The Fuse: “Nothing Can Keep Us Down”
Record deals, America, Oscar award ceremonies, festivals and UB40, the Fuse has seen it all and nothing can keep this guitar rock group down. Here Alex Lato tells us all about the bands, past present and future goals.
London rockers The Fuse have experienced their fair share of emotions since the start of their career. The band started in 2006 under the name of LATO, after the lead singer; Alex Lato. They almost had their music dream come true out in the States.
Alex describes the band’s sound as “Coldplay meets Bonnie and Clyde.” Although he thinks it’s quite Americanised “like driving music, wind in your hair uplifting music.” This can be heard particularly in their song Paint This Town. It’s airy and relaxing but with a kick. “I think the key thing for me is melody, and great lyrics, so artists that fill that criteria are our main influences.” Radio Head, R.E.M, Coldplay, Lennon Cohen, Elliot Smith, The Beach Boys, Pink Floyd and many more are included in the mixture of influences. Having this widespread of inspiration has benefited The Fuse greatly as they have been able to have a mixture of music in their songs. “Lyrically I always try and go for stuff which is uplifting y’know” he smiles.
The Fuses new EP Different Life will be available on the first day of their tour in February. Alex reveals “It’ll be live on iTunes, it’s being promoted now”. Alex says that he doesn’t think that The Fuse have ever written a song directly about heart break but “romantic love is something which inspires, I’ve been lucky or unlucky enough to have been in love sometimes in my life” he looks down “so the memory of those experiences whether they have ended happily or not is inspirational”. He adds “But I mean, Different life, the most recent song of three on the latest EP is about trying to realise something new, it’s quite straight forward.”
For The Fuse originally LATO, being big time musicians was a dream in school when Mike and Alex first met and shared a common interest in music. When they were out in the States they felt the name should be changed as they would feel more together in the group. “When we came back the feeling was that it would be a nice idea to change this because of our experience in America” Alex continues “Although it was character building it was ultimately successful so we decided to change the name of the band.”
The Fuse achieved success relatively quickly into their career, having been spotted by LA music industry legend Russ Regan; who discovered and signed Elton John, Neil Diamond and Barry White, and promptly offered them a deal. The band jumped on a plane to Los Angeles to record their debut album and they were even treated to a self-indulgent night at the Oscars award ceremony. “ It was the music industry dream where you stick your stuff up on MySpace, and someone really high up in the industry hears it and thinks ‘these guys are the next big thing’ and they give you a record deal.”
There was a financial crisis in California in 2008 which put their deal in jeopardy. “Everyone in Hollywood went from being throwing money into projects to having no money,” He adds “The record label that we were with came within, y’know a cigarette paper away from signing a deal in another big project which would’ve brought money in to our project” he looks away. Then things got even worse for the group “The boss of this particular company had a heart attack whilst running on a treadmill and died. We lost our deal” he reminisces looking down at the table, “Just like that”. “We were well and truly screwed” he laughs painfully.
“That was it for us, we came home in early April and started from the bottom again” Alex admits. Despite the LA experience there have been two major highlights for the band. In 2012 The Fuse were fortunate enough to support pop reggae superstars UB40. Although Alex reveals he was slightly nervous “we were opening for a reggae group, and we’re not reggae,” he laughs “so yeah, it was nervous but I think we won them over. In our video on YouTube you can see the crowd waving to the songs, particularly Shine, so we must’ve won them round”.
Another highlight for the band was headlining Richmond World Music Festival. “Yes it’s a smaller festival but it meant a lot to us” he smiles “It was our home town”. On the day their show just clicked. “For me it was quite a big moment y’know sun going down over the river Thames and all these people kind of pissed and dancing,” he adds with a smile “Y’know it felt like we’ve done something here”. He states that the UB40 gig was a spot booking and felt they didn’t really earn it unlike the Richmond World Music Festival. “We had earned the Richmond festival in merit y’know, we had been plugging a song for six months,” he states “we got booked and paid for a show that we headlined”.
Alex asserted that 2013 is to be a year for The Fuse. Their new single Different Life is due to hit all regional radio stations in the country, headlining Pembrokeshire Fish Festival for the second time and a string of gigs coming up. “Glastonbury is the one we’re hoping for though” he adds cheekily. “But y’know the thing is with this game is that anything could happen”.
Alex leaves us with a touching statement “I guess the only message is that whoever reads this or listens to this; if you hear The Fuse being played on your local radio station, just please get in touch” he asserts. “It makes a difference for a band like us, well for all bands frankly” He emphasises. “Just say to the DJ that you enjoyed it. Don’t just sit there and think this is really good. Get proactive and tell the DJ you want to hear it again” he insists with a grin.