Fatherson on their new music and ‘coming out of hiding’ to play TRNSMT

FANS of Scots band Fatherson have been eagerly anticipating their return for some time now.

So they’ll be delighted to hear the Kilmarnock trio are ‘coming out of hiding’ to showcase some of their new music at this year’s TRNSMT festival.

The band, made up of Ross Leighton, Greg Walkinshaw and Marc Strain, will play a mix of their latest tracks and old favourites at the Glasgow Green gig.

“We’re super excited to play what I think is going to be a prestigious festival for Scotland,” says Ross, as the band look forward to taking to the King Tut’s Stage.

Greg adds: “It’s already got a pedigree of having good bands at it, and it’s going to be a lot of fun. It’s nice that it’s in the centre of Glasgow and easy for everyone to get to.

“It’s a good way for us to come out of hiding – we’ve not played a show for a very long time so to come back and do something like TRNSMT is going to be excellent.”

There’s little chance of them being too rusty musically, having been camped out in the studio in recent months putting together the follow-up to 2014’s I Am An Island and 2016 release Open Book.

“We’ve not played a gig for a long time but we got a wee studio in Glasgow and wrote a new album,” Marc says.

“We’ve been in five or six days a week. We’ve recorded most of the album live together so we’ll probably be better live than we were before – I’d hope so anyway!”

The band seem very confident in their new album, the release date of which is, according to Marc, ‘soon’.

He adds: “The new music is… really good! We’re not a different band, it’s still the same guys but it is different.

“Our friends and family get to hear it at every stage, and now that we’ve got the album back and it’s been mastered everyone’s been going ‘that sounds really nice!’

“Either everyone’s being polite or we’ve written a very good album.”

Ross adds: “If you’ve been a fan of us since the first album, the second was a step to the right of the first album whereas the first album was a bit more indie-centric, the second was a bit more indie rock. This one’s indie… something else.”

The band admits that it feels like it’s the first time in their career that they’ve made ‘a confident amount of decisions’ during the creative process.

The culmination of all their work in the studio is an album that’s exactly what they’d discussed and planned.

Greg says it’s an “uncompromising album”, with Ross adding: “We just wrote a record we love and that’s the most honest way to describe it.”

Fatherson are no strangers to festivals and big gigs, having played T In The Park, supported their fellow Kilmarnock rockers Biffy Clyro and played many headline shows of their own.

As far as the band are concerned, there’s no better place to re-emerge from their spell away than TRNSMT.

And the King Tut’s Stage in particular seems fitting, given the support the iconic Glasgow venue has given the band over the years.

Marc says: “The line-up for the stage is great. It’s a mixture of bands that a lot of people won’t have heard of to more established acts.

“It’ll be great for everyone going to the festival and it’s nice for us especially as we weren’t really going to play many festivals this summer.

“It wasn’t something we planned on doing and it’s slightly ahead of schedule so it’s been really nice for us to get back to a home crowd play a couple of new songs and reconnect with everyone that’s been following us since we were kids.

“We released a single on King Tut’s Recordings when we were about 17/18 so there’s been a constant connection and the organisers of the festival have helped us out immensely since we were starting out on this journey of being a band.

“It’s our first festival for this new album so it’s going to be a nice experience I think.”

Ross adds: “King Tut’s has probably been the most consistent supporter of our career. It’s only right to come back and hit the ground running with that being the first public display of what this new record’s going to be like.”

Other acts on the line-up for the July 1 date include Interpol, Blossoms and Miles Kane, plus headliners Arctic Monkeys, who play their only UK festival show at TRNSMT.

And there are a few other acts the band are hoping to see themselves while they’re there.

“Sigrid’s on just after us, she’s really cool and we’re on the same day as Arctic Monkeys so I’m excited to see them,” Marc says. “The line-up’s great and hopefully we’ll get in to see some of the other nights.

“I really, really want to see Queen in a big way,” Greg enthuses.

“30,000 steaming Glaswegians singing Queen songs, it sounds amazing! I do love Queen…”

Fatherson were speaking at a TRNSMT media event to showcase acts performing on the King Tut’s Stage, as well as launching Platform On Tour, this year’s street food offering at the festival

Visit http://trnsmtfest.com for tickets and more information