Glasvegas

The Journal: Your third album Later…When The TV Turns To Static is set for release this summer, what can we expect?

Rab Allan:You can expect ten shiny, little pop nuggets, similar to the last two records. It’s like a continuation from where we left the second record, but it’s a little more live sounding and not as produced as the second album. It’s pretty much the same Glasvegas sound.

TJ: It was originally called Whoever Shouts The Loudest, what made you change it?

RA: That was a funny story. NME printed that it was originally called that, but James just decided to change it for that interview, it was never going to be that. It was always going to be Later…When The TV Turns To Static.

TJ: Later… is self-produced, how was that compared to your first two albums?

RA: James co-produced the first album with Rich Costey, who has produced records for Muse and Franz Ferdinand. Our second record was produced by Flood, who has worked with U2 and The Killers.

However, the band all thought that James did enough on the first record and that he could produce the third by himself. He’s produced all the demos in the past, so it was never in any doubt that he could do it.

TJ: How disappointing was the reception of your second album and then parting way with Columbia Records as a result?

RA: That happened so long ago now. It was just a really strange thing. The second record, in my eyes, was just as good as the first. Nearly all the reviews it received were four or five stars out of five, but if something doesn’t connect and people don’t buy it then there’s nothing you can do, you know? It was just one of those things.  You’ve just got to pick yourself up and move on. Whether that was with Columbia Records or independently, we were always going to continue making music. We never set out to be the biggest band in the world, that’s not why we make music, we just make music because that’s what we enjoy doing.

TJ: What are your plans for this summer after the album release?

RA:We’ve got quite a lot of festivals coming up. There are some festivals in Europe and I know that we’ll be doing a tour. That’s not been announced yet, but it will be in the next couple of weeks.

TJ: You played King Tut’s a couple of weeks ago. What was it like to return there?

RA: King Tut’s was awesome. We’ve not played there since 2007, so it was pretty cool to play a venue of that size again. We went on first as a Beatles tribute act, The Savage Stage Bells, and that was a lot of fun. The Savage Stage Bells was an anagram of The Beatles and Glasvegas, which no one got and we played four Beatles songs (Help, I Wanna Hold Your Hand, I Gotta Feeling, and Twist & Shout).

It was actually Paul’s (Donoghue) idea (bass guitar). The tickets were quite expensive as it was a charity gig, so we thought we should have some fun out there and take the piss out of ourselves a little bit. So we got the Sgt. Pepper’s outfits and just had a laugh.

TJ: Are you listening to any Scottish bands at the moment?

RA: We quite like Chvrches at the moment. They’re quite good. That’s quite an obvious one as they are so big already. Holy Esque are really good as well. 

TJ: How did Glasvegas come about?

RA: Me and James are cousins, our mums are twin sisters, so we grew up together. I was always into music while James was always into football. We realised that we both liked music, so we started playing guitars. I went to school with Paul and we were friends all through school and I knew he could play bass. We had a friend, Carly, who could play drums, so we all got together. It took about three years to get all the songs together and then we were on our way.

TJ: I read last year that Lady Gaga wanted to collaborate with the band, what was that all about? 

RA: That was a weird one. We did T in the Park in 2009 when she was there too and one of our crew was friends with her, so we got to meet her. Her and James swapped emails and kept in touch for a while.  She did a chat show in America and was asked what her favourite band was. She said Glasvegas and said that she wanted to collaborate with us. It was just one of those really cool things. I don’t think it will ever happen, but it would be really cool if it did.