Rock four-piece Vukovi have been making melodic guitar-driven music for about four years now, racking up airplay on radio and touring, building their reputation. The Ayrshire group have recently produced a self-titled debut album that provides a snapshot of their quirky, occasionally dark, enigmatic sound. Their furiously busy summer will include a slot on the King Tut’s Stage powered by Utilita Energy at TRNSMT festival.
We called vocalist Janine Shilstone for a chat.
So, you’re going into the summer period now, apart from TRNSMT what else do you have planned? Summer always seems to be a very important time for bands to get things done.
Yeah, it’s weird, I think this is the busiest summer we’ve ever had. I was actually thinking about this last night, I don’t think we’ve got a free weekend until August. Once we go on the road, once we set off on tour next, I think we’ve got, between the tour and festivals, I think we’ve got one every weekend until the end of July or something. Pretty mental. Aye, it’s interesting, because we’ve got 2000 Trees, Y Not festival, TRNSMT, Slam Dunk, Reading and Leeds.
When the band got together, what there are particular point where you realised you were heading in the right direction?
None of us had any experience, and we had no idea what we were doing. I think we wrote our first ever songs, I think it was Get Hot and Feel the Butterflies and recorded that with Bruce Spinto. Weirdly, he has worked with us on the album now.
Then a month later it got played on Radio One, so then at that point we were just like, “Shit. We should maybe start taking this seriously”.
At that stage though, we didn’t even really know what we wanted to achieve. I think that’s when the rollercoaster of our journey started.
Why did you decide this was the right time to release your debut album?
I think it’s been a long time coming. Previously, when we were a young starting-out band we got under the wings of the wrong people. At the time we thought it was good but now, looking back, it wasn’t really. It wasn’t the right people. We’re just glad that we never did an album or anything back then. I think they would’ve fucked it.
We weren’t ready and we hadn’t really mastered our sound or our writing, so we’re all so glad that we waited this long to get the right team around us. It wasn’t until that happened that we all felt confident enough to write and produce a decent album, rather than just churn out something that we probably wouldn’t have been happy with deep down.
Did you have some of the songs lying around already or did you set out to write an album from scratch?
We like working with really short deadlines. We don’t like sitting on songs for too long.
Some of the album is made up of older songs, and then the singles that we’ve been putting out, which was a build-up to the album. Like Ammo, and Picasso, Boy George and things.
A big chunk of the songs from the album were written in a very short space of time, but it worked for us. We said, “we’ve got three weeks, let’s just blast through them, make a chunk of new songs”. Some of the best ones on the album came out of that. That just works for us, that method.
For bands, once they release an album, things accelerate. You’ve got to get out on the road and bring it to people. That’s probably why your diary’s full up with tour dates…
That’s it. I think I was naïve to that. We have this team, which we’re so happy with now, and we trust all these people. They told us that the album is a game-changer.
Even then, we never realised what an album would do. I just didn’t get it. I believe them now. It’s funny, I don’t know if it’s because it’s a full body of work and that’s more appealing to people.
In terms of the music scene that you’ve been a part of for the last couple of years, do you tend to play mostly around Scotland or have you been playing in other places, and how does playing live influence your recording process?
Well, we’ve been mostly concentrating on England. Trying to tackle that. We’ve not tackled Scotland by any means, but I think he wanted us to be consistent throughout the country, across the UK. I suppose. At the time, I was a bit like, “aye, no bother, how the fuck are you meant to do that?”
But it’s working. Now, we bring in the same amount of people to our London shows and Glasgow at our home shows. It blows our mind.
Vukovi sound like the kind of band I’d like to stumble upon in a tent at a festival somewhere. Were you conscious that the songs you have are a good fit for a fairly big stage?
I think now, yes. We’ve managed to master our headline set for our own tour. I think we’ve mastered a festival set, we’ve got that down, and I love it.
It’s so much fun. Aye, I think because we all like the set that we’ve picked for festivals, it’s only a thirty minute set, we’re not fucking about, we’re literally going on stage then we’re blasting out seven or eight songs.
And we’ll have the fucking time of our lives. For me that rubs off on a crowd.
If I’m having fun on stage and enjoying it, I feel like the crowd get this energy, then you get it back off them.
You must be looking forward to playing TRSNMT. It’s home turf.
Yeah. We weren’t expecting to get asked to do that or anything, but I’m really intrigued to play that. Obviously, it’s the first year, we’re sharing the stage with some really good bands that weekend. Yeah, I’m intrigued. I’m excited to hopefully think that it’s going to be busy for us, for our set.
We can’t forecast how busy our set’s going to be. A few years ago when we were playing T in the Park, I always remember the tent was rammed. Don’t get me wrong, it’s because it was pishing with rain, but that’s sometimes the best … You make new fans by doing that. They only came in to get out the rain and then they are singing to the chorus, even though they don’t know the words.
Do you ever spot people you know in the audience when you are playing festivals close to home?
Well, I always remember that first set we did at T in the Park. Seeing a few folk in the front row, like folk I went to school with, and there was one that was a bit of a dick. I’m like that, “the fuck are you doing here?” But aye. I kind of get off on that, though, I’m like, well, you’re fucking down there.
I don’t mean that belittling anyone, it feels good because it’s like … You were a dick to me at school, and I felt like you were better than me, and you tried to make me feel like that. Then they’re … I’m the one on stage looking down at them watching me. I don’t know. It’s not like, as I said, me, I’m not better than anyone, but it’s quite a nice moment.
Now that you’ve got the album and you’re out on the road, is this going to be a burst of productivity? Are you going to be churning out albums every wee while now?
We actually … Hamish crashed at mine last night. He’s started writing for album two, so, yeah. Obviously, we want to give this album enough time to breathe and we’re actually thinking of putting out another two singles off this album. One to get us through festival season, then at the end of the year, another one. There’s nothing’s confirmed, but hoping to go to Europe. That’s kind of on the cards. But we’ll see.
I get the fear, knowing some of the bands, our friends that are in bands that have maybe signed away to labels … I know from their experience that they have to wait so long to record an album or write, and they have to go through fifty people to make one decision.
See that, for me, no. Fuck that. I need shit to happen now and quick and keep the momentum up. For me, album two, we want it to be better than the first album, which I’ve heard is the hardest. From album one to two, I’ve been told is one of the hardest things to do. It’s all fun and games.
I’ve never been one for making albums and putting filler tracks on it. I feel like every song on the album could potentially be a single. We wanted them all to be strong songs.
Did you go to many festivals yourself, before you were in the band?
My first festival experience was going to T in the Park with my pals. I was flung in the deep end. I had no idea what I was letting myself in for. But I had one of the best weekends of my life. I remember going to the T Break stage and – I was just started out as a singer – I just remember watching bands on the T Break stage and other stages and thinking “I need to be up there”.
At, the time, you think it’s probably never going to happen. I like setting these goals for myself, no matter how wild they might be. One of my top goals what was to be on front cover of Kerrang magazine and that’s just happened. I still don’t believe it.
The only thing is, I’m just never happy. Obviously, our team of people, they were all like, “how do you feel about the cover?”, you know, buzzing and all that, and I’m like, “aye, it’s cool”. It feels good. But I was just like … Not as good as I thought. It didn’t feel as good as I thought it would feel.
People tell me to just enjoy the moment. But I can’t. I just want to go on. I want better now. I want to get something better. I think if you want to be in this sort of industry, you can’t stand in the same spot. You’ll just get left behind.
Vukovi will play on the King Tut’s Stage powered by Utilita Energy at TRNSMT Festival, Glasgow Green, 9th July.
Find the latest information and updates here.
TRNSMT 2017 LINE-UP
FRIDAY 7TH JULY: Radiohead, Belle & Sebastian, London Grammar, Rag’n’Bone Man, Everything Everything and JP Cooper
KING TUT’S STAGE POWERED BY UTILITA: Honne, Saint Motel, Be Charlotte + more TBA
SATURDAY 8TH JULY: Kasabian, Catfish and the Bottlemen, George Ezra, The Kooks, Stormzy, Circa Waves and Cabbage
KING TUT’S STAGE POWERED BY UTILITA: The LaFontaines, Sundara Karma, Clean Cut Kid, Fickle Friends, Gerry Cinnamon, The Vryll Society + more TBA
SUNDAY 9TH JULY: Biffy Clyro, The 1975, Two Door Cinema Club, Twin Atlantic, Blossoms, The View and The Strypes
KING TUT’S STAGE POWERED BY UTILITA: Tom Grennan, The Amazons, Declan McKenna + more TBA
