After an 11-year break from recording, veteran Belfast punks Stiff Little Fingers have just released No Going Back, a fan-funded album that's one of the strongest since their 1987 reformation. Frontman Jake Burns spoke to David Roy about the record
WHEN Stiff Little Fingers blazed on to the punk scene in 1977 with the incendiary one-two punch of Suspect Device and Alternative Ulster, even their most ardent fans could hardly have imagined the young Belfast band would still be 'kicking up a racket' almost 40 years later. However, with classic albums like Inflammable Material, Nobodies Heroes and Go For It! being taken to heart by successive generations of rock fans (including members of Therapy?, Rancid and Green Day) and the band's relentless touring and reliably full-on live performances, 'the Stiffs' have endured where others imploded or faded into obscurity. Although they last released an album more than 10 years ago with the well-received Guitar and Drum, SLF have proved worth waiting for. Their new LP No Going Back is a fantastic rock and roll album that finds singer/guitarist Jake Burns and co combining the band's trademark social commentary and note-to-self defiance with some of their catchiest songwriting to date.
Even more impressively, it was entirely paid for by the band's loyal worldwide fanbase via PledgeMusic, one of the world's most popular new online platforms for independent music makers. "We played about six songs from it last night," Burns tells me, the night after the official album release gig/party in Nuneaton, which followed hot on the heels of their annual live fixtures in Belfast and Glasgow. "We topped and tailed them with Suspect Device and Alternative Ulster. "The idea was that, after that, we'd come off to have a drink and a yarn with the audience - but it ended up turning into a photographic free-for all."
Such are the perils of being a beloved band in the digital age, where nothing actually happens until it's posted on Twitter and/or Facebook. Still, Stiff Little Fingers - who also feature original bassist Ali McMordie and long-time members Steve Grantley (drums) and Ian McCallum (guitar) - can have few complaints about attracting a tech-savvy fanbase in the wake of their following's overwhelming support for No Going Back's PledgeMusic campaign. "I've long maintained that our fans are more like a football crowd than a rock audience," enthuses the Chicago-based Burns (56), who overcame depression in the wake of divorce to pen the songs for the band's impressive 'comeback' LP. "We're their band and that's that, through thick and thin. But we were still nervous about the idea of doing a Pledge campaign. "With record companies, if EMI don't want you then at least you can still go to CBS or Warners and try again.
"But if you ask your audience to help you make an album and they turn round and say 'nah, we're not interested' you're kind of screwed. "You've nowhere else to go, so we a bit apprehensive about doing it."
Of course, that was never going to be a problem for a band like the Stiffs. "We started out as an independent band so it's kind of like we've gone back to being that again," explains Burns of the first release on the band's Ridid Digits label since their debut single Suspect Device in 1977. "We initially gave ourselves two months to reach our target for the album. It actually reached it in under 12 hours."
Indeed, at the time of writing the No Going Back Pledge fund stands at 362 per cent of its target total, with seven days still remaining. "It's incredible," remarks Burns of this immediate and overwhelming support. "It was a huge leap of faith because they were effectively buying an album they hadn't heard. "Of course, we then had some smartarses coming up to us and saying 'oh, does that mean it's going to be a triple album?'"
In fact, in keeping with SLF's socially conscious attitude, five per cent of any extra money raised will go towards the Integrated Education Fund in Northern Ireland.
No Going Back certainly crackles with energy from start to finish through a strong set of songs that mix personal issues such as divorce and depression with a defiantly positive worldview on politics, racism and the ongoing global financial straits. "Right from the minute we got into the rehearsal room we were like, 'We're actually spending the audience's money here - so we better get it right," recalls Burns of the recording process. "Nobody ever sets out to make a bad record but I think that really helped get us fired up this time. "The title started out as a modified line from My Dark Places - but it also applies to so many things that the band and our audience have been through. "For all the serious subjects we've written about over the years, I like to think we haven't been downbeat about them. "We're saying 'it's like this - but it doesn't have to be."
Taking its cue from the refreshingly back-to-basics approach of 2003's Guitar and Drum LP, the music on No Going Back is in general anthemic, no-nonsense rock 'n' roll performed by a quartet clearly intent on making up for lost time. "In the past we had dabbled with bringing in horn sections and stuff," explains Burns. "But then we stopped and thought, 'what are we actually good at?' - and that is playing live, which is when we don't have those other embellishments. "Basically it's taken us 37 years to realise that we should just stick to what we know." Although No Going Back is an album that's all about maintaining forward momentum, Burns does find time to reflect on final track When We Were Young. "Once I'd written the song, I realised it was very similar in content to At The Edge - it's even in the same key," reveals Burns of his decision to reference the opening line of one of the Belfast band's stone cold classics in the new song. "Once I sang 'back when I was younger they were talking at me / never listened to a word I said' over the top, I realised it had to go in - it was the perfect way to tie the whole damn thing together."
* No Going Back is available now via SLF.com.