United Fruit are a band from Glasgow who have been steadily working on increasing their fan base over the last couple of years, by playing lots of gigs, touring around the UK and parts of Europe and by having released two great recordings, namely their debut EP “Mistress, Reptile Mistress!” in 2009, followed by the full-length album “Fault Lines” in 2011. They are one of my favourite Scottish noise makers, and with a new release planned for this year I asked bass player Marco a couple of questions.
(((o))): Can you start by telling us a bit about the band? When did United Fruit form and what were the circumstances? Who is in the band now and what instruments do they play?
United Fruit formed in late 2008 at a house party where Iskandar, Stuart and our old drummer Marcin first met. There was a kit, bass and guitar set up, the guys decided to have a drunken jam and found it incredibly natural playing with each other. A couple of weeks later, jamming commenced and the guys decided to get myself on bass as I was a mutual friend of Iskandar and Stuart. We wrote “Mistress, Reptile Mistress!” and the rest is history!!
The band currently consists of Iskandar Stewart on guitar and vocals, Stuart Galbraith on guitar and vocals, Ross Jenkins on drums and Marco Panagopoulos on bass.
(((o))): How would you describe the musical genre you play?
The best way to describe our music is noise rock with pop hooks and structure. We have been referred to as alternative rock more often than not though. Our tunes really are just pop songs with a noisy guise though!
(((o))): Where does the name United Fruit come from?
The United Fruit company were a major American company that basically used their power to enslave South American nations into doing what they willed due to the immense economic and infrastructural boost the provided for them. We found the history very interesting but liked the fact that the "nice" sounding name was in fact covering something much more nasty underneath (kind of like our music).
(((o))): What are the main influences for the band?
We are all very drawn to 90s era music such as Shellac, The Jesus Lizard, My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth, …And You Will Know us By the Trail Of Dead, Nirvana and Mudhoney, but also enjoy more modern adaptations of the alt rock boom such as Die Die DIe!, Yourcodenameis:milo, Young Widows, Mew, Japandroids, Lightning Bolt & Oxes. To be honest, we really don't limit ourselves with that kind of stuff though. Those bands don't even scratch the surface of the amount of music that we all listen to and our influences change very rapidly!
(((o))): What process does the band follow to write the songs? What is your inspiration?
We have pretty much written all the songs that we have in the same room! Mostly the concept for songs will come from Iskandar and Stuart jamming stuff out. Once they have a general idea, we will all get involved to get the structure and the parts solid. We tend to add things in at this point or remove them depending on what the song needs. Sometimes ideas are just spontaneous though and we'll all just be on the same page and blast out a tune, together, in half an hour. We really don't prefer a particular writing style, this is just the method that seems to work for us but like I said before, we don't limit ourselves. Everyday life and the world around us gives us ample inspiration to express ourselves.
(((o))): You’re releasing a new EP (or album?) this year. What is it called and what can we expect?
Yes we will be releasing our second album in 2013. We haven't named it just yet but we were thinking of "The Carter V" (only joking). You can expect our usual euphoric, noisy mayhem contorted into an even more melodic and solid form. We are trying to be a little more intelligent with the noise that we use to give it a different feel to the last record. It'll be more triumphant and epic once it's finished.
(((o))): Having seen you live a couple of times, I’m always impressed with United Fruit’s on stage presence and the dynamics. How difficult is it to translate the live sound on a recording?
Firstly, thank you. This is the dilemma that we have always faced. In the past we have tried a number of different methods to catch the energy of our live shows onto a recording and we feel that only recently have we started to master it. We still think that the last records are a good effort but this new one will be another level. The methods generally involve a lot of blood, sweat and tears but I'll go no further than that, haha.
(((o))): 2012 has been an amazing year for United Fruit with another UK/European tour, a BBC Introducing Scotland session and playing some festivals, like the Wickerman Festival. How is 2013 shaping up so far? Can you tell us about your big plans, please?
A lot of our plans we can't really mention anything about but lets just say that there are a lot of very exciting prospects that we cannot wait to get stuck into. We truly think that this will be our best year yet and we can't wait to see new places and meet new people along the way.
(((o))): When you go to continental Europe you seem to play in France a lot. Is there a specific reason for this?
Our booking agent is French and we have a decent following over there. We have enough contacts to span a lot more countries but we are saving it for when we tour the album as our up and coming tour (Feb 21st to March 9th) as just to get out and keep active. We love being on the road. It's always an adventure. Not to mention that we were just getting our bearings with regards to touring, last year. The time to expand is now!
(((o))): What is the funniest gig you ever played? And which gig was the most impressive?
We played a show in a severely unkept party flat about 2 years ago during the Edinburgh festival, which started at about 2.30am and went on till about 5am. Some of the folk that we saw dancing were absolutely out their tree! It was hilarious. People were falling all over the place and there was a woman wearing nothing but a bikini and a masquerade mask doing star jump throughout our set. It was truly like being in that scene from Fear and Loathing when all the casino goers turn into dinosaurs. But with bikinis…
Our most impressive gig has to be the Barrowlands so far. It has been most of our dreams to play in that venue and we are so thankful that we got the opportunity. There is nothing like playing to over 1000 people in a venue that is so highly revered.
(((o))): What does a perfect night out in Glasgow look like?
Pretty messy.
(((o))): And finally, tea or coffee?
Majority rules. Coffee…
(((o))): Thank you very much!
