I recently caught up with Dexter for a wee chat and talk all things The 101!
How would you sum up your 2018?
We’ve been a band for two years now and both years I feel can be summarised by the word ‘overwhelming’. At first that may seem a little pessimistic and negative, but I think as a band, we are always utterly overwhelmed by people supporting our band. To have six best friends who share a mutual love for writing, recording, releasing and performing music is surreal in itself. But to have people engage with that, whether that be in the form of streaming, buying merch, coming to gigs or even just showing support across social media is totally overwhelming at times, in the best way. We went from playing our first gig to about five people in Aberdeen to playing our biggest ever show to 500 people in The Lemon Tree, Aberdeen in September. And to top it all off, had the absolute privilege of supporting Scottish legends Texas at a sold-out Music Hall in December – it’s been quite the ride.
Plans for 2019?
With trying to find a fine balance between what I can say and what is actually happening, I guess what you can expect from The 101 is new music, bigger shows and some pretty special announcements/plans.
Any New Music in the Pipeline?
Spent the Autumn of 2018 locked in a studio in Edinburgh recording a whole bunch of new music. Just need to decide what to release now! Exciting times though, so a big fat yes, to answer your question.
What are your influences for song writing?
I think I’ve always been attracted to very honest, upfront song writing. I love artists who just totally say it how it is, no hidden metaphors to suss out or decipher. From a very young age I listened to stuff like Simon & Garfunkel, Billy Joel, Tracy Chapman and Randy Newman amongst others where you could very easily tell what the lyrical background was and what the artist was singing about and that’s something that clicked with me and something I think I’ve taken into my own song writing. More recently I have totally fallen in love with the late, great Scott Hutchison of Frightened Rabbit’s song writing. I think it is so lyrically unique and although it could be interpreted as quite cynical and harsh lyrics, I adore the just pure, brutal honesty and lack of imagery of it. I think its very brave and admirable to be able to sing about the stuff Scott sang about so personally and formally, and it’s something I’m finding myself doing more often than not.
Thoughts on the Scottish music scene?
I might be biased but I think it is better than ever. I think if you get a bit of a push in the right direction there are hundreds of incredible bands in the country. It’s the thing I love most about being in a band that is a part of the scene (albeit a miniscule part), discovering and getting the chance to work, play and see bands that you probably wouldn’t otherwise have heard of or gotten the chance to become aware of.
Favourite Scottish bands or artists?
The Little Kicks, Best Girl Athlete, Fatherson, Frightened Rabbit, Nina Nesbit, Zoe Graham, Apache Darling, November Lights, Laykoto, VanIves.
If you could cover a song, what would it be and why?
This is such a difficult one. I can only speak for me (Dexter), but I think I would love to try cover Christine and the Queens. Totally hooked on their first album and think the production on it is sublime.
What is the most bizare thing to happen to you on stage?
We were playing a pretty big show at the Ironworks in Inverness and as I announced our last song (which we obviously thought was our best song), the sound technician pulled the plug on the gig cause we’d ran over time over the course of the night so I then had to announce we were not playing our last song. To top it all off, I was then informed when we got off stage that the gig was being broadcast live on BBC Radio Scotland. Nightmare!
If you had only one album to listen to for the rest of your life, what would it be?
I think right now it would be an album called ‘Golden Hour’ by Kacey Musgraves, but if I was to be asked the album I would listen to for the rest of my life I would have to go with… ‘Hunky Dory’ by David Bowie or an album called ‘Long Way Down’ by Tom Odell.
What is your guilty pleasure song?
We actually have a band guilty pleasure song! On one of our first practises we had been at it for about 13 hours and so decided to watch a film together and stuck on ‘The Dictator’ with Sasha Baron Cohen in it and there’s a song in that called ‘A moment like this’ by Leona Lewis that we listen to before most gigs, and we enjoy it absolutely shamelessly.
If you had your own festival, who would be your three headliners? Again, speaking for 1/6 of the band here. I think if it were exclusively up to me, I would have to go with; Radiohead, Fleetwood Mac and probably The Beatles to be honest. That would be some gig.
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