Where We Lay Our Heads are a 6 piece band from Glasgow who make what their Facebook page describes as haunting folk rock. All labels aside it should simply be enough that they make good music, which fans of Beerjacket and Loch Awe would enjoy. Their songs are written with heart and delicacy, and they have been making quite a name for themselves gigging over the last 12 months. Lead singer Wull Swales was kind enough to put some words into coherent sentences, which neatly answers questions. Have a read...
Hello, how are you?
Great thanks, and yourself?
None too shabby thank you! Tell us a little bit about your music and influences.
Hmm I guess it's always tough describing your own stuff. @canigetap on Twitter called us “Classic soaring, Scottish folk pop” which could be right, let's go for that. I like to think the music as kinda dark uplifting pop, we've also been described as “haunting” but it depends how you look at the lyrics, the EP we're working on right now “Remember You Are Mortal” is an example of that, it's not necessarily a reminder of death, but of life I guess. Influence wise recently a lot of it is pretty close to home, I like finding little things you can connect to and the idea that amazing things can be made next door so people like Peter Howson & Iain Banks and music-wise we'd all agree on stuff like Malcolm Middleton, Withered Hand, Beerjacket, Frightened Rabbit, Broken Records, Mogwai and a lot of Fence stuff too, i.e.King Creosote. And Chemical Underground stuff, i.e. The Phantom Band, and Song By Toad as well, which looks like I'm basically covering the entire Scottish folk bases. Let's throw Dougie MacLean in there as well!
Scotland has a thriving music scene. How do you find being a part of that?
I love that we're considered a part of it! Glasgow and Scotland in general is a great place to be right now musically, not just the diversity but the amount of good quality bands that are coming through. I really like the community aspect of the Scottish scene as well.
Which Scottish artists would you recommend to the Scottish Fiction readers?
Is there a word limit on this? I believe you have Shambles and Reverieme covered but they'd probably be in our list. John Knox Sex Club, Over The Wall, Conquering Animal Sound, Shooting Stansfield, White Heath, Esperi, Letters, Loch Awe, Cancel The Astronauts, So Many Animal Calls, Blue Sky Archives, Trapped In Kansas, Cafe Disco, Kate Dunn & The Redundants The Last Battle, How To Swim... there are too many good bands kicking around.
What is your songwriting process like?
Songwriting-wise it's kinda split but generally it'll start with me at home and I'll figure out a little vocal hook, or I'll have some lyrics written on the back of my hand or in my phone or it'll be just a little riff on guitar and just let it build up to a point where I'm confident enough to record a demo or bring the song to band practice and we'll just build up the track in our practice room.
What could we expect to see/hear from your live shows?
You can expect 6+ people all playing classic soaring Scottish folk pop and awkward banter and a lot of fun.
What does the rest of 2011 hold for you?
We've got an awesome secret house show this week, then October 15th we head down to Manchester to play Carefully Planned festival with bands like Shoes and Socks Off, Juffage, Loose Talk Costs Lives, Just Handshakes (We're British) and fellow Glasweigans Silver Caves, then we support David Dondero at Nice 'N' Sleazy on the 21st with our buddies Lovers Turn To Monsters. And on November 7th we get to support The Shivers at Mono with again our friends Randolph's Leap. We'll also be starting work on the new EP too of course.
What's been your biggest achievement so far?
I dunno, it's hard to say. I think getting to support bands like I'm From Barcelona, The Black Atlantic, Withered Hand, Grandfather Birds and Jeniferever were great. Summer Nights festival was great too. As well as the support press-wise we've had some nice coverage from the podcasts and a few BBC plays north and south of the border. We only played our first full band show in February and we keep on getting better and better offers and opportunities, can't wait to see what our answer would be to this question in 6 months time.
Thanks for speaking to us!
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