Manchester trio False Advertising are bringing their melodic, grungy sound to Manchester Punk Festival, and I could not be more excited. It has been far too long since the release of their 2019 album Brainfreeze, and as you'll see from our interview with frontwoman Jen Hingley, there is much more to come.
First of all, it’s great to see you on the line-up for MPF – things have been a bit quiet with you guys lately, from the outside at least! What have you been up to?
Appearances can be deceiving! We’ve actually been quite busy over the last few years behind the scenes. Like everyone, we were forced to disband during the pandemic but then spent that time writing and recording so much new music – starting out as just me recording things fully DIY in Manchester and then eventually progressing to collaborating with our producer Luke, down at The Church Studios in London, that it’s taken such a ridiculously long time to get our act together with it. We’ve played a few gigs over the last few years and you may have heard some new bits of pieces if you were at them, but it feels like only now we’re at the point where we’re emerging as a fully-fledged, evolved band that properly reflects the direction we’re heading in. Aside from that, I joined Jamie Lenman’s band on lead guitar for a bit, and Josh has been playing bass with The Hyena Kill. So we’ve basically been busy doing everything aside from putting out new tunes.
For anyone not familiar with your music, how would you describe your sound?
We’re inspired by so many genres of music, and it all comes together in this noisy, grungy, cathartic mess. We started out being super influenced by the grunge-like sound of The Smashing Pumpkins and Speedy Ortiz, and have always used the power of catchy melody to try and get our messages across. We’ve certainly evolved into a more energetic and dynamic sounding band as we’ve gotten better at our instruments (speaking for me at least!) and I’ve been able to involve way more diverse influences in my writing like, industrial beats, unashamed pop-punk, actual synth-pop and so many vocal influences. At recent points I’ve been able to achieve my objective of sounding something akin to a poor woman’s Fiona Apple for example. We used to swap instruments a lot and still do occasionally, so you get the odd tune where Chris is singing and not me to mix things up a bit.
If you had to recommend one of your songs to a new listener, which one would it be?
I’d probably say Scars, it’s a song we recorded in my dad’s garage very early on but seems to encompass the take on melody and energy that we do best.
What can we expect from your set at MPF?
It’s our first gig in a year and we’re going back in all guns blazing with an extremely energetic set. We’re all genuinely in training, so we stand a chance of pulling it off! There are a few new songs in there including one where it’s basically me screaming sardonic jokes about the music industry for ages, but also some super old stuff too.
Are there any bands you’re particularly excited to see over the weekend?
I’m really excited to see that Grotbags are on after us! I’m also hoping I can catch Lynskey, Pissed Jeans, Martha, Johnny Foreigner, and whoever this Hives covers band I have heard about is. There are some proper gems on the lineup!
What else are you up to this year – any tours/festivals/releases you want to tell us about?
We have big hopes and dreams for whatever this new era will entail, but also a real challenge ahead of us to get back out there, capture people’s attention and get momentum going again after being in hibernation for so long. This festival very much marks the beginning of that process and it’s frankly really nice that MPF have taken a punt on us, it feels like this and the gig we’re doing the following week at Strangeforms in Leeds are the catalyst that will kick things back into action.
Thank you so much to Jen for answering these questions. False Advertising will be playing at Zombie Shack on the Saturday of MPF, at 17:40.
You can find False Advertising on Facebook // Instagram // Bandcamp
Manchester Punk Festival takes place 29-31 March 2024 – full details and tickets here
