This weeks Questions for the Band were put to Dictator, another of the rising stars from West Lothian’s current hot bed of musical talent. I caught up with them just as lockdown was about to take over our lives. As usual 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 ?

Hi Mate, Zach here from Dictator, we’re a four piece Indietronica band from West Lothian. 

Zach - Guitar

Michael - Vocals, guitar, keys 

Joe - Bass

Allan - Drums, percussion

To be fair though we do a bit of swapping around instruments. 

Who are the bands musical influences ?

Gorillaz, Primal Scream, The XX, Young Fathers. We’re into a huge variety of music though and we try and put that across in our music. We love blurring musical genres. 

What is your writing process ? Music or Lyrics First ?

Michael is the main songwriter, he comes up with the structures in his little bedroom studio then sends them on to us or we jam them out in rehearsals.

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

Least favourite - putting unnecessary pressures on yourself to do well. We got into this to have a good time, so we try and live by the rule of if it doesn’t seem like fun, we’re not going to do it. 

Favourite - at this point, it has to be the live shows. We just done our first gig outside of Scotland, supporting Mark Sharp and the Bicycle Thieves. It was an amazing experience, from travelling up and down the country with yer best mates in a van, to meeting loads of like minded, music loving individuals. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll be happy as long as I get to create music, but right now we’re all loving the chance to perform and meet new fans. 

Tell me, what is on your rider at a gig ? 

Nothing too fancy (yet) Beer (non alcoholic for Me so I don’t seem like an antisocial prick) water, crisps and biscuits does us fine. 

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

Primal Scream would be a bucket list event.... they actually have a couple of dates at The Kelvingrove bandstand coming up, maybe if we pester them and the promoter enough they’ll let us open the stage.

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’ve loads of new music to come, it’s kind of been delayed due to corona virus but hopefully by the end of the year you’ll have heard quite a few new bits from us.

We’ve already achieved some of our ambitions early on this year. Which were to sell out Sneaky Petes and also to get BBC introducing airplay. Thanks Vic ! I guess we just need to aim even higher for the end of the year 🤔 add that Primal Scream support to the list ? Haha ! We’d also like to get a proper management team. I love doing it all ourselves but it can become quite a difficult balancing act, it would be nice to have someone to do the business end of it all. 

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

The Streets - Original Pirate material. It’s just one of those albums I never get sick of. It always reminds me of Saturday afternoons in the pub and Mike Skinner captures a great variety of emotion throughout, Euphoria, Humour, Melancholy. Just an iconic album, start to finish. 

Thanks Zach for the great answers and the lowdown on Dictator, looking forward to hearing more music from you this year as your two singles Anthem for a Doomed Youth and Taped Up are both wicked.

Also any band managers out there looking to help the lads out, get in touch with them, you could end up managing one of the hottest bands around just now.

Dictator can be followed on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Spotify:

https://www.facebook.com/dictvtor/

https://instagram.com/dictatorband?igshid=1iml3u75y43vn

https://twitter.com/Dictator_Band

https://open.spotify.com/artist/6s3XH0VddJvfm3evFlfEq7?si=p7XWweoQSiWINGb6m46VBA