Interview: Blanc – Lockerbie Four-Piece on Up Yer Airts, Flipping Burgers, and Stepping onto the Big Stage

Up Yer Airts, an organisation dedicated to supporting rising South of Scotland artists, is putting on their first South of Scotland showcase at Glasgow’s Drygate Brewery on 17th October.

Ahead of their performance at the event, we spoke with Lockerbie indie four-piece Blanc about the supportive community of artists on the line-up, supporting Kyle Falconer, and falling off the stage mid-gig.

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How would you describe your band to people who don’t know you, in a few words?

Aiden: Exciting, catchy, and up-and-coming.

Who are your main influences sound-wise?

Finley: We all love Inhaler – we’ve seen them all the time, they’re brilliant. The Snuts too, Kings of Leon.

Aiden: We’re made up of a lot of people’s sounds, and we picked things from a lot of other places and brought them into one.

How did you start your band, and how have you grown?

Kash: So, the story is very underwhelming. Me and Conor used to work at McDonald’s, and he was flipping patties one day. I was making drinks. I just said to him, ‘Do you still play bass?’ and he was like, ‘Yeah, on and off,’ and I was like, ‘Do you want to come round to my house?’

We plugged our amps in and nearly blew them up – nearly blew the fuse. I saw Finley, our drummer, at the corner shop, and I was like, ‘Do you still play drums?’ Aiden came in later, so that’s how it worked out.

You’ve got a couple of big gigs coming up in Glasgow as part of the South of Scotland showcase, and Dumfries supporting Kyle Falconer. How have you been feeling in the lead-up to them? Can you give us any clues about the setlists?

Aiden: It’s very exciting. It’s also stressful, because for a band like us, we’ve played pub gigs now for two years. Now this feels like the real thing, like a step-up.

It’s very exciting, and a bit of nerves. We’re excited for the Up Yer Airts showcase, it’s such a great opportunity – also with Kyle Falconer, supporting his Dumfries sets, it’s going to be amazing. Just to be put forward for things like that, it’s great.

Finley: I’d say the overall vibe of the setlist is just very in-your-face where you know what type of music we’re playing straight off the bat. There’s a little slow section maybe, but apart from that it’s very fast-paced.

Kash: It’s a totally original setlist, so all songs we’ve written.

You’re performing as part of Up Yer Airts‘ first South of Scotland showcase at Drygate in Glasgow on 17th October. Have you been involved with their other projects like this before? Do you think it’s so important as a way of platforming local artists?

Finley: We’ve been with them for a long time. We’d been part of ‘Geez A Choon’, this time last year – that’s when we wrote two of our originals that we’re playing.

Kash: We’ve played quite a lot of shows with Up Yer Airts, playing many different places, touring around D&G.

Aiden: They’re a really, really great organisation to help us young musicians get their music out there, which is something we all want to do. We want to get our music out there, and have people enjoy it. They are really great at spurring us along.

Finley: Especially since in more rural areas in Galloway, it’s quite hard for gigs to be booked, and there are not really organisations or much promotion around here for young artists.

For us as artists, and the other artists on the bill, it’s great for us to get the opportunity to play the Central Belt and show them what we’ve got, and that we’re here.

Do you know the other artists performing? Is there a kind of community there?

Kash: There’s definitely a big community. This is a rural area, so trying to get out and do stuff like that is hard. So there’s definitely a big community sense of ‘Let’s all help each other.’

Finley: Yeah, it’s like they’re like our neighbours – we listen to them all the time.

Do you have a favourite gig memory?

Conor: For me, it’s just a funny one. I got really drunk one time. We’re playing ‘Dakota’, and it was one of our best gigs as well, and we were in this big hall and everyone was singing it.

I was just like fading out, and I fell off the stage, but I caught myself, and I go, ‘Whoa whoa whoa,’ ’cause I’ve got my guitar and it’s being filmed… Maybe it’ll be released one day.

What are your plans for new music? Are there any new releases on the horizon?

Kash: We’ve got a full setlist of original music, we’ve got so many originals on the back burner… it’ll come.

We’re trying to keep it elusive. We’ve been in the studio, so hopefully in the near future.

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Blanc play the Up Yer Airts South of Scotland Showcase, 17th October, Drygate, Glasgow

Words: Juliette Pepin

Photo credit: Ruari Barber Flemming, Marco Cornelli