Playing King Tut’s last Thursday are 100 Fables. As always, they brought an electric performance to the stage with nothing but a high energy journey through their typically, multi-genre set. Following on from the success of their ‘Fables Friday’ single releases, it was no surprise that the tiny room in Tut’s was pretty packed out. One of the support acts were Rigid Souls, a blues-rock outfit who managed to rip it up with their stripped back set of twangy, blues bending goodness. They killed it with their raspy vocal tones and rolling beats. Also, part of the warm up set was Hunkybug, apparently a dedication to their ‘dear friend’ The Duckman, more rock and roll than blues but akin to that 60s guitar band sound. They brought eccentricity that really lightened up the room. The final support act to mention are the Whispering Pines, with an equally unique persona, who brought us more into recent decades with a dancey indie-rock beat. They bounced along on more mellow vocals, still with the same punch and vigor as you might expect from a 100 Fables support.
Then came the main act. Nothing short of amazing as they played through their well-aired single collection. Switching seamlessly from one track to the next they manage to bring a connectedness to a very different collection of individual tracks. They are liertally un-boxable. But what makes this gig a memorable experience is the ability Fables have to engage with their crowd. As intimate as Tut’s gets, they make you feel at ease, almost like being round at a friend’s house for a jam session. The intricacy and sheer love for what they do is evident in their delivery of the goods. For having only been on the circuit for a short while you could easily mistake them for veterans of the Scottish music scene.
As part of their tour, we were also lucky enough to catch up with lead singer Lyndsey for an interview, ahead of Thursday’s gig, about all things 100 Fables and what makes the Scottish music scene a great place to be.
100 Fables what’s in a name?
When asking Lyndsey about the origins of the name, it was everything else they do, really thoroughly thought through and not just bringing meaning to their identity.
“Yes when we were first getting together and I was trying to think of obviously, think of that name, so I kept looking for inspiration, and then one of the things I randomly found online was some archives with unreleased Prince songs… I’m a big Prince fan…I was just scrolling and scrolling for ages and one was called 99 fables, I had already thought of using the word Fables somewhere…”
How long have you all known each other? How did you meet?
“…we've known each other well me, Harris and Mark have known each other the longest from when you're first getting together… we were writing together from the get go and then came …and now our new drummer he's been with us since April so he's amazing but again it’s quite ironic because Logan did some session drumming for us once and it was our very first show at King tuts…our drummer Chris woke up that morning and he had bad food poisoning…and we had our first headline gig in three hours time, and we were like, we don't have a drummer so Logan literally got to the soundcheck never played before and then went to a rehearsal studio for two hours… so it's something really nice about tonight, it’s really here when our relationship started… it's all written in the stars man”
As a band what are your biggest influences?
“…it's funny because when it started we were really into the 80s vibe so Blondie The Cars…I was a real Kathleen Hanna, Riot Girl fan…it was all kind of revolving around that and then obviously the last couple of years were just naturally evolving ourselves. I think other people maybe hear like panic at the disco kind of vibes somehow… and some of the songs, some have some brass in them so I think, I think it's one thing is everyone always says…What genre are you and I just think it's really hard to box us.”
Would you say that's maybe what sets you apart from others?
“…definitely you've probably seen that the bandit was supported to mean we've supported Glasvegas…the Bay City rollers that's really random it works for everyone I think that’s something really special that we have, it's something really valuable in that way I think when it comes down to the music we’re always really wanting to connect with the audience and have one of those great nights just have dance and have a bit of fun”
Your debut EP Electric Girls And Boys was released at the end of last year, and you’ve continued to grow both in number of releases and fans over the last year, when do you think you realised your potential?
“I think it's just one of those things we set out to do, it’s always been my goal in life it's like I'm gonna be in a huge band one day, it's just something I've always believed. So I guess just from the start it was always the end goal …that's it set your sights for it and that's why you naturally gravitate toward something. When we did the five singles just in June there, yeah that was mental it was one of those ones where people kept asking when when is this or that coming out. When we looked into releasing an EP with them all together, they all had their different personalities. So we thought why don't we do them all individually, do them once a week and that means every song gets to be in the limelight for a bit”
“…At one point Strangers in LA had like 4500 thousand folk in LA listening and like our fan base suddenly moved … it was like 80% in America … it was just like the power of music and the power of the internet these days.”
What do you think makes the Scottish music scene such a flourishing arena, and how has this compared to your experiences gigging elsewhere?
“I think it just comes back to that everyone just loves Scottish folk… and I think obviously the Scottish mentality …they make music they love, and it's not about trying to be like someone else or formulate something, it's just people making music they love and everyone just loves and supports that. We've played a lot in England and don't get me wrong England is amazing as well really great crowds …but yeah the first time I played Manchester there was 120 folk in a tiny room listening to his and I was just like that's mental it's really cool the people came to see as same again in London we played in Camden, we had so many London fans we didn't even know about.”
“I think that's always just been a lot of the Scottish sound… they're not worried about the commercial factor, just doing what they love doing, and it is that creativity that factors above all and it's that creativity that takes over.”
On your site you mention you have a vision for the band, can you enlighten us on what this looks like? What are your hopes for the future of the band?
“…it’s always about having that positive mindset like putting it out there in the universe and they're gonna give you it back, and I think that's already been shown in the past couple of years that we have been together, the amount of shows we’ve done…but we’re always striving to keep going, to plan over the next years to get into Europe…we've got a lot of people calling over in America… we’re looking at getting over there, finding the right team to help us make that happen but it's one of those ones that will happen.”
“…in the future we will be one of those festival bands that you will see, always there every year, you always see them, and I think that's where we will end up. Again, it's about the journey to get there. We just want to explore, we just want to meet so many people with that being said were looking at the European tour and then going over to America continue to get that support and get that growth.”
Well there you have it, again wow, just wow. An inspirational night and an inspirational discussion with this young and blossoming outfit. You might just be left with a sense of never ending wonder that can only be filled with more of the same. 100 Fables don’t disappoint with their clear passion for music. Having won the European Hard Rock Café Battle of the Bands, the band have gone from strength to strength, with another recent single release and a stellar gig calendar for the rest of the year there’s no doubting their success.
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