Описание
Hard-Fi are an English indie rock band formed in Staines, Surrey in 2003. These suburban surroundings have significantly influenced their musical style and lyrics. The band's continual members have been Richard Archer (vocals), Kai Stephens (bass guitar), Ross Phillips (guitar) and Steve Kemp (drums).
They achieved chart success with their third single, "Hard to Beat and then followed by other successful singles such as "Cash Machine and "Living for the Weekend, which all reached top 15 in the UK Singles Chart. Their debut album Stars of CCTV was released on 4 July 2005, and although receiving critical acclaim (NME called it album of the year and was nominated for the Mercury Prize and two BRIT Awards, Best British Group and Best British Rock Act), it didn't reach #1 in the UK albums chart until six months later on 22 January 2006. It originally peaked at number 6. The band's second album, Once Upon a Time in the West, was released on 3 September 2007 and reached number 1 in its first week.
They are generally considered part of the indie rock scene, although Richard Archer has mentioned numerous times that they are heavily influenced by Soul and Dance music.
Hard-Fi's musical style is a mix of post-punk, indie and a Clash style of punk rock. They also take inspiration from other genres such as ska. On Stars of CCTV, they had a very raw sound, loud guitars, and frequent use of guitar, in contrast to Once Upon A Time In The West, on which there is a lot more orchestration, the use of strings is very apparent, most notably in the song "Watch Me Fall Apart".
Upon starting out, Hard-Fi often listened to music through the medium of radio and the internet, read magazines and watched music videos. As a band, they felt no up-and-coming bands really connected their lyrics to their own lives. Hard-Fi wanted to change this with their own style.
When making a song, Archer said:
“ I write the songs on an acoustic guitar or piano; you'll get different natural chord shapes on a guitar, so sometimes it can be interesting to go and do it on a piano, where you might play a different progression. So I'll do a demo of it and take it to the guys who will turn it into a Hard-Fi tune really; they'll put their spin on it. We'll edit it live together, mix and cut it up a lot as we go, and record it. We owe as much to hip hop and dance techniques as rock as we've grown up as part of the dance generation."
Hard-Fi's lyrics are based mostly on working class life, the band themselves coming from a self sufficent suburban lifestyle. Most notable in tracks such as "Suburban Knights" ("Those bills keep dropping through my door") and "Living for the Weekend" ("I've been working all week I'm tired"), while other songs such as "Tonight", despite still being about suburban life, focus more on ambitions. Some songs are also based on social realism, "Feltham is Singing Out" is inspired by Zahid Mubarek someone who is sent to the Feltham Young Offenders' Institution and is murdered by his racist cellmate.
Other songs, such as "Better Do Better" and "Move on Now", are centred around the premise of how hard romantic relationships can be. Once Hard-Fi were becoming successful Archer's mother had passed away, the song "Help Me Please" is about how difficult it was for him having his dreams come true after many unsuccessful bands but realises he has no parents to share the joy with. Similarly, "The King" is about Archer returning to Staines and finding everything completely different, and realising everything of which he knew and loved had disappeared. Archer describes "Little Angel" as Christina Aguilera having a fight with The Clash in a northern Soul club.
Following the release of Once Upon a Time in the West, the band received criticism for still singing about "bills dropping through their doors" desp
