Guilty pleasures: Felix White

The Maccabees are a busy lot. "It only occurred to us recently that we've not had a proper break in about seven or eight years," Felix White (above, piercing blue eyes, long hair) tells us in a snatched moment of downtime.

Having just returned from playing festivals in Germany and Holland, the band are managing to sneak in studio sessions to work on their fourth album, juggling mid-week recording and writing around further weekend festival dates. We spoke to Felix (guitarist and backing singer) about his guilty pleasures, the next album and Latitude.

Film

This isn't even a guilty pleasure, I hate it, but for some reason I’ve seen it about ten times out of coincidence, (someone’s always wanted to watch it or it’s been on on the bus): Babe 2 (Pig in the City). I’ve never even seen Babe 1. All that I can say is that it has no redeeming features. It’s one of the worst pieces of cinema entertainment ever created. I think I went to see it as a date when I was 14, and then it’s just been this horrible recurring event in my life – every six months through unforeseen circumstances I’ve had to sit through the whole thing.

TV

Have you ever seen Sing Date?

Stingray? You can’t dis Stingray, it’s a classic…

No S-ing D-ate… Stingray’s killer man... Not a lot of people seem to have heard Sing Date, it’s sunk under the surface of popular culture. I came across it about a month ago, watched three or four episodes back to back. It’s like The X Factor meets Blind Date, thanks to a weird realisation of modern internet. It looks like it's made on a budget of about £50. Couples dress up in front of each other on Skype and have singoffs. One of them picks a date out of three prospective suitors and they meet live in what looks like a cardboard TV studio. Then they go for a date afterwards. It's fascinating.

Website

A good friend of mine is trying to create a website at the moment called PointlessBalconies.com. The tag line is going to be “I thought of it in Croydon”. It’s going to be an interactive website where people can send in photos of pointless balconies overlooking walls. When that comes to fruition, I imagine that will be my guilty pleasure website.

App

I do have Instagram… but I guess that’s alright? I would never take any f*cking photos of food though – the only things that I’d feel like sharing with the social word would be directly related to Fulham Football Club or cricket. Other than that… no I never really feel the need to share anything like that with people. I mean taking photos of food man, for f*ck’s sake. It’s a fascinating insight into people’s brains, it’s crazy what people send the world.

Food

I love fast food and junk food. We’re making a record at the moment, and a few days ago something tricky was going on in the studio – we couldn’t get something working and it was all a bit stressful. To escape, I left the studio without telling the boys, just in my t-shirt in the pouring rain. Without even thinking – it was like I was guided there subconsciously – I went to KFC, had a mini fillet and came back again.

Music

Guilty pleasure album has to be Mike + The Mechanics: Greatest Hits. I remember when I was really little my parents had some friends round and they put it on - they’d all get really into it. It's classic middle aged rock. I even remember being about ten and feeling ashamed of myself that I was enjoying it with them, vicariously through them. Though I am unashamedly in love with The Living Years, it’s epic. And I remember the track Over my shoulder was used when a character left Biker Grove, *sings* "Looking back over my shoulder…" I remember that very clearly... it's a very sentimental memory.

You can catch Felix and the rest of The Maccabees at Latitude on 18th to 21st July. Just don't ask him to watch Babe 2.

(Images: Rex images, All Star)