5Q

Your last release (self titled) was a great success, what’s next?

We were really surprised and pleased with the response we got from our first cd. It took on a bit of a life of its own (we didn’t really publicise it in any way, so any uptake was a success for us). The good thing is we’ve made enough money to pay off any debt incurred from the first release, and are now in the position to work on our follow-up release(s). It’s fair to say we’re a different band from the one that made that record: we used to be a lot heavier, post-rockier; now our lighter, poppier, folkier influences are coming more to the fore. We still like to rock out now and again though. Plus we’ve got new members – although basically we always had our mates around, writing and recording with us. One idea we have at the moment is to get back to the studio, when we’ve got time away from university and work this summer, to record two records – one lighter, one heavier. They’re pretty broad parameters, but I think the distinction might do us good as we go into further writing/recording. Whatever we come up with, hopefully we’ll have something we can put out like we did our first album last summer.

Post Rock generates creative (and often lengthy) band and track names, how does There will be Fireworks come up with these?

True, we have a long band name, and some of our songs have more than two words in their titles; but it’s pretty accidental I think. The band name was a drunken mistake. As are most of the things we do. But nah, in all seriousness, the names just pop up in conversation or are lifted from the lyrics. I think the predisposition to lengthy titles in post-rock is largely down to the pompous vagueness of a lot of it. And hey, there’s nothing wrong with that.

How does There will be Fireworks decide which tracks will be on a release? testing them at gigs, or a different method?

We play very few gigs, so it’s hard to get a consistent reaction from the crowd when we’re trying out new songs. But, even still, I think we would go with our own hunches and record what we think are the best tracks we have. For the first album, a few of the tracks were written literally the night before we went into the studio to record them, so there wasn’t much pause for thought. Maybe this time round the tracks will have longer to gestate.

What have you been listening to recently that you would recommend to your fan base?

We do share the same tastes to some degree, but there’s a lot of us, so it’s hard to keep track. The last cd I bought was “Eskimo Snow” by WHY?. It’s excellent. They’re playing in Glasgow in March – think we’re all going to see them. Can’t wait.

The obligatory digital media question: We all know that digital downloads (legal or not) are changing the music business, would you say this is a challenge or an opportunity, and why?

To be honest, it doesn’t affect us that much. We’re a small band, so the people who want to buy our album are often the people who have heard one of our songs and liked it, or they’ve got a recommendation from a friend. If they really like it, they want the physical thing. We put the album designs together ourselves, so we like people to enjoy the physical product. But then, the dowload sites are great for ease. We don’t really mind how people get hold of it. You can download it illegally from lots of places (I did – I gave all of my copies away), so we’re just happy for people to be listening at all.