TEN years ago there was a band on the Scottish scene called Stapleton. Channeling underground U.S. indie kindred spirits like American Football and Braid, Stapleton released a series of excellent records and played fantastic shows.
Tour supports with bands such as Hundred Reasons helped gain them fans UK-wide, as well as national Radio1 airplay via Steve Lamacq and John Peel. I loved them.
When the band changed line-up from a three to a four piece, two of them were also playing in a similar band called Avast! – and they were equally brilliant.
The reason why I mention this is because there are currently two bands in Scotland who are coming very close to picking up where those bands left off. Fans of either of those bands are probably well aware of Trapped in Kansas and Verse Metrics but I’m hoping more people discover them.
Verse Metrics
Close to two years ago I was lucky enough to see Verse Metrics support Avast! in Edinburgh. What impressed me was the fact that they were clever without creating overly complicated song structures just for the sake of it. Everything sounded natural and engaging, with layers of depth.
Released at the end of last year, Verse Metrics’ newest EP – ‘Radians’ is a must-listen.
Trapped in Kansas
They’ve been around long enough to notch up as much as you can at ‘local’ band level. Played festivals such as goNorth, T in the Park, Rockness, Marisilla Rocks in France and headlined Oxjam Glasgow. Live sessions for Radio 1 and Air 3 and have been featured as both Steve Lamacq and Tom Robinson’s band of the week on 6Music.
This week Trapped in Kansas have released a new song, ‘Collapse Rebuild‘, which you can hear now on YouTube.
Border Crossing
Up-and-coming Scottish bands who have ticked off all the usual boxes often find themselves in the tricky situation where they don’t have the finances or music industry support to build their audience further. For bands based in Scotland, this is a bigger hurdle than English bands who are never more than two to three hours away from covering most of the towns and cities that will put them on.
Not everyone can take the time off to get in a van and go out to play shows anywhere and everywhere.
That’s why it’s encouraging to see bands such as United Fruit take to the road in Europe to win new music fans. In the UK, unless you’re getting coverage from the usual media outlets it can be extremely difficult to get people to come watch you play live. At least in Europe gig-goers are less inclined to allow themselves to be influenced by the media and actively seek out their own new favourite acts.
In Verse Metrics and Trapped in Kansas you have two bands that have been around long enough that there isn’t a new band buzz surrounding them.
As people’s attention spans get shorter, media outlets will continue to overlook bands who have been around for awhile. Don’t let that put you off.
Verse Metrics’ newest EP - ‘Radians’ is a must-listen.
Trapped in Kansas have released a new song, ‘Collapse Rebuild‘
