The Celestians are a four piece consisting of Russell Ferguson, Keir Palmer, Craig Devoy and Keir Fletcher. Originating from Cumbernauld, they released their EP 'Specimens' in August of 2010 to many positive reviews. The band bill themselves as "everything that you haven't heard before." This could be a lot of things, so I asked Russell from the band a few questions to straighten things out.
Hello, how are you?
I’m not too bad, just back from my college induction. Doing an HNC in sound production because I’m in a band and think it’ll be mega clever and no one will have deployed this tactic before… It’ll be good fun.
Tell us a little bit about your music and influences.
My personal musical influences are Angels & Airwaves and White Lies, two very different sounding bands but like every other musician nowadays I would honestly say I try and not take too much influence from other bands, instead we try and let our own sound manifest over time.
Scotland has a thriving music scene. How do you find being a part of that?
I would honestly stick my neck out on the line and say it’s probably the best music scene to be apart of. It’s bustling and bursting with such amazing bands, I think I find at least one new band per week that I could listen to months!
Cumbernauld is often the butt of many jokes, having won the infamous 'Plook On A Plinth' award twice. What impact does the town itself have on your music?
Let’s face it, the majority of Cumbernauld is a bit of a dive, a part from the new ‘waves’ we had installed that lead you to our state of the art Town Centre… I hope you sense my severe sarcasm here but really it isn’t all bad. I find it has zero impact on our music scene! Cumbernauld is the same as Glasgow and other places, absolutely bursting with some really amazing bands.
Which Scottish artists would you recommend to the Scottish Fiction readers?
Well I’m in love with Make Sparks, such a top band that we’re lucky to be supporting in Stirling soon. MakethisRelate are another amazing band who played T in the Park, Download and the like this year thanks to Red Bulls Bedroom Jam. (I’m in their music video, but keep that hushed!)
You got some very positive reviews of your second EP 'Specimens', how have you progressed since then?
Our EP ‘Specimens’ done us an amazing job in getting us out there so it’s been really challenging in progressing. We’ve had a stop start year due to changes in band line ups but I think if you listened to our older songs to the songs we play live you can really hear a definite change, a rise in maturity and a very alternative/dark turn in sound.
What is your songwriting process like?
This can be summed up very quickly. I’ll write a song essentially 99% complete, lyrics and all, take it to the guys at practise (this takes about 2-3 practises we reckon!) and they mangle it into something truly spectacular, the songs I write would be pitiful if it wasn’t for the other members they really make it into something far grander. (apologies for my soppy moment there)
What could we expect to see/hear from your live shows?
Weird faces, sweat everywhere, two speccy b*stards and the occasional half decent tune. We’re very frenetic to watch and listen to, we try and make our live shows better than our recorded songs and we think that there isn’t much point in producing an amazing EP if you can’t perform it live! Overall, we aim our live shows to be an experience rather than just a gig, the aim being that we want people to leave saying ‘aye the band we came to see were good, but Jesus, that band with the sweaty idiot singing were incredible!’
And what does the rest of 2011 hold for the band?
I think our aim is really to just regroup; we’ve had a very unfortunate summer with an abundance of setbacks. Definitely keep an eye out for some form of release and dare I say it… a mini tour. Our mission is essentially to get our music to the most people we possibly can!
Thanks for speaking with us, would you care to share a joke with us?
It’s been a pleasure! A joke? As a band we’re renowned for destroying jokes and not being funny at all but I’ll give it a go…
‘Adele takes all the fat jokes about her with a pinch of salt... a side of fries and a steak’… I’ll let myself out.
You can (and should) check out more about The Celestians on their Facebook, follow them on Twitter and also hear their sounds on Bandcamp.
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