Paisley art-pop performers the Vegan Leathers take their music seriously. Their live sets are infused with funky hooks, vibrant synths and a dedication to producing a reaction from their audience. Their music is fun, infectious and colourful. See for yourself when they take to the King Tut’s Stage powered by Utilita Energy at TRNSMT festival. We recently met Gianluca and Matthew from the band for a drink and a chat in Stereo.
With a festival, you have a very short time to grab people’s attention, how do you approach that?
Matthew McGoldrick: In a way, you would approach it much the same as we would do a headline show or something like that. I think you would treat a festival slot much like a headline show, and the fact is, when it comes to something like that, you just completely go for it.
And bring as much extra props or production – we have like these big heads that we bring, bring on to the stage. Technically every slot on any stage at a festival, is a band’s headline, if you see it like that. So, it’s really bringing as big a show as you possibly can.
Gianluca Bernacchi: If you have an opportunity to play to fans who have never seen you before, then it’s best to have 100% of what you are there. So they can understand what you’re all about and if they like you or they hate you: make a decision right there. But hopefully they like us.
Right now, in terms of the type of set you’ve got, is it fairly fixed? Do you have your bangers that are always first on the list.
Matthew: Well, it’s always kind of deciding a couple of days prior for that. Like, we’re currently on tour with The View at the moment. We did two dates in Edinburgh: yesterday and the day before. And we’ve got a big Barrowlands gig. For the Liquid Room dates, we had setlists for that, and now we’ve got a setlist for tonight, which has a couple of extra songs, we’ve got a little bit more time.
There’s songs that we have and we know where their place in the set is. And then we’ve got other songs that we can add in or keep.
Gianluca: If we’re doing a 40 – 45 minute set, we like to have an ebb and flow with the way the songs go, peaks and troughs, to keep the crowd interest. But if we’ve got a 20 minute set, we just kind of like put all our big tunes out there.
Is there any particular song that you can point to – the bit of the set that you’re probably having the most fun?
Gianluca: The new song called Eyes.
Matthew: Eyes is a good one. I think for me and Duncan, the drummer, we have an instrumental one called Bottom of the Ocean: it’s just like a total disco. It’s probably the most fun we can have with our instruments. A lot of room for improvisation.
Gianluca: It’s a big instrumental track. But for some reason it’s stayed with us. I don’t think there’s been a gig in the past three years where we’ve not played it. And it’s like, it shouldn’t work, because it’s a four minute long disco instrumental but people seem to really enjoy it and it’s lot of fun for us as well.
Matthew: I’d say probably the most fun the crowd has is This House. We usually close our sets to that and usually get right down on the floor, like drop at the end, then just jump up. Like Slipknot. I’ve never seen so many people upside down at a gig, crowd surfing.
Your sound can bounce around different genres, how do you start out down a particular road when you are writing?
Gianluca: We don’t really have many rules about how we write. We just start off, say “This is going to be a disco song, maybe even have some funk involved. And if there’s a big massive metal riff at the end, why not? We have a lot of genres that people can latch onto and enjoy I think, so that’s what helps us, being such an open band.
Matthew: All four of us, love music too much to confine ourselves. But it all comes down to: “Is it danceable? Is it catchy? Is there a groove there? And then, the way you decorate that groove, with whatever instruments that you may want to use, or sonic textures you may want to use, as long as it fits around a great drum and bass beat.
What about using technology, then, to add to your sound. What’s in your box of tricks?
Gianluca: I think we’re quite a technology driven band, to be honest.
Matthew: The nucleus of most songs comes from Jim’s studio in his bedroom, where we just get basic ideas on the laptop. Basic demos and then we build up from there, but there’s a lot of synths involved. We’re big fans of Moogs and Korgs. Then we’ll play in live in the studio, bring it back and add in bits at the end.
I think some people when they look at using computers and electronics a wee bit restrictive, but I think we’ve got so comfortable now with our instruments and melding them together, it’s easy now. It’s a running process with a song. You can jump in and out of the laptop. Even if we’re doing a gig today, if we have an idea for an intro track or two tracks to go together, to meld them together, we just sit down, five minutes. Headphones on, get it done.
So, how connected are you to what’s happening on the music scene in Glasgow?
Gianluca: Things are flourishing here. We’re friends with a lot of the bands, like the Van T’s, Declan Welsh. Ninth Wave as well. We hang out at The Priory, Tuts, Broadcast. There’s always something happening. We go to gigs all over. I’d say Broadcast is probably the best one.
Matthew: I think a lot of the bands in Glasgow are incredibly diverse, you know what I mean? You’ve got Declan Welsh who is, like, political punk. And then you’ve got the Van T’s that are like 90s grunge and then you’ve got Ninth Wave who do incredible Goth Pop. There’s a lot to appreciate from other bands and you do take influence from the others that you see, sometimes sonically, sometimes in the performance.
So, your fans, people who come to your shows on a regular basis, do you have much of a chance to interact with them and what are they like? What kind of folk do you attract?
Matthew: Beautiful, beautiful people. Lovely people.
Gianluca: You know, I’ve never had a bad experience with anyone at any of our gigs. Like everyone is so friendly. Even when people are stage diving, with people on top of each other, there’s always a hand to keep them up. I think what our music pushes out is happiness and having a good time, so it attracts people that are into that.
Matthew: I think we ourselves just try to resonate nothing but good vibes. There’s no point going to the show and thinking “Oh, this band’s being assholes”. I’m not saying it ever really happens that much, but you go to a show sometimes and the band are like, they don’t care … Not that they’re dark or anything, but you feel like they don’t appreciate you.
Gianluca: There’s an unspoken conversation between a band onstage and the crowd. There’s an energy happening between them. And if you don’t have good energy, the crowd won’t have good energy and they won’t enjoy the show. So we try and put a good show on every single time. They’re paying money to see us. We have an obligation to make them feel good.
The Vegan Leather play the King Tut’s stage powered by Utilita Energy at TRNSMT Festival, Glasgow Green, 7 – 9 July 2017.
