Behold the (Tijuana) Bibles

Tijuana Bibles are, “Neo-Psychedelic Rock ‘n’ Roll” four piece, consisting of Tony Costello (vocals/guitar), Behn Cross (bass), James Brannigan (guitar) and Mikey Dornan (drums). Wether they are “The best new band around” (Billy Sloan) or “The real deal” (Jim Gellatly), there is no denying that they are building up a fair head of steam. But for James,  it was not the public attention that they strived for“for us because we started writing songs together purely for ourselves. We didn’t think about what people would make of what we were trying to do.” 

The turning point was their ‘Wild River‘ EP,“the response we’ve had from our debut E.P has been incredible and taken us by surprise at points but rather than trying to figure it out and dissect it all, we’ve already moved onto the next record.” However James is keen to impress that there is no attempt to be fashionable or even trendy; “We’re not the kind of band that tries to pander to what’s trending at the moment because moments tend to pass as quickly as they arrive, we’re driven by a different type of engine and I think that’s what people hear when they listen to us and see us live.”

The follow up to ‘Wild River’ is on it’s way “We’re still finalizing a few of the tracks for the next record so we’ve got a wee bit to do before we can view it as a whole”. Reflecting on the process, James adds; “creatively I’d say we’ve pushed ourselves further with this one since recording Wild River, which was a huge learning curve for us at the time. With this record we’re aiming to put some of those lessons into practice.”

This year, for the band will undoubtedly be busy “2014 is going to be about seeing & playing as many places as possible. This is going to be a busy year for releases with us. There’s a lot that we have up our sleeves for the coming year but we’re sworn to secrecy just now.” Proper secret at that “Seriously, there were cloaks, candles, and some guy in a pig mask offering us packets of Revels if we promised not to tell.”

The live shows of the band are to behold, James recalls the positive way their audience cope even in adverse situations ;“[referring to January gig in King Tuts] “The P.A blew before we were due to go on stage and it was looking like we’d either be on at 11:40 or not at all.

We had a sold out show on our hands and explained the situation to the audience that if they wanted to get a refund, they could, not one person took the offer and even though we did get on late and could only play a four song set, the vast majority of the crowd hung in there with us.”

James , and the band are quite clearly anticipating their debut in Inverness ,hopefully with less event than at King Tuts “We’re really looking forward to coming up to Inverness, the Ness islands look pretty cool when lit up at night and this will be our first time playing there. We hear the locals are up for mischief too!” No idea who may have suggested that.

Tijuana Bibles play Mad Hatters on the 16th of March, 2014.