The Zutons might have officially got together in the spring of 2002.
"We always wanted to be like Sly And The Family Stone or Talking Heads or Devo," Dave McCabe explains. "We wanted to cross jazz with funk, and soul with country. We just wanted to mix everything together and get every angle on it and finally we've got there.
"About six months ago, I started writing much better songs. I wasn't just trying to be crazy all the time. I tried to simplify everything and then we found where we wanted to be. We got into this whole soul-funk-voodoo vibe because we were listening to the likes of Dr John. We just suddenly realised what made us exciting."
It's fair to say that this epiphany has reshaped the way The Zutons think and the way people will think about them. When they first formed back in 2002 (McCabe was initially joined by Boyan Chowdhury on guitar, Sean Payne on drums and Russell Pritchard on bass, before they later added Abi Harding on saxophone), they suffered as a result of the media frenzy focused on a re-emergent Liverpool scene at that point dominated by The Coral.
"I think before people thought we were just like The Coral but not as good," argues McCabe with refreshing candour. "It was a ******* pain in the **** for us because we'd only been together for six months and we didn't really have a clue. Now we know exactly what we want to do, and it's like a fresh start."
It's this total overhaul of the band that's so startling. Their genius take on the last 40 years of musical history is filtered through their own weirdly skewed outlook. McCabe, though, is quick to point out that it's not an over-intellectualized approach to being in a band.
"No way," he laughs. "Basically, we just want to be the next, modern soul band with angular guitars. It's as simple as that."
(Official Biography by The Zutons)
