This week’s Questions for the Band are answered by local band stmartiins, and again I will let the band introduce themselves.

A gentle start, for those that don't know the band that well. can you tell us a little bit about yourselves ?

stmartiins is made up of Katie and myself (Mark). We’re both from Dundee and have been friends since we were 13. We started started playing music around the same time until we eventually formed this current project. When we play live we are joined by Sam on drums, Megan on guitar and Stephen on bass. 

Who are the bands musical influences ?

I think we used to always say we had clear musical influences when asked that question but I definitely think it just changes too much all the time. We are always looking for new music to fill the void/fuel new inspiration. Katie makes great playlists for me with loads of new stuff I don’t think I would find otherwise, but similarly I will find music she would never have heard either. The endless search keeps our influences fresh.

What is your writing process ? Music or Lyrics First ? 

This definitely changes song to song! Katie writes constantly, she has notebooks full of songs and poems. When we started out it used to be that I would come to Katie with an almost fully formed idea of the music and we would see if she had anything that fit with it, but we’ve changed that completely now where its much more focussed around writing together from the start. I think the result is that our music is really evolving for the better.

What is an average day like for you ? 

Our average day (when we aren’t both working) has changed quite a lot recently since we built our own studio! Now that we have somewhere we can work from that’s built for the purpose I feel like we are a lot more productive now. We’ve had a lot of releases and still have a lot coming up so the main focus is writing constantly. We have a tour coming up so for the next month we will just be rehearsing.

What is your favourite and least favourite parts of being in a band ? 

FAVOURITE - I think we both definitely love writing/recording the most. It’s so exciting to start a new idea and develop it over time and watch it come together. Playing live is a great feeling but we get more lasting satisfaction from the process in the studio. I really love to practice as well, getting to play the songs over and over is bliss to me. 

LEAST - Definitely how much it costs. Everything is an investment, but the busier we get and the further afield we go - and more frequently - the tougher it gets to pay for. Luckily the enjoyment we get from it negates that. Hopefully it will all pay off one day!

Tell me, how do you interact and respond to fans ? 

We don’t take ourselves too seriously, our social media is just run like our own personal accounts. We just want to have fun with it and try to make that come across to people who follow us. Surreal to think we could have fans, we just talk to them like pals. 

If you could choose to support any band who would it be and why ? 

Mark: Probably someone like Bon Iver because I can’t afford tickets and would really like to see that live. 

Katie: The Cure because you could tell people you supported The Cure.

Looking ahead for this year, what are your plans ? can we expect new music ? and do you have any ambitions that you want to fulfill this year ? 

We have so much new music to release! ‘Hoping for the worst’ is a collection of songs that we’ve worked on for the past year and that comes out on the 13th of March. We’ve been writing and recording for what follows that later in the year.

And finally, if you could only listen to one album for the rest of your life, what would it be and why ? 

Mark:A Flourish And A Spoil by The Districts purely because everytime I listen to it is just as amazing as the first time I listened. 

Katie: That question is too hard, currently I would choose Immunity by Clairo.

Thanks to stmartiins for some great and interesting answers, as they said they release their EP ‘Hoping for the worst’ on 13 March.

They are also on tour and can be seen at the following venues:

Glasgow - Poetry Club, Friday 13 March

Liverpool - Melon Yellow Festival, Saturday 14 March

Manchester - The Castle, Tuesday 17 March

Leeds - Headrow House, Wednesday 18 March

London - Laylow, Saturday 21 March

If you can get along to one of their gigs then do so, you won’t be disappointed they are fabulous live, for a sneak preview give the video below a watch or should that be listen: