The Spitfires On Their Songwriting Influences

New single 'Over And Over Again' incoming...

The Spitfires have stuck to their guns.

The band's sound isn't about passing trends, it's about tapping into a uniquely British sense of street style.

Touring across the country, The Spitfires have taken their Mod and skin inspired vision to venues other bands wouldn't touch – and they've won them over time and time again.

Working with Leeds based imprint Hatch Records, the band will release new single 'Over And Over Again' on December 15th.

Closing the year with a flurry of live shows, it's clear that The Spitfires are here to stay – with that in mind, Clash tracked them down to discuss a few songwriting influences…

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UB40 – 'Signing Off'

This and 'Presents Arms' have been on heavy rotation for all the band in the recent months. Tracks like 'King' have made a big influence sound and production-wise on the material we're currently working on. Lyrically 'Burden Of Shame' and 'Tyler' made a big impact on me too.

I love how songwriters can make a record you can dance to but with real meaning to the words – it's what I've been aiming towards to be honest. Anyone can shout and scream about how humanity is going down the pan, but to make people dance to it is something far more clever.

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Touts – 'Bombscare'

Finally, an angry young band. The first time we heard this, we saw the connection between what we do and what Touts do straight away. They have the bollocks that's been missing from the current music scene. We actually played this every night on our tour before we went on stage. Good luck to ‘em!

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The Ordinary Boys – 'Over The Counter Culture'

This is an album we grew up listening to and I think it’s overlooked due to all the reality TV shit that happened with Preston afterwards. To us it’s the sound of four young lads with very similar record collections to ours, button down shirts and some big songs. Check 'Week In Week Out' and 'Talk Talk Talk'.

 

The Beautiful South – 'Welcome To The Beautiful South'

Discovering Paul Heaton helped me rediscover my love for the pop song, the three minute single with a big fuck off chorus. In a time when everyone is obsessed with finding the 'new sound' or 'new look' – or forgetting that if it ain't been done before, it’s probably for a good reason – I think we should get back to the songs.

Scrap your marketing schemes and social media presence and concentrate on writing good tunes. Check 'From Under The Covers' and 'Woman In The Wall'.

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Madness – 'Disappear'

I'd been lying if I said Madness didn't have a big influence on the sound of our current single 'Over And Over again'. I think 'Disappear' is a great example of what Madness do best. They’re mostly known as a singles band but the first two records are packed with great songs.

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Catch The Spitfires at the following shows:

December
16 London The Borderline

January
19 Norwich Waterfront *
20 Coventry Empire *
26 Dublin Workman’s Club
27 Belfast Voodoo

* supporting The Skids

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