Hailing from Buckinghamshire, For The Ages is a duo composed of young musicians and songwriters Tim and Alex. Sharing a common passion for good music, sapient storytelling and melodious vocals, the group has been releasing a plethora of singles exploring folk-rock and pop territories, constantly enhancing the quality of their output.
The group’s latest effort – ‘Mythic Bounty’ – is one of their best track to date, and it details a fictional love story between Robin Hood and Maid Marion. Partly inspired by Dire Straits’ iconic hit ‘Romeo and Juliet’, the track represents their try at a romantic and exciting romantic song, a feature that seems to come naturally to them.
Intrigued by the project, we caught up with For The Ages to find out more about their artistry and future goals… Interview below!
Hey guys, how is it going? some of our readers might not be familiar with your project, how would you describe yourself, in a few words?
Alex: Life’s an adventure and we enjoy surviving! I’m having the roof on my house replaced having bought it in the summer – the waterproof felt is the only thing on it at the moment which seems to amplify the sound of rain…..makes for interesting listening when you’re trying to sleep (chuckles)
Tim: I bought him an ice maker as a housewarming gift as we get through a lot of ice during band sessions – got to have cool drinks!
Alex: Getting back to your second question, we’re a two-piece band of eccentric multiinstrumentalists……
Tim: we’re fascinated with and enjoy music from so many different genres so we aim to make tunes that stand the test of time in the genres that we love – from rock to house music, folk to electronica and so on.
Your current work is the result of a long journey; What first drew you to making music?
Tim: I suppose it’s something that’s innate…
Alex: yeah…there are some who believe that the world etc started with a song…that’s mentioned in The Silmarillion (by J.R.R. Tolkien).
Tim: I began learning drums in school at 12 and moved on to incorporating guitar in college from the age of 16. There I began to dep for other musicians in my local area of High Wycombe – getting to play many shows and even owning my own music night eventually before starting a couple of bands. At this point, I took a break from music and, with a lot of grit, got into a Uni for music thus leading to my bachelors for music with Hons and an amazing band with Alex.
Alex: I sang in choirs when I was at school in Virginia in the U.S.A. when my father was working out there for the British Army, and in musicals like ‘Kiss me Kate’ when I was in the West of England Youth Theatre Company. I taught myself guitar after taking bass guitar lessons and started writing songs when I was about 15 or 16. I think I’d be lost without music or acting…I was represented by Ugly Models for about 10 years when I was doing character acting. You might have seen an episode of Brainiac with me busking badly and well to see how much money I made.
If you had the opportunity to pick any artists in the world for a collaboration, who would be your first choice? (and second choice, perhaps?)
Alex: That’s a humdinger of a question. I spent a long time looking for someone who I could write songs with as it involves a lot of trusts and emotional commitment – Tim and I work really well together.
Tim: Gorillaz are one of our influences. And I’m going to open this up to working on music videos as well as the visuals that accompany songs are so important – it would be great to work with anime artists…and Leftfield on some electronic tracks
Alex: Absolutely – it would be good to collaborate with Hans Zimmer on movie scores; and I’ve always been a fan of Dodgy and Kula Shaker’s music. Who knows, we might even turn our hand to writing pop songs for Katy Perry – my kids would love that.
You recently released an evocative and romantic folk-rock jewel, ‘Mythic Bounty’. What does the song represent for you?
Alex: Thanks, I wrote that sometime before ‘For The Ages’ emerged – I wanted to draw parallels between the strong feelings I had with the girl I was seeing at the time and the love between Robin Hood and Maid Marian. They are well-known folk legends and it seemed only right to honour what they had while facing the challenges of Robin being an outlaw.
There are other songs about Robin Hood – including ones by Clannad and Disney – Disney’s Robin Hood is a gem…well worthwhile watching it if you haven’t seen it. A lot of ‘Mythic Bounty’ was written sitting under a tree in Ham Lands in Richmond (London) and I wanted to include some references relevant to Celtic Shamanism.
How does your writing process work? Do you write alone or together?
Tim: Well for myself it varies. Sometimes I hum a tune or have a guitar lick that sounds SUPER catchy depending on what works at the time. Occasionally we write together – if so we’re not afraid of critiquing or editing our sound as we want to create the best music we can and it shows.
Alex: A song usually develops while I’m playing around on the guitar or keyboard….the vocals come a little bit after the chords are established. Occasionally, a tune will come to me when I’m dreaming or daydreaming….it feels like being given a sacred gift. Songwriting with Tim is an incredible process as well – quite simply there just wouldn’t be great songs like ‘Afro Boutique’ without him. Some of ‘The Pendulum’ was written as a result of Tim coming round to cheer me up after I’d been on an abysmal date – helped along by some rum!
You cited Dire Straits as one of the main inspiration for ‘Mythic Bounty’. Have you listened extensively to them?
Alex: (singing) I want my, I want my MTV…..
Alex: They have produced some hugely memorable rock music……’Sultans of Swing’, ‘Brothers in Arms’ and, of course, ‘Romeo and Juliet’ – that’s the one that got me thinking about writing a love song about Robin and Marian. Mark Knopfler’s guitar and songwriting skills are superb.
Tim: We’re so blessed to have access to so much music. We’re influenced by a huge range of artists.
Artistically speaking, what challenges have the last two years presented you with?
Tim: Well we were gutted when we found out that Brooklyn Nine-Nine was coming to an end (Tim laughs). We both love that show.
Alex: There also haven’t been any new comedy films from Jim Carrey for a while which has been hard to stomach.
Tim: We both hold down full-time jobs and do extra work on top of that. So we have to be incredibly organised and disciplined when we do get together – time is allocated to marketing, making music videos, creating music……. and just having fun. There’s no point to making music if it isn’t enjoyable.
What are the next steps for your project? Anything exciting on the horizon?
Tim: Well we have one in the pipeline ready to go but we are holding it back as we all know when you release is just as important as what you release. We’re hoping to have a music video ready for it as well. Get ready for sun, sea and sand, date TBC.
