(((o))): So, first and foremost, who are A Fight You Can’t Win and what are your musical backgrounds?
We are Lesley on guitar/vocals, Matthew on vocals/guitar, Robbie on bass/vocals and Stewart on drums. We’ve all been playing in various different bands in and around the city for a long time.
(((o))): How did the band come together?
Matthew originally formed the band with childhood friend Paul and drummer Sander in 2009, with Lesley joining in 2010. Family and work commitments meant that Sander and Paul left last year and were almost immediately replaced with Stewart and Robbie who were the first people we wanted to continue the band with. Since then we’ve been writing new material and developing and improving our style. It’s safe to say that it’s now a new, sleeker animal.
(((o))); Please describe your sound in the form of either a haiku, a rhyming couplet or, if you are feeling massively ambitious, an acrostic...
Fight you can’t win (a)
I don’t think you can win this fight
Gosh, this fight is unwinnable
How can you win this fight? You can’t.
Terribly hard fight to win.
You can’t win this fight
Oh my, this is a fight you can’t win
Unwinnable fight
Can you win this fight? No.
A fight you can’t win
No, you can’t win this fight.
To win this fight is not possible
Why can’t you win this fight?
Is there a way you can win this fight? No there isn’t.
No way are you winning this fight
(((o))): Has your local music scene had any impact on you as a band?
Absolutely. There seems to be an emerging scene in the city with bands like Birdhead, Black International and Vasquez to name but a few that are coming together to try and put Edinburgh on the map as a place where live music thrives. There’s a fair amount of collaboration and mutual support which is something we’ve not really seen much of in the city up until now.
(((o))): Your new single and EP are about to come out. Tell us a little bit about them...
The new single (download here) and EP really represents the new lineup as a well-oiled song-writing and performing unit. It was a painstaking process of ensuring that we were releasing the best recording of the best collection of songs that we possibly could. It’s fair to say we’re incredibly proud and excited about getting them out there.
(((o))): What do you think is the most difficult challenge facing new bands starting out in the music industry today?
Things seem to be in a transitional phase right now with uncertainty as to the purpose of record companies etc. The growth of online distribution with websites like Bandcamp and the old favourites like YouTube mean that bands don’t necessarily have to chase records deals. The problem is that people have to learn how to utilize these online tools to get the best exposure to the public and then use that to make enough money to record, tour and make merchandise (and eat, have a place to live and other pesky things like that).
(((o))): Every band has different aims. What would have to happen for A Fight You Can’t Win to make you feel that you’d “made it”, so to speak?
To play for the last Pope – we’d feel that was us “making it”.
(((o))): You speak of a fight that you can’t win. What’s the most impressive fight you think you could win? I had a friend at school once who claimed he would be pretty good at wrestling a snake, but I wasn’t buying that. Could you fight a snake and win? What about a tiger, or Chuck Norris?
It depends on how big the snake is really; if it was a standard grass snake we’d win no problem, you just throw it into traffic or something. If it were a boa constrictor it would end us in 40 seconds. The tiger would also win but simply eating our faces. Chuck Norris is an old human male so we’d probably succeed in giving him a really depressing kicking, but we’d feel pretty bad about it afterwards and probably never speak to each other again.
(((o))): We have another column called Echoes of the Past in which we get people to write about albums that have particularly influenced them. What would you guys choose to write about in that column?
We have pretty varying music taste between the four of us. One unifying album is the soundtrack to Tommy Wiseau’s “The Room”. Without that beacon of hope and righteousness to guide us, we would just pack in all this music nonsense and get real jobs.
(((o))): This is ostensibly a column for introducing new bands. Any suggestions as to who we ought to include in the near future?
Although none of them are “new” per se we’d probably tell you to chase down Vasquez, Black International, Birdhead, Billy Ray Osiris, Fat Goth and Shudder to name but a few. But you’ve probably already done that.
(((o))): What are A Fight You Can’t Win’s plans for the near future?
The new single “Burning Sky” is out now along with a video and the EP is coming out on the 6th of July. After that the plan is to do a tour of Scotland and Northern Ireland and take it from there.
