More about: The Flechettes

Emerging from humdrum streets of Wigan that has bred talent such as The Verve and more recently The Lathums, Flechettes are climbing up the ranks of the north-west music scene after being picked by This Feeling as one of their Big in 2021 acts last month. 

Consisting of Jack on vocals and rhythm guitar, Johnny on lead guitar, Will on bass and Nicholas on drums, Flechettes' latest single 'Man of the Hour' was released last week as they simultaneously prepare for their first tour later this year - thanks, again, to This Feeling. 

As their climb up the musical ranks was unexpectedly halted by the pandemic, frontman Jack Heaton talks with us about adjusting back to normality, the lessons the pandemic has taught the band and what inspired their music. 

Gigwise: You’ve bounced back from the pandemic with a couple of new singles. The most recent one 'Man of the Hour' gives off early Arctic Monkeys influences to me: were they the main inspiration? 

Jack Heaton: Man of the Hour was written back near the end of 2019 and was shelved up until about June last year after the first lockdown. You could have people in your garden at that point, so Johnny (Flechettes guitarist) came round. I played the song for some reason and Johnny thought it was well good. When we all got back together over the summer, we just starting playing it. To be fair, I was listening to Favourite Worst Nightmare quite a lot at that time. It was detrimental I suppose, because it gives you FOMO about your youth, especially when being locked inside. Musically I’d say [the single is] most like 'Brianstorm' off that album, but maybe more like 'Teddy Picker' lyrically.

There was more to it than just Arctic Monkeys though. It has similar themes in the way the song is about going out and everyone’s acting like they’re the dog’s bollocks and showing off. I suppose we’re all guilty of it and that sort of theme is different to the love songs that are so easy to write. I knew if the song was going to be that big and fast, it had to be subjective about something else other than love. That’s why Solitude (the B-side) is as tender as it is.

GW: That brings me onto the next question actually. The lyrics for the B-side are quite deep, does that come from a personal place? 

JH: The story with that was a couple of days before we recorded the A-side, I sat down with my 12-string acoustic because we knew we needed a contrasting B-side. I was listening to a lot of Sticky Fingers and acoustic Kings of Leon at the time, and I ended up writing 'Solitude' in about 20 minutes. I liked it because it was such an opposite to 'Man of the Hour': it gave a contrast that really shows and a different dynamic. The song is cherry-picking different parts of a relationship to make that story. It’s written from the perspective of a relationship ending, and they’re off thriving doing whatever and you’re sat there in solitude and missing little things about the relationship. The lyrics as a whole have nods and influence from Blossoms, Sticky Fingers and The Beatles, but it was still all developed from a personal place. With that in mind, I don’t like to make all my lyrics obvious if you know what I mean. I’d rather they were more conceptual and atmospheric. It’s about seeming okay outwardly but within there’s pain. The lyrics such as “missing all the little things you do” proves that in a way. 

Even though it only took 20 minutes to write, I don’t consciously remember thinking that’s what the song was, I’ve sort of discovered that since. Sometimes I’d have a jam to myself and play 'Solitude' and not even necessarily sing it and just play the guitar. But when I play it, I sort of think to myself “What is that? Why did I write it?” Sometimes you don’t have an answer until the song is written. I often wonder how many great lyrics have been missed because of people overthinking them and wanting them to have one great meaning, but then again that’s a nice narrative to have. It’s a simple working class love song and being in the endgame after the breakdown of a relationship. That’s why I like including B-sides, it gives you an opportunity to not only be versatile in songwriting - but also versatile with yourself.

GW: On the topic of versatility, each of the tracks you’ve released so far are very stylistically different. Is there a purpose to this?

JH: From the start we’ve always said we want to be a versatile band that was capable of different inspirations and styles. We don’t want to stay the same to the point people will quickly get bored, but at the same time we don’t want to go out of the pool of genres people listen to for the sake of it, so we like to find a balance at the same time. We like to be versatile because it shows willingness to labels and willingness to new listeners that we’ve got more to us than just one song. The EP we’re working on at the moment is different to anything we’ve done so far. There’re two songs that we’ve played live since we formed as a band and two new ones with inspirations from Arctic Monkeys' Humbug. The Jewellers Hands off that album was one song that was a big inspiration. That album was produced by Josh Homme from Queens of the Stone Age too, so I suppose they’re also a bit of inspiration for the new songs. You can see the parallels between Humbug and Queens of the Stone Age, and that’s what we’re trying to incorporate. Hopefully that does well enough for people to see that we’re not just another indie band, we want to show we’ve got more to us.

GW: You’re going on your first tour in October this year, how are you feeling about it and what can people expect? 

JH: We’re extremely excited about playing in the places we are. It’s been a dream of mine for a while to say we’re going on tour, even if it’s only small. We’re really happy with how ticket sales are going at the minute and we’ve still got plenty of time to sell it out, because that’d be great to say that we’ve had a sold-out tour. I like to make clear that we’re a really humble band and we’re grateful to people who stuck by us, especially in the first lockdown. At that point we had literally nothing to offer for obvious reasons, yet people still stuck by us and spread our music and we never expected that, especially with the way the world had become. To us, that was more than we could want. The tour is as much for those people as it is for us. We want to keep making music and those people allow us to do so and we’re forever grateful. We notice those who stick by us and it’s really humbling for us to know that people care about the music, especially in these times. Fans are priceless, you can’t buy them, and we feel so lucky to have them.

GW: How did it feel to be listed as one of This Feeling’s Big in 2021 acts?

JH: When we were told that was happening and we’d been selected, we were saying to each other how much couldn’t believe it considering how many bands are knocking about. It’s an honour that we were selected from such a big range of great talent. It was just amazing to not only be included on the record too, but for them to offer us a tour too was unbelievable. Those from This Feeling have been a massive help to the band and we’re so grateful.

GW: To finish off, what have been the toughest challenges you’ve faced as a band?

JH: It was 100% the first lockdown that was the biggest insurmountable challenge any of us faced. It was extremely tough mentally because of how much uncertainty there was, and we were left hanging by a thread. We had nothing to offer as a band and that wasn’t what we wanted. I hibernated in this room I’m currently sat in and that was it. It was also such a strange time because we all related to just getting pissed in the house. Everyone did it, it’d be 2 in the afternoon on a Wednesday in April, and you’d crack open a few tins. What the fuck? Where did that come from? You’d be down the shop buying some beers and just thinking how on earth it came to this. The second lockdown wasn’t as bad because we had our last single 'Chasing Youth' primed and ready to go. The third one we all expected but it wasn’t as bad since we’d already recorded 'Man of the Hour'. They’re saying this will be the last lockdown but I’m not so sure. 

When it comes to moving forward, we just want to get back out playing so we can see an actual reaction from our tunes and go as far as we can. That’s our focus now. The pandemic set us back in a way, but it’s also pushed us forward. We learnt a lot about managing the band through the lockdowns and properly tuning into social media and getting radio play. It’d be interesting to see where we would be now if everything stayed normal, I honestly think we’d be at a disadvantage compared to now.

See Flechettes on tour. 

More about: The Flechettes