Glasgow is buzzing again, with the fact that gigs are back playing a huge role in getting the city up and running again and putting smiles on peoples faces.
One of the young bands breaking through at present is Spyres, who recently supported The Jesus and Mary Chain at the Barrowland and who now have headline dates of their own at The Mash House in Edinburgh on 1st December, followed by a hometown gig at Stereo in Glasgow on Thursday 2nd December.
With 3 singles (Otherside, Fake ID and I Don't Care) released to date (all with hundreds of thousands of streams on Spotify) and a string of shows, including festivals and the aforementioned support with JAMC, Spyres look set to hit 2022 running.
Led by Kiera McGuire and Emily Downie, 2 singers/guitarists and songwriters in their teens, with Jude Curran (bass) and Alex White (drums), Spyres have an exciting young energy about them, mixing fiesty and fiery guitars and choruses, with melodic riffs and choruses. Power sometimes, passion always and the talent to bring it all down or play on a riff.
Listen to the euphoric chorus of Otherside that spills effortlessly into a catchy and playful guitar solo, before flying into a flowing fast paced section, then soars with the chorus again. Then the tale of a great night out in Fake ID, crystal clear vocals for the verses, then harmonies for the chorus, the pace changing to suit.
While I Don't Care might be my favourite of the singles to date. The chorus is delicious and sugary melodic, leading to a powerful, passionate and punky chorus that I found myself singing the melody to after one listen.
I don't care, if you don't care
When you call me in the morning, while you're acting up for your friends
I don't care, if you don't care
Cause I've heard it all before, when you said you wanted more
Will you miss me when I'm not around
After falling for their singles and live show, I was keen to find out a little more about them.
I mentioned Hole meets Fleetwood Mac in my JAMC review which shows my age, so thanks to Emily from the band for answering my questions and providing me with modern day influences.
Spyres are pretty special, don't wait for that hit single that will come their way. Get into them now.
EF - How did the band for? Where are you all from? How did you get to know each other?
ED - I got to know Keira through playing open mic gigs regularly in and around Glasgow about 4-years ago. We had really similar influences and played a lot of the same music as soloists, so naturally we thought it might be interesting to start playing together.
We were an acoustic duo for around 2-years and as much as we loved doing the acoustic stuff, at the time, we both felt like it would be even better to take that next step and make a bigger and heavier noise. We always wanted to go electric and even when it was just the two of us, we would mess around with the electric guitars, but we were still quite young and didn't really know a lot of people our age to come in play bass and drums. We're really lucky that the first people we asked to try it out with ended up actually working really well with us.
Jude and Kiera knew each other through social media so she asked if he was up for giving it a go on bass and Jude knew Alex through playing football and chatting about their interest in music, so Jude asked Alex if he would be up for joining the band as well.
How did you start creating music together? Does anyone take the lead on writing? Or do you jam ideas?
Me and Keira will usually get together with the acoustic guitars and play around with some ideas until we've come up with a melody and the basics of the song. We'll then take it to the boys and just jam it out from there. We'll all add in our own ideas to make the song as good as it can be, so it's really collaborative.
When it was just the two of us, we were playing loads of covers and then it got to a point where we knew we wanted to start making our own music, so we just took inspiration from other artists and wrote our own songs, some of which are still in the set today.
What kind of music are you listening to at present? Have any bands influenced you?
We all love listening to a variety of music and have been influenced by many artists including Wolf Alice, Courtney Barnett and Alvvays. Seeing other girls within the industry not be afraid to make noise really inspires us. There is also a lot of great music coming out of Scotland right now too. And to be part of that scene and seeing our friends do well really helps us as we are all supportive of each other. The music is just getting better all the time.
How did you get on playing The Barrowland with The Jesus and Mary Chain?
It was a total dream come true! We waited nearly 2-years for the gig to go ahead, so we were really excited to finally be playing. The Barrowland is such an iconic Scottish venue, so to be on that stage at such a young age was unreal. Me and Kiera actually played the Barrowland around 5-years ago through the Clutha Trust at an open mic night when we were soloists, so to be back years later together was a full circle moment for us. We also did not expect that amount of people to turn up early and see us play, definitely a gig we will never forget.
How much are you looking forward to playing Stereo in December?
Playing live is such a great feeling and our favourite part of being in the band, so to be playing our own headline show will be fun. This will be our final headliner of the year, so we'll be going out with a band and in our home city. What more could you ask for?
You've released 3 cracking singles. Can we expect another soon? Did you get to record during lockdown?
Definitely! We'll have a new single out before the end of the year, so we can't wait for everyone to hear it and will definitely be recording very soon in hopes of getting an EP released next year. We got to record a few times while being in lockdown as well. I Don't Care was written and recorded during this period as the restrictions were lifted for a short while last year. We were gutted we couldn't go out immediately and play it live. We had to wait nearly a year for a live audience to hear it, but since then it has went down a storm.
Our newest single, coming out soon, was also recorded when things were just getting back to normal, so we're really looking forward to it finally being released.
What are your plans for 2022?
We already have some festivals lined up for next year and new music on the way, so we're really excited to get back out there in the new year with new material. We will be recording more next year too and releasing our first EP with some music videos to go along with. We can't wait to see what 2022 has in store.
As we approach the end of the year, have any bands, songs or albums stood out for you in 2021?
There has been a lot of great music released this year, despite the knock the music industry has had. We especially love Wolf Alice's new album Blue Weekend, Silk Sonic's An Evening With Silk Sonic and the two first singles by Wet Leg.
Spyres - Otherside (live session)
