Watching a band play live in a busy room is one of the most exhilarating things in life. If you’re reading this, you’ve likely got memories of gigs that will warm you to your final days. That buzz is why punters pay and bands play, yet the reality is, bands face a slog to reach a sustainable level, let alone one associated with the thrills of rock n roll.
Savage Mansion are a SNACK favourite: a Scottish band with substance and tunes that burrow into your mind, popping up later when you least expect. We caught up with Craig Angus to discuss gigs, local creativity, and the future.
Over six months on from the release of The Shakes, how do you feel about the album now you’ve lived with it?
Everything we’ve done, we’ve sat on for a long time, and with this one, we spent a lot of time writing it, so I’ve lived with it for longer than usual. I consider it the best thing the band ever made. I like the album a lot and I’m dead proud of it. On that level, I’m happy; we got this one right, we finally cracked it. It’s quite satisfying.
I’m not a patient person and waiting can be frustrating. It makes you think about the ways we release music and whether the established way is the right way.
You’ve recently set up a record label, Hand of God. Is that related to that feeling?
Right now, that is exclusively for Former Champ [another band Craig is in] but yeah, that is part of that. We’re enjoying doing that band, and to speak frankly, it seems people are more interested in that than existing projects.
A few things happened that pissed us all off, with the way an act outside the main hubs or hub – London is a great city and we all like it – has to be. It feels like the further you are away from that world, you have to try so hard to play that game. We couldn’t be f**ked anymore.
You’ve not long released remixes of ‘Total Colombia’. What were your thoughts on that?
Adam Forbes [keyboard player, aka DJ Haircut] is so good. He started playing keys with us a couple of years ago – he’s constantly working on stuff and everything he plays me sounds great. He gave us two things that are really cool. I lean more towards the club mix, but I like them both.
Two gigs at the Hug and Pint this month and you’ve asked for song suggestions on social media. Is this shaping up to be a big one?
The plan is to play two different sets: that’s a lot of songs. We’ve four albums, standalone singles, an EP, and a couple of B-sides that people seem to like. I wish they had been album tracks – this is the problem with having too much stuff! I’m looking forward to it. It’s nice for us to give this chapter a satisfying and all-encompassing conclusion for the time being. We’re also doing the Left of The Dial music festival in Rotterdam, then coming back to play a couple of shows at the Hug. It’ll be fun.
If we do more Savage Mansion stuff, it’ll be a totally different thing on totally different terms, so we might be saying goodbye to it. We’re definitely saying goodbye to something. There’s a lot from the Weird Country album we didn’t do because of the pandemic, and when we next played live, it was the next album. We wanted to go back to that album and give it an outing; that’ll be nice.
You’ve a few special guests lined up as support, haven’t you?
The bills we’ve put together are bands we’ve never played with, in their current configuration at least. They’re all great and they’re friends, people we admire a lot. It’s great to have them playing.
You’re hinting at going away for a while. Anything further you can share with us on that point?
We’ll chat after the gigs are done and we’ll figure out what we want to do next. I hope we do something. I really enjoy playing music with the band members: we’ve a good musical chemistry, we don’t struggle to come up with stuff, and we all get on. We just need to talk about where everyone’s at. No matter what, we need to rethink the approach. Doing the Former Champ stuff has been eye-opening as to how different approaches can work.
Also, I’m making a solo album. I’m hoping to finish it in November but there’s no rush. We’re doing a Former Champ record at some point, so we’re busy, and there’s only so much energy you can devote to certain things at one time.
I don’t want this to be the end of it, I think we’ll be back, but this era of this band is done, and there’ll be something else. What that is, I don’t know?
Savage Mansion play Glasgow’s Hug and Pint on Thursday 24th and Friday 25th October. Tickets available here.
Main Photo Credit: Rosie Sco