MFP2025: QUICKFIRE Q&A - JODIE FASTER
Jodie Faster are a little busy at the moment, both prepping new release Saint Lundi and preparing for Manchester Punk Festival, but fortunately, they were able to give us this Q&A session, transcribed below:
Tell us a little bit about yourself, formation, history, etc?
So hi, we’re Jodie Faster, hailing from Lille, France. We’re four guys playing short songs fast since 2016. Our first rehearsal was also the soundcheck for the first gig we ever played! We’ve released one EP, one split, one album, a second split and we’re releasing the second album now, in April 2025. We’ve toured Europe several times, as well as England, and went overseas for a US tour in 2022.
Give us an idea of who/what influences you as a band, genres, other bands, etc?
We’re playing a really fast hardcore punk with a clean guitar sound. We’re throwing a lot of stuff into the mix; old school hardcore punk, skate punk, punk rock, fastcore, garage punk, and power violence. We’ve been lucky enough to share the stage with so many great acts that it’s getting hard to pick some bands over others as influences. Everyone has in some way.
Tell us about the new album, influences, recording process, etc, and what fans can expect
The new album is called Saint Lundi, which was the name of a working class tradition during the middle ages. Basically, people would go on impromptu strikes on Mondays and discuss politics at the tavern. So the main theme of the album is reclaiming free time from work and more generally from that ever-more twisted authoritarian capitalist nightmare we’re calling society. That can be taken in many ways, of course.
Musically, we’re quite happy with the record; it seems to us we managed to keep the our essence of what we’re about alive while trying new stuff and improving our songcraft as well. We’re also pleased with the lyrics, it seems we’re getting better at speaking English after all! (Note from the band: “I just read over that paragraph and it looks like a football player analysing his own performance….lame as fuck! Never mind. The album is full of bangers, the best shit you’ll hear this year for sure, grab one and come get thrashed at a gig!”)
The writing process was a fucking torture – it expanded over 5 years, which is a shame considering it’s only 22 minutes long. But we’re DIY, and unfortunately, DIY means having to deal with real life, family, work, and finding free time for touring and writing. We were fortunate to work with some great people too: Rom TomCat, a local (to us at least!) French engineer specialized in making punk drums sound big and clean; the infamous Barreto, who produced our artwork; and the eight labels in eight countries that are helping us get it all out there on vinyl and tape, including TNSRecords in the UK.
Talk to us about playing Manchester Punk Festival – excited? What are you looking forward to the most?
It’s the 3rd time we’re playing MPF, so we’re happy to come back and play at Gorilla!
We pretty much know what to expect: one of the best festivals there is (there’s even an award to testify to that, apparently, now), meeting all of our friends in the UK there as always, and getting to see some wicked bands.
We’re touring towards Manchester with our buddies in Short Days (Barreto’s band, Lille’s finest punk rock!), so we’re looking forward to seeing them rock the Yes Basement at 10pm on the Saturday as well.
Do you have anything else on the horizon (tours etc) you’d like to promote?
We’ve got a lot coming up – we’re touring Spain with Failure from Italy in June, and then Sweden with hometown heroes DSM5 from Sweden in October. We can’t wait to meet new and old friends, and to play places we’ve never been before, let the good times roll!
It’s our moment to fight back through the bad times – and while I’m on the subject: Free Palestine, Fuck antisemitism, Fuck zionism.
Fuck the fascists raising their ugly heads everywhere, end all wars, and let’s stop innocents are dying for the profit of the mighty.
Not sure I could’ve put it better myself. Catch Jodie Faster at Gorilla at 3pm on Saturday 19th April, and buy their new album Saint Lundi HERE.
Make sure you download the MPF2025 app to find out when all bands are playing – woov.to/manchesterpunk25
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