7of7 are a 6 piece progressive and experimental rock band from Neilston/Barrhead. We were lucky enough to have them live on the Scottish Fiction radio show last week. The band have been busy over the summer after adding lead singer Sean O'Neil, releasing two tracks and gigging across the country. Here's what they had to said when we spoke with them.
Hello, how are you?
Hey Neil, we're very well thanks!
It's the question that everyone hates, but could you tell us a little bit about your music and influences?
We are a Progressive Rock band with a melodic rock feel. Most of our songs contain the structure of progressive rock with our use of playing in different time signatures, tempo changes, wide use of harmonic progressions etc.
Our influences are Tool, Dream Theater, Pink Floyd, King Crimson. These bands are progressive rock and have a big influence on our music but we also love melodic rock bands like Alter Bridge, City And Colour etc. We also love composers such as Mozart, Beethoven, Debussy, Brahms, Saint Saens, Vaughan Williams, Janacek, lots of baroque/classical/romantic/20th century music as well as some pop influence too.
What's your songwriting process like?
All of our song writing comes from Gary, Craig and myself (Stephen). Craig and I will bring into our practice sessions lots of musical ideas like some riffs each of us have come up with or even full songs we have composed individually in our own time and then Gary will write lyrics and even chip in with musical ideas too as well as ideas from McGuinny, Anton and Sean but main basis of song writing is Gary, Craig and myself.
What could we expect to see from a live show?
On the performance side, it's just trying to get into it and get the audience into the groove you're getting into. We play with two guitars, a bass, drums, synth and four mics so it's quite crowded. But you do your best to get right into and hopefully if you do that, the audience get into it with you. We're also music geeks and we don't want to sacrifice the sound. If you come to see us your always guaranteed to a full, loud and complete sound.
If it were all to end tomorrow, what would you say has been your greatest achievement?
We are proud of most things that we do, but our biggest achievements are probably just getting to play certain venues. We've been on Radio 1 a couple of times, which was huge for us, not as huge as Pulse Radio obviously! The biggest buzz we get is when someone comes up to you who doesn't know you and says they really enjoyed it and then taking a keen interest in your music. It's great to play with bands and that but I'd much rather the audience appreciated what we're trying to do, and if they take it on board then that's the main thing.
What have you got planned for the second half of 2012?
We've got Bloc booked for October, but nothing else at the moment. It's kind of the last gig of this run of gigs we've been playing. We are planning to bring out an EP pretty shortly, with 'These Days Are Our Last', 'The Pirate' and another song called 'Lucifer's' which we are waiting to get back. But while you're recording songs you're also writing them as well, so you kinda feel like you're just about to put out an EP but you already want to go back in and record the next EP! We are really itching to do that 'cause we've got all these new songs, which we want to play and as with all new songs kinda become you're favourite song! Pretty soon we are hopefully going to get in a studio and record the rest of the stuff.
At Scottish Fiction we focus on new Scottish music, how do you as a band view the Scottish music 'community'?
I think it's really exciting just now, there's always a big undercurrent, especially unsigned, of Scottish bands going about. Where ever you are in the country, there's always a good scene going on, which is good and it's good for us. Our music is slightly different to what's going on just now, and not being pinned down by a scene is always a challenge.
What other Scottish artists would you recommend to the Scottish Fiction readers?
We played with Flood Of Red in The Jam Jar in Dunfermline recently who were excellent. Carnivores seem to be everywhere at the moment, and they are electric live, what a show they put on. Marvel Heights as well, who sing with a female vocalist, which brings such a different sound to the music. And Michael Cassidy as well is a great artist.
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