From the forthcoming release ‘Bugged Out presents Suck My Deck Mixed by Friendly Fires’Out on !K7 Records 27th September 2010 Friendly Fires have solid dance music credentials. Their excellent self-titled 2008 debut mixed club-friendly grooves and indie rock guitars. It saw them become one of the success stories of last year. Meanwhile all three members - Ed Macfarlane (vocals, bass, synth), Edd Gibson (guitar) and Jack Savidge (drums) - do neat sidelines as DJs on the club circuit. “I mean, I’ve been DJing for longer than Friendly Fires has existed,” says Savidge. The three of them grew up listening to Warp, and Macfarlane released tracks on respected Manchester electronic imprint Skam and Hooj Choons offshoot Precinct. But to date the band have never made a straight-up house track Stay Here, one of the highlights of Friendly Fires’ Bugged Out! Presents Suck My Deck compilation changes that. A collaboration with Toronto house crew Azari & III written exclusively for Suck My Deck, it’s a lush fusion of classic house beats, spoken vocals from the band and a powerful chorus from Azari’s Cedric Gasiada. All three members of Friendly Fires were big fans of Azari & III, having played the Canadians’ tracks Hungry For The Power and Reckless With Your Love in their respective DJ sets. However, when they were approached by Cedric Gasiada at an after-show party in Toronto while on tour in North America at the end of 2009, they didn’t recognise him. “I think I’d just played Hungry For The Power, and Cedric came up and said hello,” remembers Savidge. “I didn’t know who he was. Then Ed found out that he was Cedric from Azari & III and everyone was like, Oh my god. We love those guys. We found him a microphone. He sang the lyrics to our song Paris over this banging house tune.” TRACKLIST Friendly Fires and Azari & III - Stay Here Friendly Fires and Azari & III - Stay Here (Instrumental)