QUICKFIRE WITH NATIONAL PLAYBOYS

We are National Playboys, a 5-piece alternative rock group from Edinburgh, Scotland and made up of Kyle, Anna, Ewen, Megan and Dave.

How did National Playboys form?

Well, the band really came about during lockdown when Kyle decided to start writing some songs he had been playing around in his head. He had built up some demos and decided to look for some band members to play with in Edinburgh. Kyle first found Ewen (old school mates) and then ever since then they both started to build up the band and added new members as we all went along. Our two most recent members are Anna and Megan, who also both play in different bands in the Edinburgh music scene. We all have come together to play in this group. Our bassist Dave has been in the band for a long time as well and he’s great – Ewen knew him growing up.

How did you get your name?

We would like to say that the band name has some kind of meaning or some cool story attached to it, but in reality it was more of a placeholder we couldn’t get rid of. It’s kind of stuck ever since despite how much the rest of the group don’t really like it – but it is memorable.

Tell us about your new single Disease!

Disease was another demo that Kyle brought to the group and it was just a song that he had been playing around with, however, as with most of our songs, it changed a lot once it came into the groups collective mind, where we all were able to add our own different elements and our own strengths to the song. The main aim of Disease was to have it really fast-paced, energetic, and in your face and we feel that we managed to do that collectively. Lyrically, Kyle deliberately chose to touch on different themes with the purpose of allowing the listener to add their own interpretation into the music whilst keeping the energy of the overall song high.

Can you describe your sound?

We would say our original sound is more aligned in the genre of post punk, but since we have added the new band members we’re starting to draw from loads of different elements. When rehearsing or writing new material we’ve kind of taken on the mantra that if it sounds good and if it has good energy then we kind of just roll with it and see what we can come up with. We don’t tie ourselves down too much with genre, we feel that’s where we get the best out of ourselves and where the audiences can feel more attached to the music we create. Catharsis for both us and the listener is the aim.

What’s the Scottish Music Scene been like as an up and coming band?

In Scotland the main city to be in for our genre of music is Glasgow. Edinburgh is a really great, but for our type of music and for live music in general, Glasgow is a really good music scene for up and coming bands. But like everywhere in the UK at the moment, with new bands it’s always really hard to finance your passions and to find time whilst everyone works a full time job to pursue what they want to do. It’s definitely not the career path for making wealth, but it enables us to find our passions and in this group we all feel that we contribute to something that’s bigger than ourselves. It’s also a good laugh.

What has been a pivotal moment for you guys as a band?

We all probably have different moments which we could see that is pivotal but in terms of progressing the band forward we would definitely say the addition of the two new band members last year has helped us a lot. We would also say that playing a lot of shows in London last year has helped us in terms of understanding how to travel as a band professionally and how to play further afield. It’s also given us the exposure which has led us to playing even bigger gigs and now truck festival this summer which we’re really looking forward to.

What is your favourite Scottish music venue?

Sneaky Pete’s. It is our unofficial home.

You’re playing your first major festival at Truck Festival! How are you feeling about this?

We cannot wait – and we feel extremely lucky to have been given the opportunity to play a major festival. We hope this is the springboard we can use to keep doing what we love.

You can only listen to one album as a band for the rest of your lives. What would it be?

[Kyle] Personally – I’d say King Krule’s newest album Space Heavy has meant a lot to me recently out of these options (but the others would probably.. most definitely… choose something else!)