T in the Park: Blank Canvas prepare to make their Balado bow

Edinburgh band Blank Canvas may not be scrawled at the top of every T in the Parker’s list of priorities this weekend, but they could well provide an atmospheric finale to Saturday’s T Break for those in the know.

The four-piece have carved their own style of swirling, off-kilter post-punk, and their awareness of the capital’s early 80s musical heritage has not gone unnoticed.

Growing up within easy reach of Scotland’s biggest music festival has only heightened their anticipation ahead of a debut performance. “We have all individually been to the festival in years gone past so it should be pretty special to play at it,” says guitarist Daniel Mackay.

Blank Canvas were first featured on Radar last September when they were releasing double-sided single Golden / By the Fire, two tracks which stamped their mark on the Scottish music scene. Their selection for T Break - which saw the unsigned outfit cherrypicked by a panel of judges from over 1,000 entries - neatly coincides with another single.

“We have just released a new single, The Wrecker, which can be downloaded from our Bandcamp page,” says Mackay, in true promotional style. “We have also recorded some other new material in a swanky studio that has been gestating for a while in the mixing process but we are really pleased with the results and are excited to let them go. At the same time we have been writing and as much time scrapping little bits of music that we are hoping to collate into new songs.”

• Check out Radar’s 10 to watch at T in the Park

Blank Canvas are likely to clash with a certain Mancunian gang on Saturday night, but that’s the nature of T in the Park. The line-up is big enough to accommodate posturing rockstars and eager newbies, and Mackay is equally excited about the other acts on the billing.

“I’m hoping to catch The Brian Jonestown Massacre on Friday evening - should be sweet as I have missed them when they previously played in Scotland. The Horrors on Sunday will be cool as well,” he says.

“I’m also going to be spending time in the T Break tent to see some of the other bands playing. The Machine Room are on just directly before us, so will definitely watch them. We are big fans, so hopefully their music can in some way help to nullify some of the pre-gig worry that surrounds cables, wires, strings, machines and horribly human errors during our inevitable descent into nervousness.”

An appearance at a major festival is landmark in the band’s short history, but what does the rest of the summer have in store for Blank Canvas?

“In terms of shows, we are playing at Edinburgh’s Cabaret Voltaire on the 21st of July with Holy Esque and Edinburgh School for the Deaf and we are appearing at the Doune the Rabbit Hole festival in August.

“Hopefully we will have another double single released before the end of the summer, which is in the midst of being mixed. We are really excited because we have our friend Gordon Bruce mixing it. We are major fans of his band Shift Static so we are really psyched to get cracking on it, not just the songs but the artwork and video art to be released alongside it. Working closely with artistic people who also happen to be friends is one of the best aspects of being in this band - our friend Struan Teague has worked with us on a lot of our artwork and we hope to expand our output over the coming months as well as working with new people.”

• Blank Canvas play the T Break stage at T in the Park on Saturday at 9.10pm

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