Last month I interviewed Gary and Leon of The Lapelles before their debut English set as part of Live at Leeds Festival 2016. Admittedly, they went on to play a set riddled with unavoidable interference yet managed to carry on regardless.
Despite being together for a couple of years already, they can still be seen an an infantile band, backed by raucous instrumentals and a gritty vocal their sound and demeanour though charming is only comparable to that of a caged animal awaiting release. With UK tour dates and the anticipation of new music achingly close, their freedom is inevitable.
Reaching the band during a bittersweet era in their progression it’s only a matter of time before they eclipse support slot status to overtake the ilk of artist they are playing hype to, returning to these major stages in their own right, and if new single "Grab Life By" is anything to go by, they'll be equipped with a back catalogue documenting the evolution of their angst driven adolescence only to reach anthemic status.
How did the band start off?
Gary: It started with the both of us must have been about three and a half years ago, we were at that stage where we were fed up of doing solo work and stuff like that and then me and Leon met at a party and we got to talking about loads of bands we liked and we thought why not start our own band and take it from there. We had a drummer off of Gumtree for a while which was kinda weird, someone we didn't even know, and then he got busy and left. Leon knew Jamie, Jack and a few years later we got Chris on synth so ever since that it’s just snowballed, we have a better idea of how we want to record and write, it’s good.
Leon: We’ve been The Lapelles since February 2014, all of us, three years as a four piece then two years as a five piece.
Leon: We’ve been The Lapelles since February 2014, all of us, three years as a four piece then two years as a five piece.
Your method of songwriting and production?
Gary: "We released Snakehips and Seventeen at the end of last year and recorded it at the start of last year so it’s normally just record and write whenever we can, as much as possible. We have a few more songs coming, we have a release around mid May and then another one maybe June or July."
Leon: "For the writing process Gary starts off with an idea and then we’ll carry on and all write together, do our own parts."
What are your influences?
Gary: "I guess East Kilbride might be one of them, not that it’s bad but it’s kinda boring sometimes especially when you get to this age and there’s nothing to do. So Seventeen is about Peter Manuel the serial killer, who did his first ever murder at Calderglen Golf Course, like two minutes from my house, it’s kinda weird because not that many people know about it. No doors left unopened in East Kilbride, you know, it’s not the best place. Glasgow’s more where we consider home a little bit more, it’s more of a central hub."
Musical influences?
Gary: "We released Snakehips and Seventeen at the end of last year and recorded it at the start of last year so it’s normally just record and write whenever we can, as much as possible. We have a few more songs coming, we have a release around mid May and then another one maybe June or July."
Leon: "For the writing process Gary starts off with an idea and then we’ll carry on and all write together, do our own parts."
What are your influences?
Gary: "I guess East Kilbride might be one of them, not that it’s bad but it’s kinda boring sometimes especially when you get to this age and there’s nothing to do. So Seventeen is about Peter Manuel the serial killer, who did his first ever murder at Calderglen Golf Course, like two minutes from my house, it’s kinda weird because not that many people know about it. No doors left unopened in East Kilbride, you know, it’s not the best place. Glasgow’s more where we consider home a little bit more, it’s more of a central hub."
Musical influences?
Gary: "We like a lot of Postcard Records, like the 80’s label in Glasgow so Orange Juice, Josef K, Aztec Camera, lately I’ve been getting into a lot of Blondie."
Leon: "That’s where I’m quite different from the band I like a lot of modern music: Foals, Circa Waves things like that. The Ramones is always a good one, Baby Strange we were listening to them on our way here, R.E.M, Jack White, Queens of the Stone Age as well."New single "Grab Life By", is this a progression of the bands sound since the Snakehips era?
Gary: "It’s quite summery, it’s got that Snakehips Summer vibe but I’d say it’s a bit more technical but with the same kinda bite to it. We’re really excited about that release, but we also recorded four other tracks a few weeks back that we want to release shortly after "Grab Life By."
It’s taken a while for your music to be released, why is that?
Gary: "Absolutely! I think because when we first started out we were really young, I was eighteen and the rest of the guys were all sixteen, so it was hard to get a gig never mind get some recording done, so most of that time we had to do writing and by the time the rest of the guys hit eighteen we got to do more gigs in town and stuff and then we faced the fact that we didnt want to record, mostly because we were skint."
Leon: "To be honest the ball didnt start rolling till we all turned eighteen, which was only last year, like Chris, our youngest only turned eighteen last year, so we couldn't do much, you’re so limited and you can't really help that!"
Gary: "Absolutely! I think because when we first started out we were really young, I was eighteen and the rest of the guys were all sixteen, so it was hard to get a gig never mind get some recording done, so most of that time we had to do writing and by the time the rest of the guys hit eighteen we got to do more gigs in town and stuff and then we faced the fact that we didnt want to record, mostly because we were skint."
Leon: "To be honest the ball didnt start rolling till we all turned eighteen, which was only last year, like Chris, our youngest only turned eighteen last year, so we couldn't do much, you’re so limited and you can't really help that!"
With the English dates you have lined up are you apprehensive at all with the reception you’ll receive, not having the community spirit you’ve been so used to?
Gary: "Dipping our toes in different waters, nah I'm excited about it, new crowds and that, I think when you’re from Scotland it’s where you want to go, it’s away from home. I think because we’re so used to seeing the people that we know in the crowd, so say when we were playing The Priory, the majority were our friends anyway, so with this it’ll be something really interesting, loads of fresh faces and people we don't know coming to see us out of curiosity rather than out of friendship."
How has the closeness of the music scene in Glasgow helped your progression?
Gary: "The great thing about the music scene in Glasgow now is that there’s no rivalry, no competition or anything at the end of the day everyone’s just really good friends and we all just play music in different bands together doing gigs and stuff. It’s like Hamish from White came down in the van with us to Leeds, we were out last night and it was like that just come to mine, we’ll get the van down together, we’re all pals. There are loads of great bands coming out of Glasgow: The Van T’s, Baby Strange, White. We saw a band called Homeslice last night, they’re class, the room was packed it was mental!"
What’s coming up for the band?
What’s coming up for the band?
Leon: "Music."
Gary: "So new music getting released, we’re touring Scotland, our first proper tour which will be good. We’ve done dates with The View but they were short dates you know, nothing like travelling for a full week. We can’t wait to get a full run of shows with no time in between, more gigs down here: Stockton, Hull, Leeds."
Twitter: @TheLapelles
Gary: "So new music getting released, we’re touring Scotland, our first proper tour which will be good. We’ve done dates with The View but they were short dates you know, nothing like travelling for a full week. We can’t wait to get a full run of shows with no time in between, more gigs down here: Stockton, Hull, Leeds."
Twitter: @TheLapelles
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