Before they took to the stage to play a brilliant set, I caught up with Tom, Charlie and Matt backstage in the superb SWG3. Crammed into a dressing room the size of a cupboard and after Tom had finished getting ready after a pre gig shower, we sat down for a chat.
How would you sum up your 2018?
"It's like a roller coaster we never wanted to get on but we had to because we were forced to but we enjoyed it a lot too."
You released Columbia earlier in the year, was the reaction to that what you expected?
"Everything we wanted and more. It got great feedback. We originally went into the studio hoping to record an EP in order to give our audience some sort of audio landscape of what we wanted to achieve as a band but we ended up doing an album so that audio landscape became the album. That's what we wanted it to be literally "this is us documenting the last two years as band" so to receive some sort of popularity from it like radio backing and there's a few names knocking about that we can't really list, it was quite a lot of fun around that period."
How does a Scottish crowd differ from an English crowd?
"It's much better! We like it up here very much. How many times have we been up here? About 10 or so? Yeah Scotland always treats us well. The difference between England and Scotland I think there's a lot more of a younger crowd up here as opposed to England. In England we sort of get this split between the middle of middle aged old punks to the younger crowd but in Scotland is overwhelmingly youths. Neither audience is bad,worse or better but Scotland's better!"
Is there a particular gig in Scotland that you thought's been the best?
"King Tuts comes to mind, we didn't think we did very well but then we did like 100 tickets on the day which was great as you get a free bottle of whiskey if you sell it out! Aberdeen on the tour was one of the surprising ones. We went up there thinking nobody would be there. It's like playing in a pub in Drummonds but it was good. There were a few who had travelled up from Glasgow and Edinburgh as we didn't put on shows there as we had this embargo with a festival in Glasgow " you can't play in Glasgow around such and such a time" so we had to go there. So yeah that was a nice surprise Drummonds in Aberdeen on the last tour. We also did The Barrowlands with The View which is like fucking hell not many people can say that, it was great. There good boys."
If you could cover a Christmas song which one would it be and why?
"Probably Paul McCartney.. oh no Blossoms have just done that so its probably void now. Fuck Blossoms we'll do it better than them! We'll get a 20 piece boy choir! But in all seriousness have you ever seen Love Actually? You know that song that goes " Love is all around me, its everywhere I go" they just change love to Christmas..."
At this moment a debate started about that not being acceptable which I agreed with. Then the tune of Stop The Cavalry by Jona Lewie was hummed and drummed. Nobody could remember who sung it at the time either.
"Sorry we spent far too long on that!"
What are your plans for 2019?
"So we wanna get our passports stamped you know? So I think we will do a few abroad trips. We've announced a few Germany shows and we've announced a small UK tour to finish off the Columbia cycle I suppose. We are playing Glasgow at Saint Lukes at the end of April and like I say after that we are off to Germany for a few shows and a few festivals hopefully. Then hopefully record another album and see how the year goes and pans out. We started to write it already so that's kind of another focus at the moment once we've finished off the Colbumbia stuff. Get it over and done with!"
What Scottish bands or artists do you listen to?
"Amazing Snakeheads everyday! They were, god bless his sole Dale, such a big influence on our first album. What an incredible album so it's got to be Amphetamine Balance by The Amazing Snakeheads. Rascalton are good,they come down to Manchester every now and again and they are playing today which is good news. Of coarse Baby Strange as well. In fact Baby Strange were the first band we saw together at Leeds Fest in 2013... no 2014."
What pre gig routines do you have?
"We get this question alot... just because its a popular question! No not really we don't, its more of a switch for us, fifteen minutes before we go on we switch into a mood. It's not really any sore of ritual or pre gig superstition. We just drink a lot of red wine I suppose! And when we are up here, if we can get it, Buckfast."
If you had your own festival who would be your three headliners?
"So you would have a legends slot. You'd have Pink Floyd on the Saturday... would you not have Zeppelin?"
Just like the Christmas song choice, this led to another band debate...
"Floyd on the Saturday, Monkeys on the Friday... Zeppelin and Floyd... na that's way far! One legends slot. Robert Plant? Why don't we have that on the day before? Arctic Monkeys Friday,Saturday Led Zep... No Saturday Pink Floyd.. Kylie Sunday afternoon slot!"
Any guilty pleasure songs?
"Scissor Sisters... All of their back catalogue... Erm guilty pleasures... I dunno I think we are quite open as people so we don't really have guilty pleasures we just listen to shite! And be proud about it. U2 is Charlies - not guilty at all! That's Charlie's should be guilty pleasure."
At this moment ABBA was mentioned as a guilty pleasure which meant I had to end the interview... Only joking, it was because I had ran out of questions.
Big thanks to the lads for speaking to me, couldn't have been a better interview.
Comments