Thula Borah are a four piece from Glasgow who after releasing their debut album 'Mind River Matter' in 2010 have been gigging extensively and plying their post-rock influenced trade up and down the country. Their latest collection of tracks, EP 'Live Secretly' is now available on Bandcamp on a pay-what-you-like basis and is packed full of challenging and engaging tunes, steeped in post-rock influences, which is hardly surprising given the EP was recorded by Andy Miller at Gargleblast Studios. Lead singer/guitarist Lloyd took the time to answer some question of our usual 'We're Only Hear For The Banter Feature'. Have a read below.
Hello, how are you?
Aye, no' bad.
It's the question everyone hates, but could you tell us a little bit about your music and your influences?
Yeah, for some reason it is always incredibly hard to talk about your own music. Although we are influenced by so many bands and different types of music I think our sound can be traced to a few elements. The foundation being 90s, mainly American, alternative rock and then the eye opening influence of so called post-rock and post-metal of Mogwai, Sigur Ros and Isis shaping it towards a more instrumental and ambient sound.
What's your song writing process like?
It differs, we have came across songs in a variety of ways. Mainly though someone demos a song at home and if there is a consensus that it is worth learning then we all start working on it or, as has happened more often recently, someone will come in with a riff or a starting point and we all jam on it from there and try to let the song write itself so-to-speak.
What could we expect to see from a live show?
Four short men looking at their feet. We are looking at introducing a harness and pyrotechnics but for the time being we’ll just have to appreciate venues that put on a good, atmospheric light show because we don’t do much on stage. Hopefully the music makes up for that.
If it were all to end tomorrow, what would you say has been your greatest achievement?
There have been a lot of good gigs to look back on as high points, but releasing an album and EP would be the high point for me. Having our music reach people across the world (thanks to the Internet) is amazing and hard to get your head around and we hope it'll still be listened to when it does all come to an end for us.
What have you got planned for the rest of 2012?
In the short term we have what is probably our biggest gig yet, supporting *shels at The Classic Grand on the 23rd of June and we are also starting to record a new EP that month too. Hopefully the rest of the year will be filled up with playing live as far and wide as possible.
At Scottish Fiction we focus on new Scottish music, how do you as a band view the Scottish music 'scene'?
It’s definitely healthy and thriving in many respects. It’s probably too healthy! I remember one night we tried to book a last minute rehearsal the night before a gig and almost every single rehearsal place in greater Glasgow was completely booked up. It goes to show just how many bands there are out there, but inevitably with that comes a bit of exploitation with some venues and promoters chucking on 5 bands per night and trying to get as much money from them as possible, so it’s not always positive. But the sheer number of bands means there is always something interesting going on and there will always be a crop of excellent bands kicking about.
What other Scottish artists would you recommend to the Scottish Fiction readers?
I’d say Ohm and Little Bay are the best bands we’ve played with and I’d urge people to go and see them live. Plus Without Aeroplanes and Suplex The Kid are lovely people and have great EPs out there worth checking out. I’m also excited about the band Towers, look out for them.
Thanks for speaking with us, would you care to share a joke with us?
Ehm...People are always saying to me "Hindsight is such a wonderful thing, isn't it?" And I say "Dunno, ask me in a fortnight."
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