Despite having birthed Biffy Clyro, Ayr still isn’t exactly renowned for being a hotbed of modern music.
Quite why is anyone’s guess. With the Biffy having long since transcended any sense of where they were originally from, you have to guess that with Glasgow only being a short drive north, most aspiring musicians are drawn north to the big city lights.
Pity. Ayr’s history is rich, from Rabbie Burns through to arming-waving historian Neil Oliver, so what chance of a cultural renaissance for the Honest Toun?
At the front of the queue have to be Rose Parade. A three-piece indie/folk/pop group, they were formed in 2009 by Ari Pournaras, Edward Mackay and the now departed Paul McGeechan. With new guitarist Sean Macphail now on board, hopes are high that they can take their DIY gigging and kitchen-based recording sessions to a wider audience.
With a knack for a catchy tune, their enthusiasm is also infectious. I resolved to find out more.
So who the hell are you?
Ari: We are Rose Parade!
Uhhhh… thanks. Describe your sound in ten words or less!
Country-tinged indie dark folk punk alternative?
That’ll do. How did you guys get together?
Ari: I moved to Scotland from Greece to study. I chose Ayr because my brother owns some flats and gave me a room. Ed also moved into the flat at the same time and we clicked instantly as we found we both played instruments and had similar musical tastes. We jammed a lot and had different attempts of writing and playing music with different people. Paul McGeechan, who I met in University, was also in the band. We developed a style and Rose Parade was born. Paul recently got married and is chasing a new career in Dundee… the distance between Dundee and Ayr took his toll on Paul so unfortunately he decided to leave the band. Our new EP “Grace” was soon to come out so we had no time to waste in finding a replacement. A friend suggested a skilled guitarist named Sean Macphail. We were wanting to “audition” more than the first person we heard because we believe skill isn’t the most important quality for being in Rose Parade. However, Sean, not only being a skilled guitarist, understood the music and got on really well with us so we felt no further auditioning was required.
Are there any key influences to your sound that you’d admit to?
Ari: Afghan Whigs, JawBreaker, Pixies, Bob Dylan, Bright Eyes, Cursive, Nirvana, NoFX, Interpol, Old Canes, Sufjan Stephens, Bon Iver…
You share a name with one of Elliott Smith’s finest tunes – fans?
Ari: I bought two Elliott Smith records from a music store in Kilmarnock called Val Hala, I really liked Either/Or and yes we got the name from Elliott Smith’s song Rose Parade. My original intentions were to form a band and invite loads of people to play different instruments… a bit like a parade band sort of act.
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I can’t think of any other Ayr bands beyond Biffy Clyro – is there much of a scene to talk about??
Ed: The Ayr scene is growing and growing. When we first moved here there wasn’t much of a scene, a few metal bands and one open mic called “Acoustic Bliss” in Burrowfields bar is the only scene I know of. Last year when we first took ourselves more seriously, many things happened coincidentally and synchronised with us. First of was a bar named Libertine that was pulling in great artists, that unfortunately closed in the summer, but a coffee house called Su Casa came to the rescue of these musicians. Every Thursday the vibe in there is great and it’s the first place, that I know of, to air their acoustic nights live on the internet. Two young guys Kenny and Adrian also hosted a unique gig last year we did called “A series of controlled explosions”, it was a music festival where the audience toured strange parts of Ayr and artists came out and surprised them on different parts of the tour. We jumped out the back of a van, it was a lot of fun. There was also open mic nights at Wellingtons bar and Cactus Jacks that we regularly attended. Acoustic Bliss, also on a Thursday, moved to a bigger venue named “Firehouse” and the atmosphere there is better than it was at Burrowfields. Finally, late last year, the Libertine re-opened.
Ari: We’ve also started this interesting project with some peers that involves filming bands in our Kitchen! We call it the Kitchen sessions! The website went up last month and it’s already getting quite a lot of attention.
What are you hoping for from 2011? Can we expect a few more gigs?
Ari: You can expect a lot from us in 2011 in 2010 we were just warming up! We released our first EP just there in December and now we are going to record our first album and play bigger and better gigs. We have grand ideas and dreams. It might sound arrogant but nothing is unreachable in our minds because if you believe that your dreams are unreachable, you won’t reach for it. We are just going to continue playing the music we like, play as many gigs as possible and release our album! That’s the plan for 2011, hopefully we’ll get more and more folk enjoying our music and coming to our gigs!!
There’s plenty more material up on their MySpace and Facebook pages – go judge for yourself, or even better just have a listen to The Radio Plays for Me below.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
