The Fiery Furnaces reissue a cult classic: ‘We knew we wouldn’t seem like an also-ran NYC band in leather jackets’

<p>As the divisive duo re-release Blueberry Boat for its 20th anniversary, they talk being unfit for success, how indie got soft and the ‘dream come true’ of getting 1/10 in NME</p><p></p><p>The Fiery Furnaces had no expectations for their second album, 2004’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2004/sep/03/popandrock.shopping3">Blueberry Boat</a>. The sibling duo recorded it before their debut had even come out, and so had no idea that 2003’s Gallowsbird’s Bark would receive such wild acclaim: in an 8.4 review, Pitchfork called its shambolic rock’n’roll and frontwoman Eleanor Friedberger’s arcane lyricism a “a mess of weird, undulating musical bits that are hugely intriguing despite not always making a whole shitload of sense”. They were busy fulfilling a five-album deal with Rough Trade, a luxury that was pretty much par for the course as a buzzy Brooklyn band in the time of the Strokes and Interpol – not that their Beefhearty blues had much in common with preening rock revivalism. “I thought they were so bad. I just didn’t give a shit about that stuff,” was one of Eleanor’s withering contributions to the scene oral history Meet Me in the Bathroom.</p><p>Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger had moved from Chicago: in a classic older brother move, he bought her a guitar and drum kit when she was in her teens, then she roped him into playing with her when he followed her east. “We were a New York band, and there were a lot of bands where that’s what people knew about them,” says Matthew, 52, on a three-way call with his sister, 49. “That seemed to be the distinguishing feature: they were from New York and sort of new-wavy. Why were they meant to be good? I was pleased with the idea that with Blueberry Boat, at least it would be hard to lump us in with them. We wouldn’t seem like an also-ran New York City band wearing leather jackets.”</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/o