THE RIOT VANS
The Riot Vans by name and by nature. Starting out in Perth and ending up in Glasgow, are angst filled voices airing their protests of the modern world. Their gigs are known for chanting and dancing, but in a time where all gigs are cancelled, they’ve had time to reflect. Having been on the music scene for a few years, they started to build momentum and really hone in on punk goodness - but could that all be about to change?
I sat down with Aidan and Charlie, chatting about everything thats happened with the band, new material and why the change of heart -
Aidan: Me and Charlie have been creating music since we were about 14. We’ve been trying for a wee while. I’ve always treated it seriously, but I think with age, even more so especially when the business side of music kicks in. I still think we still have miles to go, but we have a lot to look forward to.
How do you think the Lockdown has affected the Glasgow music scene?
Aidan: There's no gigs, but there's lots of new music coming out all the time in Glasgow. I find a new band everyday from Glasgow, the music scene is always growing, I think it always has really.
Charlie: There’s no gig, but music is still alive more than ever. I think everyone’s kept up with releasing new music. No-one’s faded away, it’s still a crazy community to be a part of. Lockdown has been a positive thing for us, we’ve had a lot of time to take a step back and write emore, pushing our sound to a different place. When you're gigging you can get side tracked into a routine and not really end up writing much.
Aidan: Now, we’re always coming up with new stuff. The three of us now live together, so creating is a constant, we throw ideas about and we’ve been in quite a healthy space being able to work together.
Charlie: We’ve now spent 6-months living together and it’s been about a year in lockdown. I think in a weird way we definitely have benefited. We just took a step back.
How do you think living together has helped you to hone in on your craft-ship with your music being angsty do you now have a better discussion surrounding the next issue that you want to shed light to?
Aidan: Most of the stuff that is angsty, is being released now but was written by me and charlie when we were 16 or 17-years-old. That’s the age where you just want to play your guitar as loud as possible, which is what we were doing at the time, which led to writing harder and faster songs.
Charlie: We just wrote songs that we thought we’re gonna be bangers and get everyone going to begin with. Now being in lockdown and working as a three has made a severe change in dynamic, but also a severe improvement in our song writing. We’re writing better thought out songs, in the new stuff that no-one’s heard yet is severely different. Being together as a three, we’ve had more time to work on our theme and our sound. We have written so much over this period of time, we now have albums of songs ready to go.
Talking more about your new songs, you use quite a few guitar pedals to create your sound. What's your favourite one to use?
Aidan: I’ve got a Fuzz Pedal which I think is the best thing ever a DOD Carcosa. It’s the most fun you can have when playing electric guitar I think.
Charlie: I’ve always just turned the amp up really loud and got effects through doing that, but Aidan’s been running away with all these mad sounds and set-up, so I try to keep up .
I’ve got BlueSky Reverberator, it's the funniest sound to ever work with.
What’s the weirdest effect you’ve put together when experimenting with sounds?
Aidan: We’ve done a lot of MICing up, and plugging in keyboards and guitars to all sorts of pedals. We create things that aren’t even in time, layering and looping music just to see what happens. I find samples of the internet and mess with the dials until something I like the sound of comes out.
Charlie: Aidan's more of the technician in the band whereas me and Jack are the song-writing heads.
What was performing your first show at the 02 ABC Glasgow like ?
Charlie: That was our first gig ever in Glasgow. We miraculously got the first slot, with a little help from a friend. Anyone who does gig’s will totally understand that when a gig just slots into place and everyone has a ticket to come and see you, you just play your heart out. It’s a huge stage and was a leap from the stages we were used to playing. Jumping into Glasgow and playing there was definitely the deep-end, but we did really well.
Aidan: Before that we were just playing pubs in Perth.
Going back to the beginning then, how did you all meet and settle on Punk as a genre?
Charlie: Me and Aidan met in school, so we’ve known eachother forever. We started getting together and having a laugh with the guitars, but ultimately being in a band was always our vision. Band members have always changed and moving to uni, meant that relationships with previous members naturally fizzled a little bit.
Aidan: The first day I moved into halls at university, Jack our Bassist was just there. He is a great songwriter so it worked out a treat. It was a chase to get him into joining the band but we’ve managed.
Charlie: Jack then brought in our drummer Adam, who he was previously in a band with which made us a four.
Aidan: I think we’ve had more members leave then there is in the band now [laughs]
Who was your influence for ‘Scotrails Stealing All My Money’?
Charlie: We were playing gigs on Sauchiehall Street and as we were gigging with punk bands, just hearing other bands influenced us. We tried to do a blend of indie and punk, but this one made me really go for it.
Aidan: The band Slaves were a huge influence on us, especially when we were younger, we met and jammed with them when we were 15, which really set the mood. It made me more determined.
Charlie: Doc Martens and rolled up jeans, with a bomber jacket is a strong look, which made us have a strong beginning. Trying to create indie boppers and releasing there's better things out there than that. We’ve always been a bit more angry than most bands that were out there doing indie, so it made sense for us to explore a bit more into punk.
What can we expect from you this year and exclusives on un-announced music ?
Aidan: We have more music coming out soon, but we’re also making our own twists on punk and experimenting with our friend who produces dance music with synthesizers. We’re also thinking of making a remix of one of our songs, I'm really looking forward to what’s coming up.
Charlie: The new stuff we’ve got coming out is a total u-turn from what we normally do. The new sound is a reflection of us not really listening to punk music anymore. We’ve got more of a 2020 vision.
Aidan: Because of the lockdown we’ve been sitting in our own heads, we have an entirely new aesthetic, maybe even new members along with upgrading our equipment, like for when we’re using pedals. This new sound is a reflection of us not really listening to punk music anymore. We’ve got more of a 2020 vision. I’m so excited for the change, it’s the next sensible thing because the bands changed so much in the last couple of years, we got to a point where we weren’t even sure if we were ‘The Riot Vans’ anymore. This new music isn’t even the same sound anymore, but that’s all I should really give away.
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You’ve just released posters marking each song, how do you feel your songs have evolved with each new single?
Charlie: Looking at the posters and seeing our work, it made me see there is always a sense of angst or protest in our music. We’re always ranting about something.
Whether that’s old men getting a bit too close to girls our age in the pubs or Scotrail or street fighters of their nut in Glasgow’s centre. There’s always a sense of protest, that’s what we have stood for as a band. Things are changing now and we’re taking a more emotional route. A deeper message then the punk or indie bangers that we were once making, more soulful edge to songwriting.
Your latest protest came in the shape of ‘Scotrails Stealing All My Money’ tell me the story behind that.
Charlie: It came from me travelling to college everyday paying £30 on the train to get there and back, which I thought was expensive. I could get a bus for £7. I didn’t like paying that sort of cash. Don’t pass this on as it’s a secret trick but I maybe, used to change the destination of where I had got on and it worked out a lot cheaper, failing that I’d hide in the toilets. I remember seeing the Abellio logo early one morning and just thinking f*ck the Abellio, then I thought it had a bit of a ring to it and made it into a song.