Latest / You Call That Radio? / 'Abbacadrama' w/ Merrowfolk

Transcript

'Abbacadrama' w/ Merrowfolk · You Call That Radio?

• 0:27
  Speaker A: Mel Folk who are celebrating the launch of the debut music video tonight. It's already making waves. It's been the BBC introducing track of the week and we've been seeing little clips of it on all the social medias. So I'm excited to see it. It's premiering tonight at the end of the show. So I'm going to get Claire and Alex and Doug. How you doing?
• 0:54
  Speaker B: Hello. How's you?
• 0:56
  Speaker A: I'm good, I'm good, yeah, I'm good. Yeah. Why not? I don't know. I still sometimes answer that question let anyone actually cares, but no, I'm good, I'm good.
• 1:12
  Speaker C: What's in your cup?
• 1:13
  Speaker A: It's just a cup of tea. It's just a. Yeah. No, well, you know, I'm sensible in weekdays. You know. I was at the secret animal garden party on Saturday and it was my birthday this weekend as well.
• 1:29
  Speaker C: Nice.
• 1:29
  Speaker B: Happy birthday.
• 1:30
  Speaker D: Birthday.
• 1:31
  Speaker A: Thank you. I think I'm taking the piss a wee bit now. It's the fourth. Yeah, yeah. It says the end of my birthday is tea time and it's great to have you guys on and it's an. A momentous day. A debut music video.
• 1:47
  Speaker C: Yep, it is. We're excited.
• 1:50
  Speaker A: And you should be doing a. You should be doing a good job of promoting your music video. You've been with the teasers for the last two weeks. Three weeks maybe.
• 1:58
  Speaker C: Three weeks. Yep. We've been on it. We went away and we recorded them all at the same time so we would have our teasers and our music video. So.
• 2:06
  Speaker D: Yeah.
• 2:06
  Speaker A: Is the teasers a good indication of what the music video is going to look like?
• 2:13
  Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, it's. So Freya's done a really good job. Who can be on tonight of clipping together quite a lot of what you've seen already and lots more to make what was supposed to be a lyric video. But I think it's. It has got the lyrics on it, but I think it's a music video. It's amazing. Yeah, it's really good. We're so excited. Yeah.
• 2:35
  Speaker A: And you've. I already had some mainstream attention.
• 2:40
  Speaker C: Yeah, I think so. Isn't it? We're on the BBC Radio Scotland. Twice.
• 2:46
  Speaker B: Yeah. Twice.
• 2:48
  Speaker C: Twice, yeah.
• 2:49
  Speaker B: Oh, I didn't even know.
• 2:51
  Speaker C: Of the year. Track of the year. Track of the week.
• 2:55
  Speaker B: Track of the year.
• 2:57
  Speaker E: First.
• 2:59
  Speaker A: BBC's like, stop sending any more songs in. It's over.
• 3:05
  Speaker B: We found it.
• 3:07
  Speaker A: Just stop sending his music. We're not even going to play any more music. The radio station. Just a respect for the song.
• 3:15
  Speaker C: All Right. And we got on like Elliot night, Wednesday night show. Can't remember name actually. I'll have to anyway.
• 3:20
  Speaker A: Yeah, well, that's good. That's good. I mean, I don't think we never got on BBC Scotland ever. No. Jack o' Trade's gotten once. Gyro Baby's never gotten Radio Scotland ever. And I think 18 years, 19 years.
• 3:36
  Speaker B: Jesus.
• 3:37
  Speaker C: Wow, That's a travesty.
• 3:39
  Speaker A: Yeah, no, I know better, but we've got six music.
• 3:43
  Speaker B: Oh, well, that's cool.
• 3:45
  Speaker A: The thing is, I've really mellowed out the DF concerts, things that's happening just now I was going to upload my take on it and I feel like I should be angrier than I am. A lot of the young artists are angry, but I'm like, I've hated. I hated DF for years and years and I had to just let it go.
• 4:01
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 4:03
  Speaker A: Like, you know, the whole. The thing was funny is that people have been messaging me asking if I was the Mark. And the. The expose from the bell, it says Mark who was so Mark who was to remain anonymous. We've changed his name to Mark. But. And I was like, well, why would I do that? I said one of the most stupidest way to stay anonymous is using your real name as a. As a pseudonym.
• 4:30
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 4:31
  Speaker A: But then of course it's not really. When you think about the double bluff
• 4:34
  Speaker C: element, it does sound like something you would do if you were trying to.
• 4:43
  Speaker A: Believe me. Am I just a. Am I a liar? Nathan believes me. Believes it's the.
• 4:52
  Speaker C: If you were gonna be anonymous, you would just use your own name to do the double bluff is what I meant.
• 4:59
  Speaker A: I feel like I think I might have to know. It's quite a good idea. I wish. I wish I had thought of it, but. Yeah, we've got the. The alley Grant is just coming. Hello, Ali. It was played on Cam Glenn radio on Sunday night as well, of course.
• 5:17
  Speaker C: Was with Ali, the lovely Ally Braiwood. Braidwood Scotsway. Hey, show.
• 5:26
  Speaker A: Yes. Great show.
• 5:28
  Speaker C: Great show. Really good show. And postcards for the underground with Mark. They're amazing as well. So I. We're. We're delighted. We're absolutely delighted.
• 5:37
  Speaker A: People have been Sunny Go.
• 5:39
  Speaker C: Nothing from Sunny G. Yeah.
• 5:41
  Speaker A: What?
• 5:42
  Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
• 5:43
  Speaker A: Been an oversight on behalf of. I'm sure they'll go on to that. Oh, Al's are lovely.
• 5:50
  Speaker B: We were on. Was it. Is it Johnston?
• 5:53
  Speaker C: Oh, yeah.
• 5:53
  Speaker B: John Radio. The French Connection show. That was pretty cool as well.
• 5:57
  Speaker C: Yeah. With Emma. That was cool.
• 6:00
  Speaker A: Johnston radio. I've never even heard yeah, yeah, I used to. I used to live in Ayrshire, so I used to pretend I was going to Johnson to reduce my train ticket. Plus that was before. Before train barriers. Before I was an adult as well. The enough times passed.
• 6:20
  Speaker C: Well, like, how much get it.
• 6:23
  Speaker A: Well, you. I think back then it was like. It was a fiver to Glasgow, it was 250 to Johnson.
• 6:28
  Speaker C: Well, that's a lot. That's a big difference.
• 6:30
  Speaker A: That was a 50% saving. But Scott Hill's won in the end. I think they've. I think they've won the. That battle. I want to ask about the. I suppose because we're just sort of chatting because obviously we know each other well. I want wish for people that don't know Mel Folk. Can we get a little bit of the history of the band and where it all stemmed from the. Yeah, let's go back to the start.
• 6:56
  Speaker C: To the very beginning.
• 6:57
  Speaker A: Yes, the very beginning.
• 6:59
  Speaker C: So we are Merrow Folk, are seven of us. There's seven people in Merrow Folk and we all have been playing together in different guises for like maybe 10 years now in different ways and shapes and forms. And then I started a solo project a while back called My Mamero and slowly everyone came together around that. And then when we were making this record, which we're going to release in October, it just became clear that it wasn't a singer, songwriter plus her band record, that we were a. A collective. So we decided to get a new name. So my name was Maima Mero and this is Mero Folk. And yeah, Mero is a mermaid in Irish and Scottish mythology, I think. So we just wanted to present it as a new thing, like a collective that we're all working on together and that's where we started.
• 7:56
  Speaker A: So, yeah, and the. Yeah, there was a lot of. Was a lot of chat because obviously you, you played the, you played the
• 8:05
  Speaker C: art school as My Mamero together in time for that.
• 8:12
  Speaker A: So I was surprised to see that you changed the name. But I think it is good. I think it's. I think it's a good idea long term as well. It's a tough one. You know that there is no right or wrong answers in this one because you, you, you, you do like. I mean, right now I'm working on something. It's like you just want to change the name because if the project's going to sound different, there's got to be a limit on it as well. You can't, you can't have seven names. I don't Think you can.
• 8:35
  Speaker C: No, no, no.
• 8:38
  Speaker A: I mean, like, what.
• 8:39
  Speaker B: How many bands have changed their name? Like. Like, look at Soft Play, they changed their name, which made sense, but I'm trying to think of other. Other instances in which bands have actually changed the name.
• 8:53
  Speaker A: There's been a few, but usually it's. It's usually before anyone hears about them, like, they go, right, we've got. We've got an album and it sounds different. Or they get a record label and the record label goes, I hate that name. You need to change it.
• 9:09
  Speaker B: But yeah, I don't know if the Butthole Surfers is going to work class. Can you think of something different?
• 9:14
  Speaker A: There's some shape and names. I've done really well, you know, it's. It can be done. So does that. I suppose that this happened. I suppose the good thing from you, from your point. So my. So it was your project and you were just getting more and more. Everyone involved and obviously so many talented people here. Can we show you all the other names? Would you consider yourselves a super group?
• 9:36
  Speaker C: Oh, I don't. Oh, I mean, yeah. I don't know.
• 9:41
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 9:42
  Speaker C: I don't know what that means. So we've got. There's seven of us, so there's me and Alex on bass. There's Doug, he plays drums. We've got Freya on vocals and guitar. Andrew who's got clarinet and saxophone and keys and sometimes sings. Ali Hendry who plays trumpet and sings. And then Nicola Demon. I don't know why they got their full names. Sorry, everyone else. Nicola plays synth and sings and does mad percussion stuff as well. So, yeah, I suppose we're a super grip because there's lots of us and we're all super cool and super talented.
• 10:20
  Speaker A: Everybody's in other bands.
• 10:24
  Speaker C: Yes. Do you want to start with.
• 10:26
  Speaker B: Well, Nico's in Color Theory.
• 10:27
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 10:28
  Speaker B: Ali's in seemingly every band in Glasgow.
• 10:33
  Speaker A: Yes, I've noticed that.
• 10:34
  Speaker C: Rude Beer, the Cutthroat Users.
• 10:38
  Speaker B: Randolph Sleep.
• 10:39
  Speaker C: Randolph Sleep. Color Theory.
• 10:42
  Speaker B: Also Color Theory.
• 10:43
  Speaker C: Yeah, another one. There was another really big one where it's like ska stuff.
• 10:49
  Speaker B: Oh, I thought that was Rudebeardbeard, not the ska band.
• 10:52
  Speaker C: Maybe.
• 10:52
  Speaker A: Yes, in fact, they were all in. They were. In fact. In fact. In fact. In fact, I only played with. Played a song was back then, the Rabble. Were you. Were you on keys for Back to.
• 11:05
  Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. And Doug's in a million bands as well. What are all your bands?
• 11:11
  Speaker B: Well, me and Freya both in Woodwife, together with our pal Greg, who Claire was a mushroom and Grant Mark you know Greg as well. I'm also, I'm in a sort of punk metal band called Little Hands of Silver. Freya and I have got a two piece called Cleggs that we are. We've not really done any shows yet. We did, we did a little slot. Was it Knocking on last year. We just played like two tracks. But we are going to be playing the after party of the album launch, which you're looking forward to because that's going to be our first proper show. And I'm also. I mean, I don't know if it counts, I'm in the West Hilton Caledonian Dance Band, which is the Kaylee Band. I played with my dad, that guy, which was pretty much the first band I was ever in. So I've been playing with him since I was 16. Yeah, yeah. And I think that's it.
• 12:02
  Speaker C: Yeah. I'm sure there's other people in other bands that we can't think of right now.
• 12:07
  Speaker A: Yes. So how, how, how, how difficult is it to get seven people to do a rehearsal? Sorry, that's me assuming that you have had a rehearsal.
• 12:23
  Speaker C: You know what, considering how hard it is, we, we're actually quite lucky. We do all right. We organize them quite far ahead of time and people have been amazingly committed to rehearsing. We all quite like rehearsing, which I think is good. Like, and people, people want to be rehearsed.
• 12:41
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 12:41
  Speaker C: Plus falafel, you know, like the opposite. Imagine the gyros, but like just the complete opposite, Mark. Like, people want to know what they're playing and when they're supposed to play.
• 12:55
  Speaker A: Well, I mean, I think, I think everybody wanted to play it, rehearse as well. It's just that it was some bad habits were brought in very early on in our band and then what would end up happening is you would bring in someone new and they would probably last minute they didn't. We have time. So what I was quite good is a sort of. I suppose in a football metaphor would be some man. Management is the person who's freaking out and just saying, look, you've got this, you're going to be fine. If you make a mistake, don't worry about it. Just don't. Just don't play if you don't know, know just sharp if you're not doing it. I don't know. I, I would, I would, I'd calm the nerves and make people not worry about it so much. And then by the end of it they end up becoming, I suppose, lazy or, I don't know. If it's lazy is the right word. But just everything's going to be okay. The vibe that everything's going to be okay. And I suppose you can get away with certain things. I suppose it. It's a little bit different when you've got a brass section and things like that. And harmonies. You've got how many? Three part harmonies. Four part harmonies.
• 14:02
  Speaker B: Four time. Four. Sometimes three. A lot.
• 14:05
  Speaker A: Yeah. I mean you need. You need to practice that. Yeah. I mean, I recommend that all bands rehearse. I'm not against it in theory.
• 14:13
  Speaker C: I would like to make it clear that the musicians I played with in Char Babies wanted to rehearse. And it was you.
• 14:24
  Speaker A: Joined. By the time you joined the band, I had lost the will to live because you gotta remember there's only so many band members who can teach a planet Fort Knox day before you start losing the plot. And you know we're on the 64th band member by the time you joined. So it's just. It's a lot. It's a lot. Yeah. I think my enthusiasm was waning. I just a tad bit. This is completely opposite because this is actually you're doing. You're doing something new and fresh and I suppose it's such a really good. You know, the first couple years is going to be. Is really good because the first. I'm sure it will be really good. I'm sure it will be really good. But there's. There's something really nice about, you know, creating new music from scratch is always fun and then you can feel yourself getting better and better at it and improving and making little changes. And that's. That's a. That's a really nice feeling because you must. How many gigs have you. Have you done now?
• 15:22
  Speaker C: Oh, Lords, loads. We've been playing four years. Three years.
• 15:28
  Speaker E: Three.
• 15:29
  Speaker D: Four years. Yeah.
• 15:30
  Speaker B: Three, four years. Something like that.
• 15:31
  Speaker E: Yeah.
• 15:32
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 15:32
  Speaker A: And you. You recorded the album. It was about this time last year, was it?
• 15:36
  Speaker B: It was October last year.
• 15:38
  Speaker A: Yeah. Okay. So the end of the last year. So. But this is the fun bit then because you've actually. Then you've got an album to sort of listen back to the. Did the. You so to the live performance informs the recording and then I'm sure the recording informs alive to a certain degree. How different?
• 15:55
  Speaker B: I think so. Yeah.
• 15:56
  Speaker A: When you went in the studio, how. How was the. It looked like you went to a beautiful studio. Tell us about the beautiful studio and tell us about the process of that. And did the songs evolve on the spot while we were there or what was that, like.
• 16:08
  Speaker C: No, we rehearsed.
• 16:11
  Speaker B: We did. But I would say that there was a bit. There was a bit of. There was a bit of an evolution for one of the songs because we tried recording it, spent half a day trying to get it down and it just wasn't working. So we basically stopped and decided, right, we're going to try something completely different and do it like this. And then it worked. So there was a bit of an evolution of the sound while we were there. But like Claire was saying, we rehearsed the shit out of it for, like, the whole festival season, plus everything between that and the recording to make sure that we knew what we were doing, because we were pushed for time when we. When we actually got to the studio.
• 16:49
  Speaker A: It's a really good way of doing it. It's a really good way of doing it. Who would have thought that that was.
• 16:59
  Speaker B: Preparation's good. Who knew?
• 17:01
  Speaker A: The Dreams Are Mental sessions where we just sort of. We just sort of put a WhatsApp group saying, can anyone make Next Friday? And people are like, no. So some session musicians in or whatever. We would have one song written, me and Mark would have a song written and then we'd do a second one that wasn't really written at all. It worked too fine, though. I forget that one. That also works.
• 17:28
  Speaker C: No, totally. Everything. It doesn't. Yeah. All of the different processes work. It's. For us. When you. We were. We were in Black Bay Studio up in Lewis, so we knew we were traveling really, really far.
• 17:40
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 17:41
  Speaker C: Being in this gorgeous place, I mean, it was unbelievable where we were. We got to sleep in and around the studio, our kitchen with, like, next door. It's like absolute dreams come true. We also knew that we only had four and a half days to do 11 tracks, so we had to. We had to, like, do them live. Like, not completely live, but, like Doug, Alex and Freya and me recorded, you know, the basics of the. The tracks completely live. No click, no clicks or anything. And then we actually sometimes recorded the brass as well at the same time and the keys at the same time. So we were trying to do as much as we could at the same time and then limit the overdubs. So we're so grateful to Black Bay Studio that they were able to facilitate that. That's the only way that could happen. They could even have all of the vocals happening in the same room. So Freya, Nicholas were able to do their BVs at the same time as me, and I was in a different room. So it was amazing. We was just we were so lucky.
• 18:46
  Speaker E: Yeah.
• 18:46
  Speaker A: That's because the difference is we only had to go to Edinburgh to record. So it's like, you know, if it didn't go well you could just go back and I drive to Lewis every extra bit of something. So it was a thoughtful process. It was a thoughtful process and I mean I could. The first time I seen you saw play was Knocking Gorick last year and you were absolutely phenomenal then. You were well, it felt. You're well rehearsed. Felt like a perfect festival band. You had your golden capes. It sounded like you said. It felt like everything had been really well prepared and thought out. And then obviously probably that. That would have been me. So you had a few. You had a few more. Like there's quite a few more live opportunities. I think these were the other things.
• 19:36
  Speaker C: Yeah. Where were we? We played doing that year. We went over to Ireland and played Stendahl. Yeah.
• 19:42
  Speaker B: That was a lot of fun.
• 19:44
  Speaker C: And we did a bunch more gigs that I can't remember any of them. But yeah.
• 19:48
  Speaker A: Yes. Festivals. So yeah. Back then last year as well. And I would imagine there'll be. It'll be festival season next year. Are you doing anything more this year? Is it over? Is it this year?
• 20:03
  Speaker C: We might be doing a couple this year. We're just finalizing. Finalizing. Definitely going to.
• 20:12
  Speaker B: We're just fanaticalizing the details.
• 20:15
  Speaker A: Fantasizing that we might just.
• 20:26
  Speaker C: Where Vogri pugree. Oh yeah.
• 20:28
  Speaker A: Vulgary Pogrey. I've still never been. But I hear good things. I hear good things.
• 20:33
  Speaker B: I'm looking forward to. That's right near where I grew up. Vogris is a park I spent a lot of time in when I was a nipper. Selecting the frog spawn and stuff.
• 20:42
  Speaker A: The frog spawn. And did you ever go there in your underage cider years?
• 20:47
  Speaker B: No, it was a bit too much of a trek. I just hung it in my bedroom for that or my pal's garage.
• 20:55
  Speaker A: So there's a. The. So it's all building towards the album launch on October 8th. Of course.
• 21:03
  Speaker B: No, the album's coming out on the 15th and the launch show is on the 24th.
• 21:08
  Speaker D: 4th. Yeah, 24th of October.
• 21:12
  Speaker A: Album launches the 24th at Rum Shack. Brilliant. And there is also. Then there's a wee warm up gig for you for people who are interested. But we've got our friends coming all the way from Mexico City and the. Yeah. 16th and I. I'm doing a gig with God.
• 21:37
  Speaker B: Nice.
• 21:38
  Speaker A: I decided to join. I know Gordy and me are working on some stuff. So I think we'll be on first, then Dr. Normal, then Merrow Folk, then Serene Serene. Sorry. And then we've got DJ Stevie Elements playing some tunes at the end. It's also 16th of August is also Govern Music Festival. So basically Govern Hill Music Festival booked the Mexicans who are good friends, we met them on our travels before and then there was a mistake or something and I told everyone, show it if. If there's anything goes wrong, I'll put on the gig. And everything went wrong. So now I'm putting on a gig. So I stuck to my word though.
• 22:22
  Speaker C: Good.
• 22:23
  Speaker A: So hopefully, hopefully it can be a busy one for that. We're also excited, I'm excited to say that we're bringing Zambo, who might be chilled in. Zambo is my favorite sound engineer. Not the cheapest but the best. So he's going to bring the full PA. Because I love McDougals as a pub, but it's just to be my local years ago. And I love. I love the downstairs pub vibe and I love the upstairs pub vibe, but it's usually more kind of, I don't know, like acoustic poetry type stuff. So I feel like, you know, when we've got a band coming all the way from Mexico City and a seven piece like you guys with brass, I feel like we need to. We need to bring in some nice.
• 23:03
  Speaker B: I've never actually been in McNeil's. I've walked past it a bunch of times and always thought I looked really interesting, but I've never actually been in.
• 23:09
  Speaker A: It's great. Love it. It's a nice wee pub and it's got shout outs to. They've a really. They actually have an interesting thing on the Sunday night as well downstairs, which is a kind of jam night. And it's. I think he tries to keep it low key, so I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna see who it is, but. But he's. He's from a very famous band who kind of sort of. They did a lot of stuff in the 70s, you know, toured Europe and all that, to like 40, 50,000 people. Incredible musician. And it just, it just. If you just ask for any song, request a song, he will play it. So you're kind of got a live band, karaoke type thing.
• 23:46
  Speaker C: Nice.
• 23:46
  Speaker A: All right. And that's usually on a Sunday night as well. Stuart's looking forward to it. Nice one, Stuart. I'll see you there. But yeah, it's a. He's a really. It's a really good. It's just like these feeling to just jam, like sing a song live.
• 23:59
  Speaker D: So that.
• 23:59
  Speaker C: That.
• 23:59
  Speaker A: That will also be happening on the same night. So there'll be upstairs and downstairs options available. And also while we're on that topic, you're going to the Isle of Butte. My mail on your own.
• 24:15
  Speaker C: Yes. When am I doing that?
• 24:16
  Speaker A: That's the 22nd of August, according to this. I do have notice. I'm a professional.
• 24:24
  Speaker B: Better make sure that's on the Merrill Foot calendar, eh?
• 24:27
  Speaker C: Yeah, well, I don't think marrow folk can do it, unfortunately. So I think that's a solo one because it couldn't get us all to go.
• 24:33
  Speaker A: See, this is the good. This is the good thing about. This is what's changing the name, though. This is the good thing about changing the name because now people. It's just, you know, if they go, people be confused, I suppose, because the first album is so different.
• 24:47
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 24:48
  Speaker A: And also if you're doing like a solo gig. Yeah. You want a different name for it because it's. It's going to be a different experience, but still a great experience. Be it the 22nd at the anchor. Free entry and Godly Duncan as well and. Yeah, so that'll be good. I'm looking forward to that one.
• 25:06
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 25:06
  Speaker A: The music video itself, where's the music video shot?
• 25:10
  Speaker C: Alex, do you want to say that
• 25:12
  Speaker D: it's kind of short. Lots of different locations around. God, where is it? You got Butte, Rothsea. Lots of different bits. We found like a weird forest, but that had like a really cool covering and stuff that we can all put our instruments into. And then we took some shots around there and everything. So there's. There's a lot of different scenes from different places, which is quite nice.
• 25:43
  Speaker C: We were freezing on the beach a lot.
• 25:45
  Speaker D: Yeah.
• 25:48
  Speaker C: Really cold on a beach in Butte a lot were me very cold, very
• 25:52
  Speaker B: wet, very eaten by midges.
• 25:56
  Speaker C: And Alex being told what to do by people because he was the main filmer.
• 26:02
  Speaker A: So who filmed it? Who was. How has you filmed it all? I put a link in. If you listen to this live then, or you're watching the live, there's a link to the music video and it will go live at 8 o' clock tonight. If you are listening to the podcast or watching it back on YouTube, then you can just watch it at the end of this. It'll be. If you live in the future, then you've got future privileges and that is that the video is already it. And you must be really pleased with the reception that the video has been getting for the People in the future.
• 26:35
  Speaker B: Hello, future people.
• 26:37
  Speaker D: Yeah, I love it, absolutely love it.
• 26:39
  Speaker A: Thank you all.
• 26:41
  Speaker C: Really good feedback's been incredible. Thanks for getting us loads of ad revenue that we can put back into our music.
• 26:49
  Speaker A: And what. What is the. The music? How would you describe the music? Is there. I mean, obviously be seven different people? I would imagine there's seven different influence. There's going to be seven different, you know, personalities with very different taste in music. But let's just focus on. Use three that are here. What are you trying to. I don't want you to speak for the other four because we've only got half an hour left. But who. Who would you say has been your inspirations? Go? Alex first. Alex, Claire then. And Duke.
• 27:22
  Speaker D: To be honest, mine has been like corn tool. It's. It's not exactly like that at all, but I feel like that I have brought that metal influence and to metal folk and. Yeah, I think that's kind of my metal folk.
• 27:42
  Speaker A: Maybe metal folk could be the offshoot
• 27:47
  Speaker B: tribute band, the second offshoot, because we've already got a couple of blokes, which is you and Andrew.
• 27:53
  Speaker D: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, A couple of blokes.
• 27:56
  Speaker C: We had a.
• 27:57
  Speaker D: Anonymous, actually. Thank you.
• 27:59
  Speaker B: Well, that was the review from the Archie the art school show, wasn't it?
• 28:02
  Speaker C: Yeah, it was. We got a great review, but. And they. They didn't pick up Alex and Andrew's name, so he named everybody and a couple of blokes.
• 28:14
  Speaker A: I don't know if you remember, this is maybe a bit. Just a wee bit too young for it, but there was. There was actually a phrase in the 90s, early 2000s, called sleeper blocks. The one on his sleeper blocks, because obviously Louise. Louise Wiener from the Sleeper, she was obviously with this like a. An A list or celebrity and the other guys just were called sleeper blocks. And then it was just kind of a term that was used. So that's. I know that I'm comparing you to the Sleeper blokes, but not at all. I'm just saying A Couple of Blocks seems to be on brand for that. And Claire, what about yourself? Did you. Was there any. Do you think you. You captured the sound of anyone that you're inspired by? Or was it. Or is it just different? Because you were obviously taking these songs, I would imagine, quite stripped back to everyone.
• 29:02
  Speaker C: Yeah, Like, I think that was part of what was so cool this time around was because we'd been playing together for years when I was writing the tunes, I was able to like, not feel the pressure of being like. I don't know what jobs would work with this because Doug was there and being amazing. So I just, like, could, like, be, like, taking them really as, like, melody, chords and words. And then some of them were totally transformed from, like, we quiet ballads into like, mad things. And Beckoning was, like, written over a riff that Callum sent me. Actually, Yoko Pono's Callum sent me the sort of me and riff, and I wrote the melody and the melody line and the words over that and then the band took it and just made it into this massive, amazing thing. So, yeah, I don't. I don't. I'm not very good at knowing what my influences are. I am. I love. Yeah. I mean, I could just list all the people I like, but I don't think
• 30:05
  Speaker B: the Internet loves a list. The Internet loves a list.
• 30:11
  Speaker C: But I don't think I've captured any of them. They're. They're amazing. But I've. I've tried my best to just like, write what feels good to me.
• 30:18
  Speaker A: So. What. Okay, give us an example. What do you. What did you grow up listening to? What was your favorites?
• 30:22
  Speaker C: Oh, well, when I was super young, it was the Frames. Who? Glenn Hansard was the lead singer of
• 30:27
  Speaker A: the Frames this week. Is that good?
• 30:29
  Speaker C: Yeah, Idle Wild Early Idle Wild Early Biffy Clairo, but then also, like, Boyzone and Westlife when I was like, 10. 11.
• 30:43
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 30:43
  Speaker C: Then. So it was a real mix. And then Incubus. I was really into Incubus. So.
• 30:49
  Speaker A: Yeah, it's weird how the. The boy band. See, obviously when I was younger, I hated all the boy bands. Pop music. I was too cool for pop music. Or I thought I was, anyway. But then recently I've noticed that the music, the pop music these days is so bad to my ears that when I hear a song, I'm like, oh, is that. It sounds all right and it's. Or something.
• 31:11
  Speaker C: Yeah, you're like. Angels is. We were at the karaoke at the weekend and someone signed Angels.
• 31:16
  Speaker A: Someone always sings Angels. That's. I can't handle that. No, I can't handle that song. I used to work. I used to work in a karaoke bar. I can't handle that one. It's. It's. I get PTSD for that one.
• 31:27
  Speaker C: Yeah. But the words are actually quite good if you really look.
• 31:30
  Speaker A: Yeah, because. Because someone else wrote it. Anyway, I know Robbie W. Does watch the show sometime, so I'm not going to say any more on that. What about yourself? What's yours?
• 31:39
  Speaker B: I mean, like, music, obviously, because I'm drumming in this Band. So I suppose the influences that I use most when I'm being a drummer are people like Bev Bevin from ELO and Roger Taylor from Queen. One of my big influencers influences growing up was John Bonham. But I always try and sort of stick to the principle of do as little as you can and just play to make the track sound good. So it's like Keith Moon was a brilliant drummer, but all he did was fill all the way through the tracks, which, you know, that's fine if you're playing for the who, but I like to sort of just. As a drummer, you're. The thing you're supposed to do is make everybody else sound good and just keep everything moving forward and, you know, just proper with an up sort of be. Be the. The base. So, like, for me, my drumming influences, you know, like I said, Bonham and Bevin and Roger Taylor, Dave Grohl as well. Obviously, musically my influence, I really like a guy called Jamie Lemon who was in a band called Ruben, but has been doing his own solo stuff for the last decade or so. And he's a brilliant songwriter. Like, he's just a really good songwriter. And I'm really into Keiran J Callinan at the moment as well as a mad Australian guy. And these two know what I'm talking about. Sang one of his songs for them at their wedding, which was basically my wedding present to you guys, was that it's amazing tune.
• 33:07
  Speaker C: Everyone should listen to. Jake Callahan. Yeah,
• 33:13
  Speaker E: thank you.
• 33:14
  Speaker C: I think. And then obviously there's loads of folk who are not here who are like, you know, so. Because. So Freya produced the record, so a lot of her musical influences are really present and her playing in her background as well. And then Andrew and Nicola and Ali have a whole wealth of, like, stuff that they're bringing to it as well. It's quite interesting because, you know, like, what happens when people start to tell you what the music they like, their references as well, and you're like, oh, I had no idea. And like, some people will say goth. And then the goths in the band are like, yeah, but it's not really goth. And then someone else. Someone else was like carnival. No. Was it not carnival? What was the one? Cabaret. They've got a cabaret.
• 33:56
  Speaker A: Well, I would say there's a. There's definitely a theatrical. A theatrical or dramatic element. It's dramatic. I don't know. Vocabulary is the right. But yeah, I'd say dramatic. And what was it? What? Dramatic?
• 34:12
  Speaker C: I thought you said traumatic.
• 34:14
  Speaker A: Traumatic. Dramatic. Oh, drum. I Thought you thought I said drummer. That's quite a good name for a band just with drummers. Five drummers called Dramatic and just. They just sit in a. In an attic just playing drums. What about. What about the. I heard you getting compared to abba.
• 34:37
  Speaker E: Yes.
• 34:38
  Speaker C: BBC introducing said Pink Floyd and abba.
• 34:42
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 34:43
  Speaker A: Do you know it kind of. It kind of makes sense when you say Pink Floyd and up at the same time.
• 34:49
  Speaker D: Is that because there's four girls or three girls singing in harmony and that's why it sounds like abba.
• 34:55
  Speaker B: Well, I was talking to Freya about this and I think a part of the reason is because it's a four of the floor disco adjacent. It's not really a disco beat, but it's disco adjacent. So like an apple with a disco band really when you think about it. Also one of my favorite bands when I was a kid because that's what we used to listen to in the car all the time. So I can see it. I mean we don't. It doesn't sound like abba, but it has a sort of
• 35:20
  Speaker D: disco esque feel.
• 35:22
  Speaker B: Yeah. Like I said, it feels a bit like ABBA to an extent. It's more. It is more dramatic than abba, I would say. But it's, it's. I can. I can see where they were coming from.
• 35:32
  Speaker A: Yeah, I suppose it's tough. Comparisons are always tough because it sounds unique. You just got a unique sound. But people don't want to hear that. People need some sort of explanation. Yeah, we get called Punk Floyd right at the very start. Someone called this Punk Floyd. I didn't mind.
• 35:53
  Speaker C: I don't know.
• 35:53
  Speaker A: I'm not even trying to be a punk band. I just couldn't sing new punk band. I mean, I don't even. I'm not punk band. Then we played some punk all days and then I was like, shit, they hear us. But to be fair, there was a couple of older punks actually said we were punk because we didn't wrestle punks and that's mere punk. Than the punks that are dressing the punks.
• 36:15
  Speaker C: That's punk.
• 36:16
  Speaker A: I didn't say that. In case there's anyone with green here that wants to have a go at me. You can be punk. I don't care. I don't care. Car music. Car music's interesting because it was cassettes. I was. I'm old. I'm old. Ms. Cassettes. So there was kind of like there was only about five tapes. I think there was a Dire Straits, the Doors, the Beatles, Phil Collins to a Lesser extent. What was car. What car music did they make your parents make you listen to?
• 36:50
  Speaker C: Ours was ABBA and Queen. It was pretty good. I loved them on repeat. And we had one more by camera, what it was Simon Garfunkel.
• 37:01
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 37:02
  Speaker C: And then a bunch of, like, Irish kind of trad things. Yeah.
• 37:08
  Speaker A: Well, that is worth mentioning that you've got an Irish accent, in case anyone hadn't noticed. So I. I can imagine that. Do you ever get this wild comparisons because you're Irish? I know that we. We used to get a lot of Proclaimers at the beginning because it was still quite reasonably unusual to have a Scottish accent then. I think, you know, there's a lot of things that came out running about the same time as us that were successful, like Glas Vegas fighting Frightened Rabbit and stuff. And then it became, like, kind of more normal to use your own accent. I personally want to hear people using their own accent from one, but. Yeah, but obviously, because, like, you've got. You get a reviewer from, say, England, and they would just go, the Proclaimers. Because they hadn't really. There wasn't really. At the beginning, there wasn't really that many. So do you get any Irish comparisons that you're just like. It's nothing like that.
• 38:04
  Speaker E: I.
• 38:05
  Speaker C: We've been. We've.
• 38:06
  Speaker E: Yeah.
• 38:07
  Speaker C: The Cranberries and Sinead of Corner, which I was happy about because they're all amazing.
• 38:11
  Speaker A: That's brilliant.
• 38:12
  Speaker C: Complimentary. So, yeah. Yeah. I've not had anything. I mean, it is, like, going back to your other point, it is weird when people maybe make a comparison that you don't necessarily, like, have thought about yourself. But I think when people do that, they're trying to pay you a compliment. Right. Like, most of the time they're trying to be like, this is the thing I like. And I think you sound like the thing I like. So I don't let it, really. If that's what they think, it's fine. Do you know what I mean? Like, unless they're trying.
• 38:40
  Speaker A: Well, usually I do agree with you, but I don't think we should have the Proclaimers, though.
• 38:44
  Speaker E: No, no,
• 38:47
  Speaker C: I'm talking about people comparing me to Sinead o'. Connor. Yeah.
• 38:51
  Speaker A: No, that's good, though. And I like the Proclaimers as well. But it's just. It's. It's not. No, at all.
• 38:59
  Speaker B: Just comparisons are a strange thing, though. Like, in one of my other bands, we play at Block quite a lot, and the booker there, Chris, he really thought that we took a huge inspiration from a Band called It's Unseen. And he was like, you guys must really like Unseen, right? I was like, never heard of them. Don't know who that is. And they're like some mad hardcore band from New York in the 80s. And he was like, well, they're playing next week. Go, I'll see you there. We went along and I was like, I can see where he was coming from. We'd never heard of them. It was one of those ones where it's almost like two bands on opposite sides of the planet doing the same thing completely independently of each other. Sometimes people will hear things that you're not necessarily aware of as well. It's not just like Claire's saying. A lot of it is people are just trying to be nice and say, oh, you sound like this band that I like, which is a good thing. But sometimes they sort of open your eyes to new experiences and you actually never heard of. Because you were like, I don't even know who that is.
• 40:05
  Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. There's. There's a few. What we got compared to sensational Alex Harvey band quite a lot. And I didn't. I wasn't really. I was probably strong. I wasn't really aware. Yeah, absolutely amazing. So, yeah, it also. There is a thing where it's. I was actually. I was talking to Marcos. I was at the. The Cherry gig in Friday at McCool's. And Cherry was brilliant, by the way. If you. If you've not heard the Cherry first debut headline show, she was excellent. But I met Marco from Mad School, the Mad Skull crew. The fact. I think all the band. There are most of them and they give us our first ever support slot. And I remember calling them. I was like. Used to remind me of the beta band. The Dr. Dre producing the Beta Band or something. I said was a comparison. And he's like, oh, I don't know them. I don't really listen to them. But the. His theory was. And I think this is really relevant, that it's because he's inspired by the same people that inspired them. So, yeah. So there could be. You could sound like a band without ever hearing them. Because my bees are into the same things.
• 41:07
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 41:08
  Speaker A: Or maybe. Maybe it's a glitch in the Matrix, which is. I don't know if you've ever seen that film. It's apparently a thing that happens in the movie the Matrix with Keanu Reeves shouts to Liam, who's on the show. I'm sure Liam will get you on the show. Liam's also a dj, yay. Ch to Mary as well. We. We're. We're the video. It's nearly video time. It's nearly video o'. Clock. And do you have a. A YouTube channel set up? I'm just going to bring on the screen. Yes. Especially for this.
• 41:42
  Speaker B: Well, yeah, especially for you. Yes.
• 41:49
  Speaker A: Get this on. So hold on, I can maybe just get the screen up in the background.
• 41:53
  Speaker B: Oh yeah.
• 41:54
  Speaker A: Premieres in 16 minutes. Wow. Exciting stuff. Yes. Metal folk. Okay, let's get everybody. Let's give them the student subscribe because.
• 42:04
  Speaker C: Yeah, please subscribe because you've got one subscriber, I think that might be me.
• 42:09
  Speaker A: You've got two subscribers now. So if everybody who's watching the show just now wants to click this. If you listen to podcasts, I'll put a description and then for. And we'll. We will get ready for that. I'm going to give it a like before I even hear it because. Well, I have heard that. I have heard that.
• 42:30
  Speaker C: You've just not seen.
• 42:31
  Speaker A: I've not seen it. Oh, no. So how. What is the. Going to be the, the release schedule of?
• 42:39
  Speaker C: Yeah, we're trying to fit in another three singles before the album. So it's fast. So we've got three more singles to come before the 15th of October. Well, one of them is going to be on the 15th of October, so our next one's in two weeks and then another four weeks after that. And then another four weeks after that. Roughly.
• 42:58
  Speaker A: Amazing.
• 42:59
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 43:01
  Speaker A: Have you got, have you got videos stuff for this ready as well where you actually, you seem fully prepared.
• 43:06
  Speaker C: We are very over prepared. We're prepared.
• 43:12
  Speaker B: We are super prepared, Mark. And we would like you to stop asking so many questions. Thank you very much.
• 43:17
  Speaker A: Well, no, you just say like we can't. I can't reveal that. It's a good one.
• 43:21
  Speaker C: We. We have got the stuff. We've got the. Alice also filmed the stuff for our second one when we were on be. So that.
• 43:28
  Speaker A: Talk about. Can we talk about that song? What's that called?
• 43:31
  Speaker C: It's called Let Me Be Yours. It was going to be called Nintendo Switch but we were worried that we were going to get sued so we changed it.
• 43:41
  Speaker A: How does it, how does that. Is that, Is that going to be a different sound? Can people. Or is it. What does it sound like?
• 43:50
  Speaker B: I think it's almost more dramatic than beckoning. Certainly the big section at the end.
• 44:00
  Speaker C: Yeah, it was supposed to be a joke and it wasn't ever supposed to see the light of day. I, I wrote it as a joke. It's a love song. The lyrics are supposed to be funny, but we sing it with complete and utter earnest love in our hearts and in our voices.
• 44:19
  Speaker A: Foreign. I love song to Nintendo Switch.
• 44:23
  Speaker C: Yeah. It's got the lit. It's gotten into the words Nintendo Switch in it. And little. And not Toy Story.
• 44:30
  Speaker B: Guinness.
• 44:31
  Speaker C: Guinness, yeah. So hopefully we don't get sued.
• 44:35
  Speaker B: Well, you may get by everybody.
• 44:37
  Speaker C: Yes.
• 44:38
  Speaker A: You may get a sponsorship deal for me. The little Guinness or Nintendo Switch. Unless. Unless it's a diss track to either of them or. Is this an idea?
• 44:45
  Speaker C: No, no, it's only love. So, yeah, the band had to convince me to make it a single because I'm a bit embarrassed.
• 45:00
  Speaker A: I want Alex's opinion on this. And why. Why was clear embarrassed by the song. But you all thought it was good.
• 45:07
  Speaker C: Are you embarrassed
• 45:10
  Speaker A: someone else that's not embarrassed by the song?
• 45:13
  Speaker D: Doug.
• 45:14
  Speaker A: Doug, why is it.
• 45:15
  Speaker B: I think Claire was embarrassed by it because it was basically a love song to Alex. And she was like, this will be funny.
• 45:20
  Speaker E: Ha.
• 45:21
  Speaker B: And then she wrote it and we were like, this is a really good tune. Let's do this. And everyone. Then she was like, oh, no, what have I created? And everybody just really likes it. It's just a great tune. It's a really fun one to play as well.
• 45:31
  Speaker D: Not embarrassed about Claire writing a love song about me. That's not what I'm embarrassed about at all. I'm not.
• 45:37
  Speaker C: Are you not?
• 45:37
  Speaker D: No.
• 45:38
  Speaker C: You maybe should be.
• 45:39
  Speaker D: Really?
• 45:42
  Speaker A: So I'm trying to read between the lines here. So Alex likes Nintendo switches the middle and Guinness.
• 45:49
  Speaker C: Yes.
• 45:50
  Speaker D: Yeah.
• 45:52
  Speaker C: And what?
• 45:54
  Speaker A: And T shirts. Obscure T shirts. The more obscure the better.
• 46:00
  Speaker B: And corn
• 46:04
  Speaker C: and track jackets. Yeah, yeah. It's just a list of everything Alex likes. So you'll know I'm a lot of chickens. The next release.
• 46:13
  Speaker A: Right, I get it now. I get why it's. Yeah. Okay. That makes a lot of sense. Liam's commented. Say that he's played you on Glad FM already.
• 46:21
  Speaker C: Oh, thank you, Liam.
• 46:23
  Speaker B: Thank you, Liam.
• 46:23
  Speaker D: Thanks, Liam.
• 46:24
  Speaker C: Thank you.
• 46:25
  Speaker A: So Glad play as well.
• 46:27
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 46:29
  Speaker A: And yeah, the. So hopefully. So wait, so new single will be dropping on two weeks from now. So that's the 18th?
• 46:37
  Speaker C: Yeah, sure.
• 46:39
  Speaker D: Yeah.
• 46:39
  Speaker B: Yeah, I think so. Calendar dinner. The 20th.
• 46:47
  Speaker D: 20th.
• 46:47
  Speaker A: 20th. The 20th.
• 46:48
  Speaker B: Thursday, the 20th.
• 46:50
  Speaker A: 20th of August. Nintendo Switch love song is out. And
• 46:56
  Speaker B: don't sue us, Nintendo. Don't sue us, please. We're sorry.
• 47:01
  Speaker A: Sponsor them. Sponsor them. Who would you like to be sponsored by? Anyone in the world? Who would you do? Who would you sell your sulfur to
• 47:09
  Speaker D: be sponsored By Buckfast.
• 47:11
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 47:14
  Speaker B: I mean yeah, pretty solid one.
• 47:16
  Speaker A: Just don't.
• 47:17
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 47:17
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 47:18
  Speaker B: Just a bunch of monks in it. What's the worst that could happen?
• 47:22
  Speaker A: I think I feel like they're. They're overhyping the monks involvement in it. I mean I feel like yeah probably. I've just not seen enough evidence to support these theories.
• 47:33
  Speaker B: But I've not seen a monk in a hard heart or high viz. I don't believe it's not happened.
• 47:41
  Speaker A: Yeah. I mean you've still got. You need health and safety prayers. Prayers won't stop you burning yourself on the. The buck fast stove. I don't think there's the sp. Buckfast don't seem to sponsor anybody but I think do got a we thing for El Dorado. I think they kind of kept on tagging them until El Dorado sent them like a. A match pack of El Dorado flip flops or El Dorado.
• 48:10
  Speaker C: Maybe Little would sponsor us.
• 48:16
  Speaker A: Social media team is on it.
• 48:18
  Speaker C: Yeah, they might do something for us.
• 48:21
  Speaker A: Just give you a supermarket sweep in the middle. Get six seconds.
• 48:27
  Speaker C: The line is I am waiting in the middle aisle. I can be your little find. I'm waiting in the middle aisle.
• 48:34
  Speaker A: Yeah. No, I knew it was the middle aisle as well. Middle rhymes with little. You know, I'm like there's no way they'll mention. And obviously the famous. For anyone that doesn't. For anyone that's not. For anyone who doesn't know what little is in our international listeners who don't have a little that. Can we explain Alex? What's the middle of little bit?
• 48:51
  Speaker D: It's. It's like imagine you're a kid going to like Hamley's for the first time or like like Toys R Us and then you see all these amazing things down the middle and you're like oh my God, I want everything here. So I tend to always go there with an open mind and end up picking hundreds of crap that I actually don't even need. But I just want it. So it's kind of like a. A place where I can sort of relax and find my happiness, I suppose.
• 49:24
  Speaker B: Place where dreams are made of.
• 49:26
  Speaker D: Exactly. Exactly.
• 49:28
  Speaker B: Like Hamley's. I can't believe you dropped Hamley's. What are you talking about? I've never been a Hamley's. It's like a Toys R Us. It was right there.
• 49:36
  Speaker D: No, I. Just kidding.
• 49:41
  Speaker A: Well before Toys R Us there was actually a place called the Jolly Giant. I don't know if anyone I remember
• 49:47
  Speaker B: adverts for the Jolly Giant. Right now.
• 49:49
  Speaker A: Yes. Not to be confused with the. The other Jolly Giant. That was a sweet corn dealer. Yeah, that's different one. Different one, but very, very similar. I mean, there must have been some copyright issues with that one. Not sure which one came first, but I think the Jolly Giant, I think was kind of like a. A more a very uniquely Scottish shop. They just had a big. A toy shop. A big, massive giant. I don't know how big the giant giant was. I was. I was tiny, so I don't. It seemed like it was big at the time. So I'm not. I'm not 100% sure. So the album comes out. It's Rum shack on the 24th.
• 50:28
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 50:28
  Speaker D: Yeah.
• 50:28
  Speaker C: Please come.
• 50:29
  Speaker A: So that means everyone's going to. Everyone's going to get nine days to get the album in their ears before they go. So they'll be able to. The crowd will be singing along. The Rum Shack will sell it. There's no doubt about that. Sure. It'll be mobbed for that one. So what's the. What's the future plans?
• 50:42
  Speaker E: What.
• 50:42
  Speaker A: What would you like the album to achieve? Have you got delusions of grandeur? Are you going with the floor? Is this going to be number one? What's happening?
• 50:54
  Speaker C: We're going to take over the world, Pinky. We're gonna gig and play as much as we can and meet cool people and write other songs and just. Yeah, I think we just wanna. We just wanna see how it goes.
• 51:12
  Speaker D: Right.
• 51:12
  Speaker C: And see what. Where it takes us. We just want to play.
• 51:15
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 51:15
  Speaker A: Is it taking you anywhere that you know of yet? Can you announce anything? I'm assuming it will take you to Ireland at least.
• 51:21
  Speaker C: I hope it takes us to Ireland. I think we might. Might have something brewing for Celtic Connections in January and then after that we don't know. But. Yeah, if there's anyone out there that wants us to come play in their
• 51:37
  Speaker B: hometown and maybe Styron will take us to Mexico, please.
• 51:43
  Speaker C: Do you want to go to Mexico?
• 51:45
  Speaker A: Mexico City? Honestly? Yeah. I think. I think that seems like a match made in heaven there. And festivals, you're obviously naturally a festival band and it's because it's dramatic, but it's also uplifting. It's got a brass section, so any festival promoters, you'd be. You'd be a fool not to. You'd be feel not to have you for next year.
• 52:09
  Speaker C: I hope so. Really hope we get to play a bunch of festivals next year.
• 52:12
  Speaker A: Well, this is a tough one, getting festival books. Well, it's, it's. It's getting. It's all about timing. And it used to be you would start annoying people in December, but now that. Now the flyers are pretty much ready in December.
• 52:25
  Speaker C: But.
• 52:26
  Speaker A: But you don't want to annoy them when they've just done a festival, which is what happens a lot. People will make that error of seeing, you know, whatever I've done, I've done a festival stage. People just message you and you're not even home yet, you know, and you're just getting a message in can I play next year? And that you're like, why. Why would you do. Why would you send me these horrible messages?
• 52:47
  Speaker B: Well, that's the question mark, being a festival guy. Give. Tell us how to do it. What are the tips? Give us the tips. Tell us how to get festival slots.
• 52:59
  Speaker A: Well, yeah, just. Just should not. So I know that people will see. Let's see what's on this week. What's on there is Belladrum, for example, was on this weekend. So what people see is loads of everyone on Instagram sharing pictures of Belladrum. So the book is a bellodrum will wake up to. They'll still be exhausted, dehydrated, probably hung over and probably somewhere in the Highlands, try to get home. Although some of them do live in the Highlands, so maybe not too long a trick for them, but they'll just be really bru. Battered and bruised, physically, mentally, and they're going to open up a lot of dms. People saying, I want to play your festival. And that's a bad idea because that you just dingy. That you just ding it. So I would say if a festival's in May, now's the time. Now's the time for me.
• 53:53
  Speaker C: Festivals, Many festivals. Right down May festival.
• 53:56
  Speaker A: Yeah, May festivals. Knows the time. If it's. If it's an August festival, leave them. Leave them. They need a bit more time. No, September, September, October. It's pretty much all wrapped up by October, November.
• 54:10
  Speaker C: Well, do you know.
• 54:11
  Speaker A: Well, I mean, you can still play festivals, but you. You want to be on the. If you want to get paid on. On the billing, like, get a decent. Get your name on the flyer. I mean, it's. I don't. It doesn't count if you're on the flyer. That's what I feel sometimes.
• 54:26
  Speaker C: Okay, that's a big statement, Mark.
• 54:29
  Speaker A: I just know. I feel. I'm just being honest about it. I just feel like it's like there's a. Sometimes I'll play a festival. Some people. People tell me that I didn't play a Festival. Because they went. I checked the flyer. It wasn't that year. No, it wasn't. So I feel like you. I feel like if I was not playing a festival now. No, if I was playing a festival, wasn't in the flyer. I would do it, actually.
• 54:49
  Speaker B: Do what they did.
• 54:50
  Speaker A: That just did. Hold this. If I can find the flyer. They just did there. So I was offered to play Electric Picnic this year in Ireland, but I didn't do it. I don't. I don't want to play anything. Apart from. Apart from the 16th of August. Of course. I want to play that. The 16th of August at McNeil's Bar upstairs with Seren and Merrill Folk and Dr. Normal and. And God, the Duncan and Stevie elements. I definitely want to play that. But in general they're really up for it. So he offered a few festivals and I just. I was just going to do some spoken word or maybe acoustic stuff, but I just didn't feel it was the right year. But anyway, the point is the Fontaine D.C. and all these big bands are playing and the Dead Thatchers put themselves, right, the top four bands next to all these huge acts. I think it's maybe like Kneecap and Fontaine dc. It's like. It's a. Some big names there. And I was like, what? They're really big up in the lineup. They're really big up. But they've actually taken. Is. It was a Semat. I think they're taking Semat out and put Dead Thatchers in instead.
• 55:50
  Speaker C: Take one of lads out. What the.
• 55:53
  Speaker A: Yeah, that was really. That was actually very misogynistic of them.
• 55:56
  Speaker C: Extremely misogynistic things, clearly.
• 55:59
  Speaker A: Well, I mean, it was. They shouldn't be doing it at all. Hold on, let me just see if I can find it. But I think that's good. I like. I like it. Maybe not. They wouldn't have taken the women off the line up there. That's sexist. But I would have.
• 56:11
  Speaker C: Yeah, we'll just do that. If we don't get any festivals next year, we'll just.
• 56:15
  Speaker A: You know what? It's all smoking Mirror. Nobody's checking anything.
• 56:19
  Speaker C: No.
• 56:19
  Speaker A: Maybe he's getting time to check if there's never needs to doom scroll. So like, nobody's. Nobody. Nobody's even reading an article anymore.
• 56:27
  Speaker C: No.
• 56:28
  Speaker A: All people want is a. As a headline. A headline that makes them angry so they can comment on it before they've. They're aware of what's happening. But yeah, this is the Electric Picnic. And I just was like, wow, that's crazy. Look how so it's gorillas and then it's dead. That it's Fontaine's. DCN did that just. I don't know. Am I being. Am I being. Being old here? But I don't know who Somber is.
• 56:54
  Speaker B: I've heard that name. I think they played my work recently.
• 56:57
  Speaker C: Okay.
• 56:59
  Speaker A: Zara.
• 57:01
  Speaker B: Zara Larson. Yeah. She's big at the moment.
• 57:06
  Speaker A: Yeah, Very big. Oh, bigger than Dead Thatchers. And then. But yeah, then. So I was like. I was. Actually seems like a weird one because obviously I'm a bit. Big fan. Big fan of what. What the guys do. I was like, that's a big jump up the bill to be. Then. Then I went on to the. The Electric PNIC page and it was slightly different. It was slightly different.
• 57:28
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 57:29
  Speaker A: Okay. Anyway, it's time to go because it's time to watch the video.
• 57:34
  Speaker C: So we're just.
• 57:35
  Speaker A: We're just gonna need to go because I'm just going to go to the. The video here just now. You hold on. We'll get the video. Has it got a countdown or is it just straight into it?
• 57:43
  Speaker C: I don't know. I hope it has a countdown, but
• 57:46
  Speaker A: it would begin shortly. So we can just. We can just watch it. I'll share the screen. Well, no, we're not. We'll not watch it here. We'll let everyone watch it on your channel so that you get. You're up to six subscribers.
• 57:59
  Speaker C: Thank you so much.
• 58:01
  Speaker A: So that's good.
• 58:03
  Speaker C: The first six you will always be.
• 58:06
  Speaker A: Yeah. You'll never forget about these people.
• 58:08
  Speaker C: Never.
• 58:10
  Speaker B: The first six are the sweetest.
• 58:15
  Speaker C: Exactly.
• 58:16
  Speaker A: So we are.
• 58:17
  Speaker B: I don't even know what that song was. That's it. Thank you.
• 58:24
  Speaker A: So there might be a little countdown. If there's not a countdown. We're just going to end the show. We're just going to end the show because it looks like it's a bit of a start. Well, you know what we'll do? We'll just end it. Yeah. Start on. It's a countdown.
• 58:33
  Speaker B: There it is. Oh, what's the advert for? What's the advert?
• 58:36
  Speaker C: It's a countdown.
• 58:39
  Speaker B: Oh, is that the countdown short for adverts?
• 58:42
  Speaker A: I'm afraid that I've got premium for everything because I'm sick and I can't watch adverts anymore. So you've got to be. Let's see. It doesn't tell me how long this adverts. The. The premiere is.
• 58:56
  Speaker C: Don't know either. Two minutes.
• 58:57
  Speaker B: You know what?
• 58:58
  Speaker A: I'm going to wrap up the show going. Let's just go watch it. Let's go watch it so that we don't take away the views from the actual thing. So thank you. I will see you on the 16th of August at the Govern Hell Festival and then we will. Your album's out on October 14th. The launch is at Rum Shack on the 24th and Beckon and Back is out now on YouTube. So go and watch it and all the other good. Well, there's five seconds to go. That's exciting. Okay, bye.
• 59:51
  Speaker E: Sky screaming as I'm stretched across time Skins bleeding from flesh Three greater teeth I stack A light high lullaby beams across dark choppy song Seas. Shimmering all golden path beckoning back tonight Shimmering golden path beckoning back to night Dropping salt sea shimmering golden path Beginning back to dark choppy salt sea shimmering golden hat I can name them back dark choppy soul see. My dling heart we have left her behind and you prefer not to breathe Then try to slow down my darling please come back to me. That beginning. Golden in the back tonight Shimmering golden in the back Dark choppy salt sea.
• 1:01:59
  Speaker A: Sa.
• 1:02:24
  Speaker E: Be so. You're moving too fast a danger to find the dling high we have landed behind Then try to slow down my darling please. Sa.
• 1:03:16
  Speaker C: Ram.