Interview: Kid Canaveral

From an Edinburgh music scene which has enjoyed welcome vibrancy over the past few years comes Kid Canaveral, the latest band to go from well-known faces in the city's venues to a group finally deserving of national success. This year has been their year so far, and they've been on a roll since it began.

"We've played two UK tours this year already," says 27-year-old singer and guitarist David MacGregor. "We've played everything possible while still fitting in day jobs and recording and stuff, it's been crazy."

The highlight of 2011 so far has been a trip to the South By Southwest music conference in Austin, Texas, which also saw them manage three self-organised dates in New York beforehand.

The Texas trip has earned the band an appearance on this week's Artworks Scotland documentary, a travelogue presented by Vic Galloway following Scotland's representatives at SXSW.

"I'm dreading seeing my sunburned face on the telly," laughs MacGregor. He enjoyed the festival, though. "The shows were great, it was nice to see we could go somewhere completely different and still get the same reaction as home. To be honest, we discovered we can get a bigger crowd in New York than we can in Aberdeen."

For Anstruther-based guitarist Kate Lazda, 28, the satisfaction of SXSW was about more than just playing the gigs.

"The really hard work was beforehand," she says. "We didn't have a manager so it was basically David and I organising it. The visa thing was the most terrifying part. The whole thing was an eye-opener about how much work is involved (in managing a band], so the fact it all came together well was pleasing."

"A lot of people there were aware of us through articles and blogs," says MacGregor, "or even just from knowing a lot about Scottish music, which was bizarre but good. There was no suggestion of a holiday for us, we worked hard, we played about three gigs a day and met lots of interesting people in the industry.

"For a band at the DIY level like us it's actually most important to get to know other bands, they can tell you things like where's best to go and play. We knew that after spending so much money to get out there, we had to make the most of it."

It's a deserved reward at last for a half-serious hobby started by a bunch of university mates at St Andrews in 2004.

"I first met David in class," says Lazda, "where I think they went round the room and made us say what we did, and we were the only two people who played the guitar. Then we met properly through the Alternative Music Society, and Dan (Sheehy, original drummer, since replaced by Clarke Geddes and re-replaced by Scott McMaster) and Rose (McConnachie, bassist, a schoolfriend of MacGregor's from Glasgow) were both there too. We were probably the only people in St Andrews that were interested in being in a band."

MacGregor and Lazda took over the running of the Alternative Music Society from fellow St Andrews alumnus Johnny Lynch (the Fence Collective's Pictish Trail) and it's a friendship which continues to this day. Lazda is involved with the running of the Homegame festival and Fence webshop, and the group have acted as King Creosote's backing band on occasion.

Fence will also be re-releasing Kid Canaveral's debut album, Shouting at Wildlife, later this month, following its limited release on the band's own Straight to Video label last year. Why so long to finally link up with the label?

"Because we weren't good enough before," says MacGregor. "I like the singles we released on Straight to Video, but for me they all add up to the equivalent of our first album, that's where all the early material we'd rather not hear again is. Whereas considering it was recorded over lots of different sessions with different drummers, I'm surprised whenever I hear the album and realise how well it fits together. We're really pleased with it."

The record, like the live show, is a most Fence-like combination of immediate indie-pop songwriting, rich folk overtones and an almost self-deprecating sense of infectious fun.

It should go down well at their debut T in the Park appearance on the BBC Introducing Stage, which MacGregor is looking forward to for the experience and for their CV: "Because people think of you as a proper band if you've played a festival like T – mostly relatives."

For any young group who are slowly feeling their way into a career, Kid Canaveral are reassuring proof of two adages: that you shouldn't put yourself out there until you're really ready; and that when things eventually start to happen for you, they happen quickly.

Once a promotional period for the album is complete there are plans in motion for the follow-up, although the band are already used to pacing themselves.

"It feels like we've got better every year," says Lazda, "and that things have got better for us every year. It's definitely been worth the wait."

• Kid Canaveral play the BBC Introducing Stage at T in the Park tomorrow and Avalanche Records, Edinburgh, on 23 July. The album Shouting at Wildlife is re-released by Fence Records on 18 July. Artworks Scotland: Scotland Rocks at South By Southwest is on BBC2 Scotland on 5 July.