Spyres - Questions for the Band
This weeks Questions for the Band were put to the fabulous Glasgow quartet Spyres. 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 ?
Me (Emily) and Keira met each other through open mic gigs around three years ago. We had very similar music tastes and thought it would be a good idea to get together and try out playing as a duo just for fun at the time. We started getting offered local gig slots, playing covers and eventually writing originals. After a few years we started to develop and change musical influences. We were listening to rockier/heavier music such as bands like Wolf Alice and were inspired by them to start a band. Playing acoustic was becoming a bit same old and we wanted to change things up and start playing electric guitars however we didn’t know who to start a band with. Keira became friends with Jude through social media and knew he had an interest in bass guitar so asked him if he was up for it, now all we needed was a drummer. Jude and Alex were playing at the same football club but didn’t know each other too well. Jude found out Alex was a drummer so hoped he would agree. Alex was up for it and we had our first practice, this was the original lineup and it’s been the best decision we’ve ever made.
Who are your musical influences ?
We love many artists especially female representation within the music industry such as Alvvays, Courtney Barnett and Wolf Alice. We are also influenced by The Jesus and Mary Chain who we support next year and also from Scotland. The Glasgow music scene is thriving at the moment as well with bands such as Baby Strange and The Dunts among many more we all look up to!
What is your writing process ? Music or Lyrics First ?
I think for us it is easier to come up with a catchy chord structure first. Usually we will come up with a song/idea and take it to our producers Johnny Madden and Chris Marshall and see if anything could change or if it could be developed to make it the best version it can be. We don’t necessarily have core topics we write about but being younger certainly helps. Otherside for example is all about disliking school and the routine and wanting to get out and away from it all. However anyone can relate to it weather it be a job/place/person you want to escape. We hope other people can relate to the lyrics we write.
What is the biggest problem you have had in your music career ?
Our biggest problem we have faced in our music career has been of course, the on going coronavirus outbreak which couldn’t have come at a worse time, as I’m sure everyone in the music industry is thinking the same but we had big things that we were looking forward to over these months such as supporting The Jesus and Mary Chain at their sold out Barrowlands gig and we’re still in the process of wondering when our next gig with be as everything is understandably being cancelled for everyones safety but we’re all just praying it passes soon so we can get back out there and play again as well as seeing each other.
If you had the opportunity who would you most like to support and why ?
Individually, there’s a whole variety of dream gigs we’d love to get but one we can definitely all agree on would be to support Alvvays or Wolf Alice as they’ve been an on going influence between us all since the first day we met. The first two covers we ever rehearsed with each other were by both of these bands as it was songs had we took inspiration from to make our own sound.
Which venue would you most like to headline and why ?
It would have to be The Barrowland Ballroom of course, all of us have seen our heroes play that stage and the iconic history of the place within the Glasgow music scene is something that’s spoken about all over the world and passed through many generations so to headline there would be a dream come true.
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 ?
This year we are planning to record more music and get it out there as soon as possible for everyone to hear. We will definitely be writing a lot more too and gigging up and down the country. We are buzzing to play festivals as we’ve yet to play one. Especially TRNSMT Festival in our hometown Glasgow.
And finally, if you could only listen to one album for the rest of your life, what would it be and why ?
Alvvays debut album, Alvvays.
This is an album which has a variety of mood swings throughout and one that we’ve all no doubt had on repeat since the first day we heard it. We take plenty of inspiration from this band so if this was the only album we could ever listen to again then I’m more than sure we couldn’t get bored of it even though we know it inside out already.
A huge thanks to Emily for giving us a fabulous insight into Spyres, they were one of the bands I was looking forward to seeing on the Tenement TV showcase tour, hopefully will catch them soon.
Spyres can be followed on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Spotify:
https://www.facebook.com/spyresmusic/
https://instagram.com/spyr3s?igshid=xwf18x98gz7g
https://open.spotify.com/artist/0gu9FiIFp32jTZSCRhdqFO?si=u8EA9xgfTtOSqRvtfHESbg
