To many, five-piece Fixers need no introduction; the time for introducing Fixers was 2011. This was the year in which they headlined the BBC Introducing stage at Reading and Leeds. Along with performances on Radio 1’s Live Lounge, there has been a steady stream of downloadable songs, singles and EPs. This busy year culminated in Fixers being signed up to Mercury Records
The band hails from Oxford, a place of obvious rich musical heritage and have recently been featured as part of many investigations into the Oxford ‘scene’. Chad Valley and Trophy Wife are other musicians who have been tied to the OX postcode in an attempt to portray one congruent scene of creativity for bands and musicians. The band has been a key live presence in Oxfordshire, taking a high-billing at Truck Festival, a festival that has a history of putting on up and coming bands from the area.
The music that Fixers play, dubbed ‘psychedelic pop’ can be filed alongside MGMT or The Flaming Lips through their most conventional pop tunes. It is clear that the song-writing of Brian Wilson has been a big influence on the band, as have Animal Collective which be seen in the gauze of harmonies in the band’s most recent single, ‘Iron Deer Dream’. Both of these bands, despite their sometimes outlandish lyrics that risk disengaging the listener (see ‘My Girls’ by Animal Collective), have the pop hooks that deliver it from being Noel Fielding’s Luxury Comedy.
2011 was a sound year for Fixers. Time will tell whether or not the band can carry on the momentum with the release of their debut album We’ll Be the Moon scheduled for April of this year. The album will be a culmination of the previous years’ sporadic releases and the band will finally have a cohesive body of work. If you like your music experimental, without drifting too far from catchy pop sensibilities, you should definitely suss out Fixers.
Fixers are currently supporting Kaiser Chiefs. They kick off their headline tour at The Joiners, Southampton on Friday the 11th of May.
