Friday 2 September 2011

We're Only Here For The Banter - velcroBROTHER






VelcroBROTHER are a band who don't shy away from hard work. The band first caught my eye when they got in touch asking me to have a listen to their music. I duly did, and duly enjoyed it too. They released their debut LP 'A Helpin' Hand' in February this year pretty much as a DIY effort. They band were kind enough to take some time to talk to us. Here's what they had to say:

Hello, how are you?

Optimistic with that warm feeling you get after a nice plate of porridge with jam in it.

Tell us a little bit about your music and influences.
We just released our debut album earlier this year called 'A Helpin' Hand' and the two themes in it are love - the joy of falling and how it can get  you through hard times - and secondly how difficult it is for kids growing up these days, particularly in cities, which is hitting a note given what has been happening down south with the riots. We wrote a song called 'The Samaritans Called Me Last Night', which deals with various causes and issues for these kids. Our influences are pretty wide ranging and include The La's, Velvet Underground, The Lovin Spoonful, Beach Boys, Beatles, Beck, Bob Dylan and the BMX Bandits.....lots of bands starting with the letter B!

Scotland has a thriving music scene. How do you find being a part of that?
It is great right now. We are originally from the far tip of Fife and know some of the Fence Collective folks. There is a lot of great music in Scotland right now and we dig it. 

Which Scottish artists would you recommend to the Scottish Fiction readers?
King Creosote's recent album is well worth buying. 

What is your songwriting process like?
Er, there isn't really much of a process with us to be honest. That is the weird thing about song writing - often the song just seems to arrive out of thin air. One of our most listened to tracks on Soundcloud is called Hold Means Now and that began when I was sitting on the edge of my bed as a student and strummed B-minor. For some reason on that day it sounded a different kind of B-minor and the whole song just washed through in about 5 mins.  It just clicked.

What could we expect to see/hear from your live shows?

You would see our lead guitarist wrestling with his guitar like a man battling a snake in a telephone box, whilst the drummer resembles Animal out of the muppets after too many espressos. 

You released debut album 'A Helpin' Hand' in February. How have things been for the band since?
We've had some nice feedback and are flattered to be honest. Also the fact that some of the issues we have written about have hit the press in recent months, seems to have hit the nerve of some folks and bloggers, which is jammy.  The Whole World is Watching has a chant at the start from student riots in the 60s, and student riots have been pretty topical recently as well as the Samaritans song.

And what does the rest of 2011 hold for the band?

Well our lead guitarist has just got back, so things are now starting to move. He stole my car a few months ago and drove to Germany. We tried to tweet to him and temp him back but he is pretty stubborn, done it before for a laugh... so things are on the up!

Thanks for speaking with us, would you care to share a joke with us?
Why don't the Government just say they want to set up a 1980s tribute Government?

You can check out velcroBROTHER on Soundcloud and follow them on Twitter.





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