On the radar: There Will Be Fireworks
Play: Foreign Thoughts
Scotland has a knack for producing bands of enormous sound. Acts such as The Twilight Sad and Mogwai have paved the way for others to blast into the mainstream. From north to south and east to west, heroic conversations are being had to their songs.
Hailing from Glasgow, There Will Be Fireworks promise to be the next such band, having already turned the head of DJ impresario Steve Lamacq. Together for little over a year, it's remarkable just how revered the quintet have become.
Vocalist and guitarist Nicholas McManus confirms a few of their native influences: ‘We all like stuff like Mogwai, Twilight Sad, Frightened Rabbit, LCD Soundsystem. We all like The Knife as well. I don't know how much any of them influenced us because we never take a conscious starting point for a song, but I reckon the post-rock influences are probably quite apparent."
UtR's featured track, Foreign Thoughts, is one of their most rousing tracks. From the initial bar to the last buzz of distortion, it's pure musical heroin. There's an addictive pushing and pulling at the start that's like two magnetised symbols clashing together. Aided by McManus' emotive delivery, the track builds to a crescendo that makes you want to sing as loud as your lungs will let you.
And what sets There Will Be Fireworks apart from their contemporaries? "We try not to be confined by any genre, so hopefully we sound a bit different because of that," explains McManus. "Some of our songs are little scuzzy discordant pop songs like Foreign Thoughts, some are really heavy and dense and some are totally sparse."
He continues: "Our initial intention was to take post-rock textures and sounds but to put them to use in what are, essentially, really simple pop or folk songs. We always knew we were going to have lyrics as well - we never wanted to be purely instrumental - so hopefully there's something a little unusual in the marrying of post-rock dynamics and narrative lyrics... I don't know if that really makes us different, but it might do!"
Due for release at the start of next month, the band's debut LP will surely mark them out as Scotland's latest epically inclined guitar heroes. Mark our words, There Will Be Fireworks are an act to keep a close eye on.
Intrigued? Watch There Will Be Fireworks live at the following dates:
24 Jun @ Oran Mor, Glasgow
1 July @ Nice N Sleazy, Glasgow [album launch]
14 July @ Electric Circus, Edinburgh
Words: Halina Rifai
There Will Be Fireworks' self-titled debut album is released on 1 July. Check back here for an exclusive track-by-track breakdown from the band themselves in the week before its release.
What you think of these Scottish sparklers? Let us know below...
Labels: on the radar, there will be fireworks
9 Comments:
I think they're going to be hamstrung by constant comparisons to The Twilight Sad.
Sweet...
Haven't heard much of their other stuff yet, but that song doesn't sound anything like Twilight Sad. Except maybe the accent, and plenty of people have similar accents. Suppose there are worse bands to get compared to tho!
The Twilight Sad comparison is fair enough, if what you're talking about is ambitious guitar music with a Scottish accent, but I think the debut album will prove that they're a band to be taken seriously in their own right.
The comparison is justifiable to an extent, and is pretty sound here, but in gereral lots of (other) journalism about Scottish music hobbles along, leaning on the weak and ill-fitted crutch that is lazy comparison with Mogwai, The Twilight Sad, Frightnened Rabbit etc. Oh look, an accent! Funny that. Must be something in the air. Especially when people mistakenly say The Twilight Sad and Frightened Rabbit are Glaswegian.
But aye, TWBF are a good band.
Erm, where exactly is the direct comparison to The Twilight Sad? It's merely mentioned that they (and Mogwai - nobody seems to have picked up on the fact that they were mentioned) paved the way for alternative Scottish bands with no "pop" aspirations to actually hit the mainstream.
Please learn to read, people. No comparison was made to The Twilight Sad in this article.
Also, the member of the band being interviewed actually cites them as an influence...
But yes, There Will Be Fireworks are terrific and I plan to attend their album launch night if I can feasibly make the 300 mile round trip.
Hello there (waves) as the previous poster has said I didn't actually cite Twilight Sad as a comparison. I think the first paragraph may need a couple of readings.
I certainly see every band as a complete individual in Scotland and beyond. I am not saying I never make comparisons as sometimes in life you have to.
Just to get that wee bit cleared up :)
Halina
em yes, the direct Twilight Sad comparison was mine.
And while I don't really want to get too judgemental on a new young Scottish band based on one listen to their MySpace, I was repeatedly reminded of TTS, and not just because of the accent, the vocals are similarly shouted-sung, and there's all sorts of similarities in the guitars, structures, attitudes, themes even. On first listen, anyway. And it's not always 'lazy' to compare similar bands. I listen to a lot of Scottish indie-rock bands and rarely have to use that comparison (and comparisons are always pregnant with misinterpretations).
Even FR and WWPJ get compared to TTS often enough and there's daylight between those three bands (that's just a FatCat & accents comparison, really). And if you listen to other kinds of music - i.e. not just indie-rock - then the niche this band fills appears even smaller. Anyway, I'm not slagging them off, just making an observation. If my instant reaction is like that, then ppl whose knowledge of Scottish guitar music doesn't go much deeper than TTS are guaranteed to make the same comparison.
Cool article.
Cool band.
x
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