Fat White Family"We're just in Palm Springs, poolside," says Fat White Family frontman Lias Saoudi. "We're taking it easy man, we're detoxing," adds guitarist Saul Adamczewski. "Yeah, then re-toxing, then detoxing again," finishes Saoudi.
The last time they were camped by the water — filming the clip for single Whitest Boy On The Beach from their second LP, Songs For Our Mothers — wasn't nearly so relaxing, with the amiable pair suffering terrible weather, among other things. "I don't remember that," says Adamczewski. Saoudi is quick to disagree: "I remember it vividly. I was being beaten by Saul, who is you, in the middle of winter with an oxen's tongue, on the most brutal hangover I've had all year maybe, and I had to keep going to the toilet and being sick between takes, and then I was taken out into the sea, alone on a raft, and I was needlessly buried alive in the sand on a freezing cold November morning.
"I was being beaten by Saul, who is you, in the middle of winter with an oxen's tongue, on the most brutal hangover I've had all year."
"Oh. See I was ah, I was very close to death," quips Adamczewski.
"Yeah at that point Saul was nearly dead, so filming was a treasure," Saoudi finishes.
They laugh, but it's not hyperbole — health problems have plagued the band in their brief but debauched run. Adamczewski abruptly left the band mid-tour last year for health reasons and the band were previously forced to pull out of a European tour with The Black Lips when Saoudi started coughing up blood. "There's a lot of illness in the band," says Saudi. "Physical and mental — often at the same time. We've had a few bouts of pneumonia."
"Severe addiction," Adamczewski interjects, before Saoudi: "Severe addiction, some surgery, some more surgery, total nervous breakdowns, manic depression. But yeah, it's been a great time all round!"
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Listening to the LP — both ominous and feverish, a hypnotic, skin-crawling effort — it's easy to see how they've channelled their tribulations. "The album was basically at the height of..." Adamczewski begins. "Of our problems," suggests Saoudi. "Yeah, right in the thick of all the shittest things that had happened to us," Adamczewski continues. "You know... And I mean, simultaneously the best things happening to us too."
Saoudi explains, "It's like all the things we sort of had as our most optimistic kind of fantasies — we transcended there but found ourselves more in the middle of our pain than ever. So that was kind of troubling to say the least."
Still, they seem optimistic that the future will be a little less life-threatening, in part due to the new line-up taking a markedly different psychic direction to the old guard. Saoudi sniffs, "We've got rid of those guys now."
"We've been in the process of purging all the bad energy," says Adamczewski. "We just want to get rid of the bad within ourselves. So you know, the forces of good within these people that have joined the band — they're really peaceful, lovely, kind, gentle people."
"Yeah they're really into the music, not just for the party or any of that shit you know what I mean?" Saudi says.
"So we got rid of a couple of punks and replaced 'em with some nice guys," says Adamczewski, the two cackling gleefully at the unlikeliness of it all. "We're coming out, into the light."
