Q&A: NOISE

“If I didn't say yes, there was a chance I’d spend a lot of time regretting it.”

The Glasgow Guardian hailed them “Glasgow’s loudest new indie band” and they were absolutely correct. Appropriately named NOISE, the band hail from Dumbarton, a town to the west of Glasgow, and the four-piece had a whirlwind career so far. The NOISE live debut happened in one of Glasgow’s most famous and celebrated music venues, a sold-out King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut supporting The Nickajack Me. The band have gone on to share stages with Royel Otis, SAINT PHNX, and The K’s. In late 2023 the band dropped their EP, ‘Not Until Tomorrow Night’, and we caught up with them to hear all about it, and the inspiration that helped shape the record.

It’s so cool to see bands hailing from Dumbarton, tell us how you got together?!

NOISE began with two brothers, Luke Doleman (Rhythm Guitar & Vocals) and Evan Doleman (Drums & Backing Vocals) jamming The Smashing Pumpkins in their spare room trying to figure out how to play the guitar and drums on their own.

Fast forward about 10 years later, Junior Khawli joined the group when he was at a house party with Ev and in the midst of the party started playing the guitar. What started as Junior playing Oasis renditions for people to sing to, turned into him roaming the house creating jingles on the spot to insult everyone at the party (nothing too offensive). The jingles were superb and the people at the house party didn’t phone the police so Junior was asked to join the brothers and within a few sessions the first few NOISE tracks were created.

Missing a bass guitarist, we were on the hunt for another member of the band and weirdly, at another house party, Robbie Duncan was recruited after a drunken night. Robbie vividly remembers being shown some crackly, poor quality phone recordings of a couple of early tracks and, in his own words, knew that if “I didn't say yes, there was a chance I’d spend a lot of time regretting it”. Since then we’ve played a sold out headline gig at King Tut’s, supported Glasgow legends SAINT PHNX to a 1500 strong crowd, and supported various high profile touring bands such as The K’s and Royel Otis. 

What was the process like for writing ’Not Until Tomorrow Night’?

As with any of the music we’d previously made, it varied a lot from song to song. Most of the time Luke will arrive at the studio and surprise us with the bones of a new track he’s been working on. That’s usually the highlight of everyone’s week as we’re always blown away. But other times it could be Junior playing a new riff he’s come up with or Robbie a new funky bassline, then we just develop the music and structure from there! To give you an example, our single ‘Victor’ was initially very slow and spacey but one day the main riff was played for another song and we ended up repurposing it as the driving riff for Victor. It’s always different and there’s no single way of doing it which is great and allows for everyone to get creative. Lyrically, Luke does everything as he is a wordsmith! 

You guys have played some really cool places in Scotland, tell us, what’s been your favourite gig?

We’ve played some really fantastic gigs in amazing venues recently, supporting Royel Otis in Tut’s was a particular highlight; a band who’ll be selling out huge venues very soon! However, the best has to be playing with The K’s on the sold out show at St. Luke’s. Playing in front of a 500+ crowd in such a great location was really really special. The whole night was immense, and it was probably the best reaction we’ve ever had from a crowd!

Photo: Colin Douglas

Tell us your biggest musical inspirations as a band

Luke: In Rainbows / Radiohead - Just one of the most perfect albums I’ve ever heard!

Evan: Siamese Dream / Smashing Pumpkins – Jimmy Chamberlain is probably my favourite drummer, the guys insane. The explosion and dynamics of Geek U.S.A always blows me away!

Junior: Listening to Arctic Monkeys is a rite of passage that so many people go through in their teens and I was no different in that regard. I still remember being in my bedroom listening to “Favourite Worst Nightmare” for the first time and the memories of listening to that record over and over again, trying to figure out the riffs to Teddy Picker and Old Yellow Bricks whilst I had the music blaring in the background. That feeling of being enamoured by a band and spending hours on YouTube trying to find unseen footage of the band or acoustic renditions on songs from their albums was what made me want to be that person on stage. That definitely drove me to start creating my own music and go jamming with other people, which has played a huge part in playing in NOISE. 

Robbie: Such a hard question, if this is an origins question I'm gonna need to let out my inner emo. Probably something like The Used’s self titled, some Blink 182 or maybe Puzzle by Biffy, that was a huge album for me. 

If you could collaborate with anyone on future music, alive or dead, who would it be?

Chris Cornell would have been an absolute dream. We were all totally gutted when he passed; one of the best male vocalists ever. To have him sing on one of our tracks would have been the highlight of our entire career.

To follow NOISE and keep up to date with new releases and gig announcements, click here.

Q&A: Former Champ

“Life’s too short to be self conscious about your art, who cares what anyone thinks!”

Former Champ is Glasgow’s freshest supergroup featuring Irish vocalist Claire McKay (Martha Ffion), alongside members of Savage Mansion, Catholic Action and Secret Motorbikes. The five-piece band formed in the summer of 2021 after years of talking about doing it. Inspired by both their shared experiences of their home city and their Irish heritage, there are also nods to Thin Lizzy, Teenage Fanclub and The Cranberries in their all killer, no filler power pop.

We spoke to Craig Angus about their most recent release, their debut EP, and the future of Former Champ.

You recently released the single ’Stella' as part of your debut EP 'Vol.1'. Can you tell us a bit about the track and how it came to be a single? And how would you describe the EP as a whole to a new listener?

Stella is a collaborative effort that was written mostly by me and Claire. I had written this melancholy drinking song and she came in, changed a couple of chords and we rewrote the words together. That’s quite typical of the songwriting process in FC. Usually someone has the original idea and then if it strikes a chord we move forward with it as a band. Everyone is encouraged to suggest things. Nothing is ever just one person’s song. 

What is your creative process when creating music? Do you have a specific technique for writing/composing or is it freestyle?  

I’ve no specific technique, historically. I’ve recently been thinking about creative flow though, inspired by a Blindboy podcast, and I think my ideal writing state is to lay down a lot of ideas without thinking too much about it, devote a good chunk of time to listening back and reflecting, and then another big chunk of time on finessing and editing. Separating all those processes and thinking about the separation has been eye opening. I think all my best songs are ahead of me.

What was your favourite show you played/went to last year?   

Our favourite show we played last year was Left of the Dial in Rotterdam. It was our first time out of Scotland with this band, we did a couple of shows at it, and it felt like the perfect inner city multi venue festival to me. Really well curated, we got treated well (as is the case in Europe, god bless them), and Rotterdam is a really cool city I didn’t know much about beforehand but loved hanging out in. Reminded me a bit of Glasgow, although it might have been the fact it rained constantly. We got to catch up with our old mate Romeo Taylor who is playing drums in The Tubs - great band - which is always eventful. There was a backstage bar that we christened “the shebeen” because you could smoke in it and the pints were free, so it felt too good to be legal. Let me tell you the journey home on the Sunday was rough.

Tell us your three desert island albums.   

Picking three is so brutal, my god. But three essential records that have informed Former Champ as a band are 'Is This It' by The Strokes, 'Let It Be' by The Replacements and 'Alvvays' by Alvvays.

If you could collaborate with anyone on future music, who would it be?  

I’d love to make a Former Champ record with John Parish. I talk about that a lot. I think the records he produces and engineers sounds amazing. And really put an emphasis on great arrangements that value space as much as playing. Which is something we try and think about.

What advice would you give to aspiring musicians who are looking to establish themselves in the Scottish music industry?  

Write every day, even if it’s just notes on your phone. And don’t be self conscious - life’s too short to be self conscious about your art, who cares what anyone thinks! I wish I’d had that realisation ten years ago. 

Lastly, what can we expect to see from Former Champ in 2024?

We are releasing more music - two of the best songs I’ve ever been involved in recording are out before the summer, and then gigging more and writing an album. Come see us.

The band kickstart their year at The Rum Shack on Friday 22 March, for all things Former Champ, and tickets to the gig, click here.