Field Music, the acclaimed Sunderland art-pop band, have launched a Doors tribute act called the Fire Doors to stave off 'catastrophic financial doom'. The move, announced on Facebook last month, drew critical questions from fans, prompting a candid statement from co-founder David Brewis about the band's dire finances and their 'quiet passage into contemporary irrelevance'.
Brewis wrote that after nine albums and 20 years, the band faces an ageing audience, post-Covid industry changes, and falling record sales. 'We've always worked on the tiniest of margins,' he said. 'Selling three-quarters of the records we used to sell, while having to do twice the amount of promo, turns our tiny margin of sustainability into catastrophic financial doom.'
The tribute band, featuring Brewis as Jim Morrison alongside his brother Peter, Andrew Moore, and the Futureheads' David Hyde, has been booked solid until next September after Brewis's honest post went viral. 'I only posted because I thought it might sell 10 tickets,' he said. 'Prior to that, I'd sent 50 emails to venues and managed to book three gigs.'
Brewis dismissed any embarrassment about the side hustle, noting that many musicians secretly take such work to subsidise their art. 'It's like a dirty secret,' he said. 'But me saying it out loud, because I have no shame, illustrated something unspoken.' He described the project as a serious research effort, studying books and live footage to perfect the performance.
Field Music will celebrate their 20th anniversary with a live run in November. Despite never having a hit, they've released three Top 40 albums and earned a fan in Prince. Brewis sees the cover band as survival in a changed industry: 'Everyone in the creative industries has a portfolio career. Juggling that so you feel you're doing something worthwhile – that's survival.'
