock Act).

* Killer Sounds has now been realeased and the band is to play Sheffield Leadmill on September 26. To book tickets call 0114 221 2828 or online at www.leadmill.co.uk