Glasgow bands – 7th Level Music

Already gaining attention for their live shows and even louder political views, Glasgow’s SOAPBOX announce new EP LOCK IN out 25th April as well as sharing new single ‘Do As Ur Told’. The band will also be appearing at various festivals this Summer across UK & EU.

SOAPBOX have graced the cover of Spotify’s The Punk List amongst being included in other playlists such as New Music Friday, All New Punk, and Hot New Bands. Pulling from influences like The Damned to Soft Play, Amyl and the Sniffers and Viagra Boys, the band say about their music, “we all have a severe praise kink so as long as people keep listening, we’re happy.”

Their new EP LOCK IN follows last year’s HAWD THAT, and comes out the same day they play their biggest headline to date at 500 capacity Glasgow School of Art.

‘Do As Ur Told’ is a song about abuse of power, explains vocalist Tom Rowan.

“Its lyrics are specific to a bad experience we had in the music industry where we felt we were being taken for a ride, but we feel it’s more broadly about being strong-armed into situations which are non-beneficial. The frustration we feel as musicians struggling to scratch out a living, and being squeezed on every penny we do make by other parties, translates to situations people find themselves in every day whether that’s off of a colleague, boss, landlord or someone else in a position of power over them.”

Listen to ‘Do As Ur Told’ HERE

Refusing to stray from their political stance, the band promoted their last EP with posters featuring their lyrics about Nazis and BDSM around Glasgow. Not even a week later, the posters were hastily removed due to a volume of complaints from Glasgow City Council. The band responded, “Glasgow City Council don’t believe in punching Nazis apparently” and urged fans to seek out any remaining posters.

In true SOAPBOX fashion, the band have faced more controversy surrounding a run of posters they plastered over Glasgow which featured their contentious lyrics and political support from politician Jeremy Corbyn. Previously, the band received an unsolicited endorsement from Alt-right ring-leader Gavin McInnes which was covered in The Times.

SOAPBOX are: Tom Rowan (Vocals) He/Him, Angus Husbands (Guitar) He/Him, Aidan Bowskill (Bass) He/Him, Jenna Nimmo (Drums) They/Them

LOCK IN EP out 25th April.

Tour Dates

Fri 21 Mar – North Shields, The Engine Room
Sat 22 Mar – Blackpool, Bootleg Social
Sun 23 Mar – York, The Crescent *with KID KAPICHI
Sat 05 Apr – Middlesbrough, This Is Middlesbrough Fri 18th Apr – Carlisle, The Brickyard
Fri 25 Apr Glasgow, The Garage
Fri 23 May – Den Haag Netherlands, Sniester Festival
Sat 24 May – Amsterdam Netherlands, Pretty Pissed Festival Thu 29 May – Paris France, Supersonic’s Block Party Festival
Fri 30 May – Paris France, Supersonic’s Block Party Festival
Sat 31 May – Mannheim Germany, Maifeld Derby
Sun 03 Aug – Cumbria, Kendal Calling

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Amy at After Hours PR.]

Flooding out of Glasgow in 2022, Water Machine have quickly gained a reputation for their weird and wonky art-punk, winning hearts with sing-along songs about dogs, struggling artists and the housing crisis. Now, they announce their debut album God Park out 20th June via FatCat Records, as well as sharing first taster with new single ‘Tiffany’. Explaining the track, vocalist Hando says, “This song was originally called Orange as we think it sounds like an Orange Juice song. We decided not to call it that due to a certain king and the city we live in being Glasgow. Eventually it was changed to Tiffany as it felt safer for our careers (we are not sectarians). We wrote this in one sitting after I had a panic attack in the studio and we decided to write something happy. As usual it ended up being a hypothetical love song about a car crash.”

Listen to ‘Tiffany’ HERE

Debut album God Park takes a collection of disparate influences and distils the disjointed into something new. Taking influence from everywhere, the tunes are always on the verge of falling apart or breaking down. Their world is a swirling eddy of melodic bass lines and volatile guitar sliding between jazz chords and punk riffs, all the while narrated by sardonic social commentary, silly stories, and pop sensibilities. This group of young Glaswegians recognise that they owe something to the city’s rich musical history, in particular the 1980’s scene captured so brilliantly in Grant McPhee’s documentary, Teenage Superstars.

Tired of listening to songs about gloom and heartbreak, Water Machine, instead, want their lyrics to provide a “realistic escapism.” Their words, while rooted in the day-to-day-maybe-mundane, are spun into what the band call “hyper conceptualised allegories.” So while they might sometimes sing about love, this is hidden amongst copulating clouds, car crashes, housing crises, rabies outbreaks, toxic jobs and unrequited office romances.

Everything on the album packs positive, punk energy. As Henry Rollins put it: “Water Machine is a very cool band”.

Water Machine are: Hando Morice [they/them] – vocals, violin, synth, Flore De Hoog [she/her] – bass, vocals, Nicky Duncan [he/him] – drums, percussion, Baby Cousland [they/them] – rhythm guitar, Ellie McWhinnie [she/they] – lead guitar

God Park is out 20th June via FatCat Records. Pre-order HERE

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe!]

[Thanks to Amy at After Hours PR.]

Tag: Glasgow bands

SOAPBOX nearly slap you into oblivion with new single – “Do As Ur Told.”

Water Machine announce their debut album, “God Park,” with its first single – “Tiffany.”