Funksters High Fade crashed Rushonrock’s Best Of 2024 top five with the fabulous Life’s Too Fast. Simon Rushworth caught up with frontman Harry Valentino as this month’s sold out UK tour kicks off.

Rushonrock: How does a band from Edinburgh end up playing funk rock?

Harry Valentino: You know what, I actually ask myself the same question sometimes. I think it simply came from the fact that I always loved playing funk music. I’ve always been a heavy metal fan but Oli [Sentance, bass] is into reggae, ska and jazz fusion. We’re all into very different kinds of music but we all love funk. Then there was the fact that I just got sick of the original music scene in Scotland. I know that sounds bad but I reached a point where I felt that nobody was playing anything original any more. It all felt very safe and people were choosing to focus on what was cool and popular at the time, rather than breaking new ground. I suppose that’s fine to an extent and I know the indie, rock and singer-songwriter scene has always been big in Scotland. I get that. I’m a big John Martyn fan. But that just wasn’t the music we wanted to play. I get that we didn’t fit in — apart from the Average White Band there haven’t been too many funk bands from north of the border.

Rushonrock: On reflection, were you right to stick to your guns?

HV: I guess the fact that we stand out from the crowd has become a selling point. I’m not sure how or why and that was never the intention. I just set out to play the music I wanted to play. I wanted to be in a band that could be fast and heavy hitting but funky and with elements of disco. As a band we wanted to challenge ourselves — it made us perform at the top of our game and there’s no doubt that’s paid off. 

Rushonrock: Was it tough to meet your own expectations in the early days?

HV: We weren’t always super tight but we always worked hard. We were always working on stuff, writing new tunes and making sure we progressed. Even now we’re very hard on ourselves and always striving to get better at what we do. I don’t think it ever feels like we’re ever completely satisfied — we’re always trying to push the boundaries. We’re known as funk rockers but we hate staying within one box. One song will be funky but another will be straight classic rock. There might be weird bits within a song and we could even write a pop song. We’ve gone in all kinds of different directions on Life’s Too Fast — there’s instrumental stuff, slower funk, fast funk, rock and disco. It’s all in there!

Rushonrock: And do your fellow Scots finally get High Fade?

HV: Eventually, our music started to catch on but for a long time it wasn’t popular in Edinburgh at all. Getting to this point has been hard won. I think it’s the same for a lot of bands. Wherever you’re from, whatever you’re doing isn’t really widely accepted until you start doing it in loads of other places. Only at that point do you start to get some respect back home. People suddenly think ‘Oh, Ok, they must be doing something right’. 

Rushonrock: How challenging is it to belt out High Fade’s back catalogue as a three piece?

HV: In the early days it was a lot more challenging! Until a couple of years ago there had been something like 17 different line-ups of High Fade. Me and a bunch of other people — some from Edinburgh and some from Glasgow — would get together as and when. There was a lot of chopping and changing. Then Oli joined about a year and a half into High Fade and he’s been with me for five-and-a-half years. Calvin [Davidson, drums] joined two years ago and we’ve been a three-piece ever since. It’s been a breath of fresh air. I think that, if anything, it actually makes us have to think more about what we’re doing and almost make sure everything that we’re doing counts. There’s not really anywhere to hide — it’s just guitar, bass and drums. We have to be selective with our parts but there’s also room for solos. When there was five or six of us there was just too much going on.

Rushonrock: On a personal note, how do you find muti-tasking as the singer and the lead guitarist?

HV: Honestly, it’s been a tough road getting to that point of singing and playing a lot of the stuff because the guitar parts are quite technical. It really does split your brain! Calvin’s singing and playing the drums, Oli’s trying to hold it all together with his crazy basslines and it can all get a bit confusing. But the songwriting’s become simpler so that we can add our own stuff as and when.I think we’ve got the balance right.

Rushonrock: Is there a moment when you felt High Fade had finally broken through?

HV: I think that when we started selling out more and more shows across the UK it felt like things were heading in the right direction. And going to the States for the first time was hugely significant. Playing an entirely new continent — when we hadn’t even toured Europe properly — felt like a significant jump. It was a logistical nightmare and we had to work incredibly hard to make it happen and pull it off. But we did it. And that’s when I remember thinking ‘things are picking up now’. You’re not going over to America for the first time to make money. It’s an opportunity to put your flag in the ground. That’s what we did.

Rushonrock: Back home, how much does High Fade rely on the UK’s grassroots scene and independent venues?

HV: Massively and I don’t think you can underestimate the work that venue owners and the Music Venues Trust are doing to keep that scene alive. As an example, we’re playing Pilgrim in Newcastle this month as part of the venue’s relaunch weekend. The owner, Michael, met us at our first gig in Newcastle and liked what he saw. He wanted to work with us and got us on the bill at The Glasshouse last September. Now he owns Pilgrim and he wanted us there this weekend. He’s been so supportive. The music industry can be corrupt but it can also be the most beautiful thing on the planet when you meet people randomly who share your passion and become good friends. It’s easy to forget about the smaller places bands play and the amount of work that goes into actually running a venue — especially a good one. It’s very easy to run a bad music venue but to try and run a good one is incredibly difficult. Michael does that and that’s why we’ll be pointing all of our friends in the direction of Pilgrim!”

High Fade are on tour across the UK and the US in 2025. Visit highfademusic.live for details