Thursday 19 April 2012

A year and counting...


We're edging ever closer to getting our first EP as a full band released! We've got the first draft on this incredibly high-tec, fancy CD-R complete with hand-drawn lettering and peace symbol! When you get your copy this won't be the case by the way, they'll look a bit more like a proper CD. Actually, come to think of it they'll look a lot more like a 7" vinyl - those CDs are cool as feck!

Anyway, what a great first year it's been for the band. Seems like only a month or two back that Daz was touring the acoustic circuit on his lonesome, making a good name for himself. I went along to watch him and his bro Mikey play at the Box on Sauchiehall street in February 2011 and immediately heard the songwriting ability those lads had! Having been out of the music scene for almost 4 years I convinced the lads to let me have another bash at being the noisy fucker that fannies about at the side of the stage - glad they said yes! Phil, aka Stavros the Greek, was recruited to rock the bass guitar again. Despite never having had any lessons on how to play, he more than made up for it by having the flashiest, coolest shoes in the band!

In this first year we've had some pretty damn good times! Our first gig was supporting a guy called Adam from We Were Promised Jetpacks (not the friendliest guy we've ever met to be brutally honest), but to make our debut at a venue like The Voodoo Rooms in Edinburgh was very cool. Many thanks to Tony and Stuart at RubberStamp for that! We played a few shows after, Whistlebinkies a couple of times, then the Greenside in Leslie, through to the Box again! Took us a few months to get our first Dundee gigs but man were they worth the wait! 2 gigs at Dexter's which were nothing short of spectacular, and a great show at the latest incarnation of the Doghouse where the sound was verging on perfection!

In addition to this we've been played by Steve Lamacq on Radio 6 down in England. We also got airplay on BBC Introducing up here in Scotland, as well as interviews on Kingdom FM and Splash Radio! Pretty cool considering our first year goal was to have a ten song set and get some local gigs!

Not always plain-sailing obviously, nothing ever is! We had an absolute shiter at the Box a few months back. The bill was weird that night, very strange mix of bands. We arrived at 6pm that night (and still weren't offered a soundcheck) and sat through a young lad with an acoustic who was pretty damn inaudible. Then a kind of Green Day meets Blink 182 band, followed up by a bunch of really angry, shouty girl punk rockers singing songs about how all men are cunts! Wasn't exactly ideal warm up material for us, a bunch of normal 90s indie-loving shoegazers to stroll on stage and do our thing.

An absolutely packed venue couldn't have given a fuck who we were or what type of tunes we played! Bad vibes from the word go to be honest. We soldiered on, thought "ah fuck it" and fired through the set. The sound guy didn't know how to hook up an acoustic guitar properly and kept changing the levels while we were on stage - it sounded shite, and we knew it sounded shite! Fucking hard to enjoy yourself when you know everyone in the room just wants the noise to stop! Cut the set short, bailed off and decided to not head back to that venue till they sorted their shit out! To be totally honest from what I've heard through the grapevine, they still haven't!

Since then though we've been having a great laugh, met some cool as fuck people and been getting a good bit of exposure! We even won a public vote on Kingdom FM for being Fife's best live band - we were well happy about that! If you've ever seen us live (you really should you know) you'll know that's the part we enjoy the most and take most pride in! It's loud, beautiful and melodic! You should come along, take some substances (if that's your cup of tea) and get lost in a properly trippy wall of dreamy indie anthems!

Anyway, keep an eye on the blog for updates on when and where you can get the new EP 'Tomorrow Belongs to a World Apart'. It should be damn soon, I'll keep you guys posted from the studio.

As usual, peace the fuck out and take it easy! - Kris

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