It’s a fate which could have befallen Everything Everything. Labeled part of a spurious ‘Manchester scene’ – although the quartet formed in Manchester, none of their members hail from the musically fertile metropolis – the band had been forced to play third fiddle whilst fellow leading lights Delphic and Hurts saw their stock soar. All three were long-listed for the BBC Sound of 2010 poll, but only Everything Everything failed to make the final shortlist. As 2010 stuttered to life, Delphic hit the top ten with debut album Acolyte, while just a day before the release of Everything Everything’s own debut Hurts scored an unlikely singles chart hit with the icy synthpop of ‘Wonderful Life’. Meanwhile, the band was left fretting over their prospective fortunes as trailing single ‘MY KZ, UR BF’ stalled at a hundred and twenty-one.
They needn’t have worried, as Man Alive duly gate crashed the UK top twenty, picking up open-mouthed plaudits en route. It was a fitting prize for a record which fizzes with invention, often flitting seamlessly between unconventional time signatures before peaking in a series of beautifully melodic art-pop choruses, all held together with the dexterous falsetto yelp of frontman Jonathan Higgs.
If the music both challenges and rewards, then the band themselves are a far more straightforward proposition. Preparing to perform at a Spotify/3G sponsored show at Shoreditch Town Hall, I find Higgs and drummer Michael Spearman in genial spirits. Articulate and warm, they riff off one another; touching upon in-jokes without ever seeming exclusive, while their answers exhibit a sharp, self-deprecating wit underpinning thoughtful reflections – starting with their reaction to music scenes.
