Run/Lucky/Free make melodic indie music that burst with emotion and feeling. Spread across the country (literally) the band consist of vocalist Rachael Cormack, guitarist Daniel Critchon, bassist Sam Dick and drummer Fergus Costello. Last single The Factory was out late last year, and with the promise of new material in 2012, we're looking forward to hearing more from Run/Lucky/Free. Guitarist Daniel answered our usual barrel of questions.
Hello, how are you?
Hi. I’ve just finished watching ‘I Love You Man’ so I’m in a pretty good mood.
It's the question everyone hates, but could you tell us a little bit about your music and your influences?
Our songs usually consist of a solid rhythm section that makes you nod your head, guitars that jump between atmospheric and in your face, and emotive vocals and lyrics that make you ponder. We try and employ a lot of dynamics in to our music as well. We can’t seem to play music for a minute without going up or down in volume.
I heard a song by Death Cab For Cutie the other day called ‘Meet Me on the Equinox’ and I thought that that particular song sounded like the music we make (or at least the music that we’d like to make). It was just a passing thought though.
What's your song writing process like?
I tend to find that there is 3 parts to how we write songs. The first part is that initial spark of creativity that usually comes during a band practice. Everyone suddenly gets really excited about this piece of music we’re creating and within about 10 or 20 minutes we’ll have the base of a song.
The second part is refining the song. This, for us, is a long, arduous and, for the most part, incredibly infuriating process. We’ll take the song under our wing, love it, spend time with it, care for it; and then we’ll completely beat the shit out of it until everyone in the band is happy with it.
The third and final part is the finished product. We all know that a song is finished when we all look up after playing it in a practice and give an affirming nod to each other that says ‘well done… well done’!
What could we expect to see from a live show?
We usually choose about 6 or 7 songs for our set list, play the songs with as much energy as we can muster and try and have as much fun as we possibly can while we’re up there.
If it were all to end tomorrow, what would you say has been your greatest achievement?
Hmm… that’s a tough question. There have been plenty of gigs that we’ve played that were great achievements for us and we’re all really proud of the releases that we’ve had thus far. However, I don’t think we’ve really achieved anything special so far. I’m not trying to put us down or anything, I just don’t think we’ve fully realised what we can do as a band and I think that will come with our next release.
What have you got planned for 2012?
At the moment our main priority is writing new material. We want to record a new EP and release it in the next few months. So we’ll probably go quite quiet for a while, but trust me we’ll be working hard.
At Scottish Fiction we focus on new Scottish music, how do you as a band view the Scottish music 'scene'?
I think the Scottish music scene can sometimes be contained within itself and the bands that make it big here find it hard to break out of the Scottish music scene and make it big elsewhere. However, we definitely have the talent. There’s so many good Scottish bands that I’ve discovered over the past few months.
Also, I‘d like to take this chance to try and big up the Edinburgh music scene because everyone gives it a bad reputattion, especially at the moment with venues like Cab Vol closing down and the Bongo Club coming under threat. I think it’s better than people give it credit for. Recently Edinburgh bands like Bwani Junction and Discopolis have been getting some much deserved attention from the big boys at Radio 1 and the NME; in this week alone Avalanche Records has had in-store performances from Rachel Sermanni, The Twilight Sad and Frightened Rabbit; bloggers like Song, By Toad and The Tidal Wave Of Indifference and Radio DJs like Vic Galloway continue to put on gigs showcasing the best in Scottish talent; Born To Be Wide do a lot to get bands speaking with influential people from the music industry; and, although we seem to be losing venues faster than a fast thing can go fast, we still have incredible venues such as Sneaky Pete’s, The Wee Red Bar, Electric Circus and Henry’s Cellar Bar.
I’ll admit that a lot of the time Edinburgh doesn’t bring the crowds to justify these gigs, but you can’t say that there aren’t people trying to make the music scene in Edinburgh better.
Rant over.
What other Scottish artists would you recommend to the Scottish Fiction readers?
I’m just going to write a list: Forest Fires, Miasma, Seams, Maydays, Betatone Distraction, The Little Kicks, Trapped In Kansas, Bwani Junction, Discopolis, Tango In The Attic, The Imagineers, Letters, Blank Canvas, Make Sparks, Wiredrawn, Fatherson, Paws, Admiral Fallow, We Were Promised Jetpacks… and I’m spent
Thanks for speaking with us, would you care to share a joke with us?
What’s brown and sticky?
A stick.
The old classics are the best!
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