I first came across Plastic Animals earlier this year with the track 'Maybe Tomorrow' (thankfully a scuzzy lo-fi sounding track, not a Stereophonics cover). The band consist of Mario, James and Dave, and hail from Peru, Northern Ireland and Scotland, and base their multinational collective selves in Edinburgh. And rather than being a new band, they have been plugging away for 5 years, celebrating this milestone by making their back catalouge available for free on their bandcamp page. They released a new EP, the above Dark Springs, earlier this year and things are generally quite exciting for the band at the moment. Here's what they had to say to some questions.
Hello, how are you?
Hello! We are well, full of the joys of Autumn!
Tell us a little bit about your music and influences.
We play loud, fuzzy pop songs, with loops and layers to add a touch of atmosphere and class. Influences include Deerhunter, Pavement, Yo La Tengo, Built To Spill, Elliott Smith and much, much more.
Scotland has a thriving music scene. How do you find being a part of that?
It’s great! We’ve played with some very talented bands, and worked with some really friendly promoters and bloggers. It’s been nice to find people who are on the same page, and really love the music they are making/promoting/listening to. Exciting!
Which Scottish artists would you recommend to the Scottish Fiction readers?
Some favourites include: The Scottish Enlightenment, PAWS, Molly Wagger (now London based, but still Scottish!), eagleowl and Withered Hand.
What is your songwriting process like?
Mario (who is both the Lennon and the McCartney of the band) usually brings a few ideas to practice and we play around with them until they sound like a song. We’ll keep the ones that work, and practice the shit out of them until they are tight enough to gig/record. Sounds so magical, doesn’t it!?
What could we expect to see/hear from your live shows?
We have grand plans for costume changes, pyrotechnics, wailing guitar solos and revolving drumkits, but for now it’s probably best to just hope for some decent songs and not too many fuckups.
What does the rest of 2011 hold for you?
We don’t have a massive amount planned right now – taking some time to work on new songs and starting to think about our next recording exploits. But we’re also hoping to play some more gigs, and especially keen for a few outside Edinburgh. We're also considering adding a 4th Animal - so if you're a guitarist who loves keyboards, get in touch!
What's been your biggest achievement so far?
We’re really happy with the way our most recent EP “A Dark Spring” turned out, and the launch gig for that was possibly the most fun we’ve had as a band – lots of people came and seemed to really enjoy it. And the fact that some people we don’t know have listened to and liked the songs feels like an achievement! Also we got played on BBC Radio Ulster’s “Across The Line” before our Belfast gig, which was pretty sweet.
Thanks for speaking with us, would you care to share a joke with us?
A horse walks into a bar and the bartender asks "why the long face?".
The horse replies "My wife is dying of terminal cancer."
Check out more of Plastic Animals with the links below
Website
Bandcamp
No comments:
Post a Comment