Liam Frost

by Joanna Orland

You may or may not have heard of Liam Frost and his band The Slowdown Family, but you certainly will when the single The City is at Standstill is officially released on August 28th. Liam seems to be heading for stardom, but luckily could spare a few minutes for us along the way.

Hailing from Manchester, Liam breaks the mould as a singer-songwriter coming from a city known for the Madchester era.

“I think basically with the Madchester scene, Manchester’s moved on a lot since then. There’s a lot of sort of different scenes around the towns and things. A lot of different cliques and club nights. And they’re all really accepting of all sorts of different things really and we definitely don’t rely on the Madchester bands for influences anymore.“

We’ve established that Liam’s from Manchester. We’ve established that he’s a singer-songwriter. But who is this band he calls the Slowdown Family?

“There’s been about fifteen members that have passed through since we started the band thing I suppose. Right now there are seven people playing including myself… People listen to us cuz we make a big noise.”

It seems that the cool thing with bands these days is to cite Bruce Springsteen as an influence. Liam Frost is no exception, gaining comparisons to early stuff by the E Street Band. Good friends Elbow are another influence for Liam and fortunately he’s had the chance to play in support of them. With a track record like that, you’d think V Festival wouldn’t at all seem like a flash in the pan.

“Tough work. Everyone seemed to really enjoy it and it seemed like half of Manchester had come down to watch it. Cause the tent was packed and I sort of said who’s here from Manchester and like it just seemed to be like an average Manchester gig really. Seemed to be full of Mancunians. And a couple of people who were like, I’m not from Manchester – dick.”

Liam went on to proudly tells us of how at yesterday’s gig he acquired the Michael Jackson badge he was sporting, stolen from a fan through empty promises of a shout out on stage. On the subject of festivals, we thought we’d ask Liam our FESTIVAL FIVE.

Favourite Festival Food:
“I was at a festival in Leicester on Friday last week. I had the most amazing Mexican food I ever had. It was amazing. I think I had a chilli and cheese and rice wrap. It was awesome. … On the whole it’s not really about food, festivals.” (I see he’s never been to Fruitstock.)

Favourite Festival Fashion:
“Um, Kagool. (He had to elaborate on this as I had no idea what he was talking about) It’s like a raincoat isn’t it. Maybe waistcoats. Maybe muddy shoes. Michael Jackson badges. There you go. That’s the best fashion – Michael Jackson badges.”

Favourite Festival Anthem:
“Don’t know. That’s a really tough one, isn’t it. That’s just like asking someone what their favourite song is I suppose… Born to Run, Glastonbury 2007 – next year. Springsteen’s supposed to be headlining, can you imagine that! That’ll be phenomenal! Morrissey played How Soon is Now last night and it was ALMOST amazing. But it wasn’t the Smiths.”

Best Festival Moment:
“Probably something from Glastonbury. Seeing Bright Eyes at Glastonbury, that was good. People seem to think I’m a massive fan, but I’m not a huge fan. It was just really good that day. Cause I think it had been raining for like two days before when we got there and then the sun came out and Bright Eyes played and then Wilco. In fact, it’s probably Wilco more than Bright Eyes. I don’t know, but yeah. People want me to say Bright Eyes I reckon.”

Worst Festival Moment:
“I went to the Leeds festival when I was about 18 or 19. And it was the year of the ridiculously big riots that went down, and there was a police helicopter hovering above our field with a searchlight down on all the tents. And a bottle of Jack Daniels’ filled with piss almost killed me. The piss didn’t touch me luckily, but Jack Daniels bottles are really weighty and it just sort of whistled past my head and caught me. Yeah, it’s tough man, it’s tough. I didn’t feel too good. I was a bit unconscious.”

Worst Festival Toilet (Bonus Question):
“Glastonbury.” (He went on to explain why, but let’s just say it involves Liam witnessing someone shitting in the shower.)

One word to sum him up –
(LONG Pause) “Don’t know. (I remind him that this is two words) Let me think… that’s three… ‘Umm’… that’s one word, there you go. Yes, that’s it I’m going to go for that one.”

Umm, there you have it – Liam Frost.