BACKSTAGE AT TRNSMT WITH PICTURE THIS | INTERVIEW

Despite an early afternoon main stage appearance at this years TRNSMT Festival, Glasgow fans have flocked to see Irish band Picture This. With fans marveling every word back to the band, this charming indie quartet have their audiences firmly wrapped in their grasp.

Recently releasing their fourth studio album ‘Parked Car Conversations‘ in April this year, the quartet have established their position as one of the freshest rising talents from Ireland and we couldn’t possibly agree anymore

Taking a few minutes out of their busy schedule, Picture This (Ryan, Jimmy, Owen, Cliff) join Anne and Morgan backstage at TRNSMT 2024.

Congratulations on that main stage performance, how was that?

Ryan: It felt amazing. Especially for an early set like that, it was a great crowd and great energy. We were buzzin’.

It was great, I think that may have been the only set we’ve actually managed to see today (laughs).

Ryan: It was so nice to see the crowd singing back. It was amazing, we just loved every second of it.

Scottish crowds though, are they better than the Irish?

Full Band: Ooh (laughs)!

Jimmy: they’re the closest thing to an Irish crowd.

Ryan: Absolutely, they are very very similar. Yeah, I think we have a lot in common, [they are] just mad. They’ve got that extra kind of madness and it’s great.

Do you have any favourite Irish bands coming up at the moment? We were chatting to The Scratch earlier.

Ryan: Oh yeah, we love The Scratch. And Amble are great. Kingfishr, they’re doing great things. There’s a lot, there’s a lot of good things coming from Ireland which is good to see.

So you released your fourth album Parked Car Conversations back in April, how has the reception been to that?

Ryan: It’s been great and we’re delighted. It’s the longest we’ve ever spent on an album, we spent like 2 years working on it so we were really delighted to see that people really loved it. We’re really looking forward to touring the album properly in October around Europe.

But this is your fourth album? Wow! How long have you been a band?

Ryan: End of, well 2016 really. It’s nearly an album a year really.

How do you feel your sound has changed over that time?

Ryan: Yeah I think it has changed

Cliff: Yeah, it has changed from time to time but we are always just trying to honest and make sense, write music that we love and be true to ourselves I think.

We have to mention Satellites? That’s a great summer feel good anthem. But it’s come so quickly after the album, you really don’t mess about?

Ryan: No, but I think that’s the way music is nowadays. Like people consume music so much quicker and that suits us because we wrote so much music that we want to be putting music out all of the time so we’re happy. But I suppose for other artists it creates pressure. But I think we’re lucky.

Being a band in the ‘tik tok’ generation can add another layer of things to keep on top of, do you feel that’s an added pressure on the band?

Ryan: It is a pressure, yeah, like you need to do so much more than just being in a band now. You have to be a content creator, and you need to be a million different things but we enjoy it. We make all of our own content, it’s fun. It is pressure but it’s good to have pressure.

So are you already starting to write your next album then?

Ryan: Yep, we’re just going straight back in writing again. We write all the time and make music. It’s all we want to do.

How do you find time?!

Ryan: It’s all we do, we don’t have any other hobbies (laughs).

What do you think you would be doing if you didn’t make music?

Ryan: That’s a good question, because I have no idea. I’ve never had a ‘real job’, this is all I’ve ever done so I don’t have any context.

Jimmy: Honestly, I don’t know. I’ve done music all my life so I think it would still be in music, recording music or mixing music, production stuff if I wasn’t in this band. But hopefully that never happens because this has been crazy what we get to do every day. It’s the best job in the world.

If you could aspire to be any band what would be your goal?

Ryan: I think a band like Coldplay because they have changed over the years. And U2 because those two have, in terms of longevity because they manage to stay current but don’t sell themselves out, they’re authentic. They stay with the times and are constantly just making classic songs.

What else do you have planned for the rest of this year?

Ryan: This is actually our last festival of the summer but then we’ve got the tour in October but we’ll be making lots of new music between now and then. So we’ll be releasing new music a lot sooner than people think. But we’ll be busy.

Finish this sentence: the best thing about Glasgow is…?

Full band: The people! Absolutely the people!

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