Aerials Up,who cite The Pixies and Talking Heads as their major influences, are well known round these parts. Subsequently they will be returning to the Highlands for a five date mini-tour that will see them play at Mad Hatters on Thursday the 17th of November. We caught up with Niall to talk about the bands love of the area, their recent successes and plans for the future….
You guys make no secret of your love of the Highlands, what is it about up here that keeps drawing you back ?
We love playing around the highlands, there’s always a really enthusiastic vibe towards new music and when lesser known bands come up to play, people go to see them, it’s great! We spend most of our time travelling up and down the A9 for gigs up North, in fact, I’m answering these questions as we venture up to Wick for a show tonight, case closed.
With such an array of support slots (The Futureheads, Snow Patrol, Paolo Nutini, The Airborne Toxic Event etc) is there one that particularly stands out?
Yeah, we’ve been really really lucky to be shown so much support from acts like these guys. I don’t think I could pick one as a stand out favourite for everyone, each of them came along at a different stage for us and taught us new things. The Royal Albert Hall with Paolo was a pretty special thing to be a part of, it was a huge deal for us but for Paolo too, it’s a special place. I think it also gave us the feeling that if we can handle playing the Albert Hall, we can handle any venue.
How important was the 2010 Tartan Clef Award (for Best Emerging Talent) for the band?
It was a pretty big deal for us, it’s a really massive compliment to be given that bit of recognition from other people working in the industry and it gave us huge encouragement to push ourselves and build on what we had at the time.
What does the future hold for Aerials Up, or maybe a wee bit easier what are you current plans?
Right now the current plan is to get to Wick before Christmas! After that, we’re planning to release a single, late this year or early next year. We’re about to start recording a mini-album too which we’d like to release around Spring time.
If people have not heard you before, what song would you recommend that they listen to, and why?
Hmmmm.. I would say the new singles, as they’re the most current recordings and kind of represent where we’re at, but they might not be available for another few weeks, so if you read this before then, you should probably check out a song called ‘All Your Mothers Daughters’ from our EP. It’s got a bit of everything dynamically, highs and lows, loud and quiet, rock and soft. So I like to think anyways..
Have you got anything to plug?
Always! We’re playing in Inverness next Thursday (17th Nov) at Mad Hatters. As i said, we’ll have a new single in the next few weeks, keep an eye out for that and the video to go with it. In the mean time, you can get a hold of our EP – ‘Superglue’ from iTunes or www.aerialsup.com… We’ll be touring the UK early next year which, I’m sure, will include some more highland dates. YES!!
Questions by Chris Lemon
Answers by Niall with thanks also going to Al Baird.
As already mentioned, Aerials Up will be playing Mad Hatters on the 17th of November
