On the radar: There Will Be Fireworks

Published on Friday 12 June 2009 13:42

Scotland has a knack for producing bands of enormous sound. Acts such as The Twilight Sad and Mogwai have paved the way for others to blast into the mainstream. From north to south and east to west, heroic conversations are being had to their songs.

Hailing from Glasgow, There Will Be Fireworks promise to be the next such band, having already turned the head of DJ impresario Steve Lamacq. Together for little over a year, it's remarkable just how revered the quintet have become.

Vocalist and guitarist Nicholas McManus confirms a few of their native influences: 'We all like stuff like Mogwai, Twilight Sad, Frightened Rabbit, LCD Soundsystem. We all like The Knife as well. I don't know how much any of them influenced us because we never take a conscious starting point for a song, but I reckon the post-rock influences are probably quite apparent."

UtR's featured track, Foreign Thoughts, is one of their most rousing tracks. From the initial bar to the last buzz of distortion, it's pure musical heroin. There's an addictive pushing and pulling at the start that's like two magnetised symbols clashing together. Aided by McManus' emotive delivery, the track builds to a crescendo that makes you want to sing as loud as your lungs will let you.

And what sets There Will Be Fireworks apart from their contemporaries? "We try not to be confined by any genre, so hopefully we sound a bit different because of that," explains McManus. "Some of our songs are little scuzzy discordant pop songs like Foreign Thoughts, some are really heavy and dense and some are totally sparse."

He continues: "Our initial intention was to take post-rock textures and sounds but to put them to use in what are, essentially, really simple pop or folk songs. We always knew we were going to have lyrics as well - we never wanted to be purely instrumental - so hopefully there's something a little unusual in the marrying of post-rock dynamics and narrative lyrics... I don't know if that really makes us different, but it might do!"

Due for release at the start of next month, the band's debut LP will surely mark them out as Scotland's latest epically inclined guitar heroes. Mark our words, There Will Be Fireworks are an act to keep a close eye on.

Intrigued? Watch There Will Be Fireworks live at the following dates:

24 Jun @ Oran Mor, Glasgow

1 July @ Nice N Sleazy, Glasgow (album launch]

14 July @ Electric Circus, Edinburgh

Under the Radar: showcasing Scotland's best up and coming bands