Ten Fé, meaning ‘have faith’ in Spanish, have been doing a great job so far at restoring our faith in acoustic guitar melodies and gentle indie pop tunes. The duo’s last album ‘Hit the Light’ was one of our favourites back in 2017. Now, Leo Duncan and Ben Moorhouse are returning with the long-awaited sophomore record ‘Future Perfect, Present Tense’ on the 8th of March. But what inspires the nostalgic and warm feel their songs convey? NOTHING BUT HOPE AND PASSION invited Leo Duncan to give us a little insight into the indestructible Britpop classic, or who, got him interested in music at a young age.
Whoever you are, wherever you are, you have the capacity to feel absolutely wicked about yourself, the world around you, and the future. This album was the first thing in my life, which proved that to me. It magnified my soul and made me happy in the middle of my own universe…I may have looked like an ordinary twelve year old on the top deck of a Birmingham bus watching the raindrops trickle down the windowpane – but inside I was in total ecstasy as I listened to this album.
There may have been a few moments of excitement in my life before listening to Oasis but they had nothing to do with music. Up until that point I liked playing football, eating fish fingers, and occasionally chasing the occasional girl round the playground, but I associated ‘music’ with a form of torture: piano practice, hymns during the boredom of church, and Elton John in the car on the way to school. It’s safe to say if you’d asked me what I thought of music as a kid, I would have said I hated it.
‘It was all Oasis from that point on’
I’m no believer in fate, but one school night in autumn when I was twelve all that changed. I vividly remember being at home and coming downstairs into our living room where my sister was lying on the floor watching Top Of The Pops. The presenter introduced the new Oasis single, Wonderwall. I can’t remember whether it was the video, or whether the band were on the show miming the song themselves. And four minutes later my world was a different place. It was all Liam; god-sent servant of the super soul that he is. He was just so good looking, cool, real. I think young boys often have a disposition for idolatry – towards rock stars, footballers, whoever – and I was no different. It was all Oasis from that point on.
I bought the album a few days later from WH Smith in Aldridge Precinct. This was a stationary store, where my mum took me to buy my pencil case and pens for school – so, not the most auspicious first step in my rock n roll adventure. Not that I cared, I listened to the album nonstop for six months. I had to, of course, as it was my only CD. But even that felt wicked. It made me feel even better that the only CD I needed was Oasis. It consumed everything I did: it now mattered how I dressed, talked, walked. I definitely started swaggering in and out of church on a Sunday Morning. A few months later I was on the bus home from school and I saw posters plastered over a boarded-up pub in Walsall advertising Oasis playing at Knebworth.
I rushed off the bus to write down the phone number. That night my dad bought tickets for himself, my sister and me. This was my first gig. For my next birthday I asked for a guitar.
Someone once pointed out to me that when you start watching the Simpsons you think Bart is the main character. As you get older and realize it’s actually Homer who has all the best lines. Similarly I grew to realize that Whats The Story isn’t actually the best Oasis album. In fact, Oasis probably aren’t the best band ever. I bought more CDs, went to more gigs, and began playing gigs of my own … but without this album, I really don’t know if I’d have got into The Beatles, or Talking Heads, or Delta Blues, or Jackson Pollock, or Jack Kerouac, or Joseph Beuys, or Brendan Behan, James Baldwin, Vladamir Nabakov and the rest. It opened a door to me being myself – and the best thing was that felt like I’d opened that door myself.
Ten Fé’s second studio album Future Perfect, Present Tense arrives on March 8 via Some Kinda Love/ PIAS.