Interview with Dancing On Tables: ‘We thought, what’s the most grim story we can think of and turn into a catchy song?’

‘Riviera’, the summer anthem from Dunfermline, Scotland-based five-piece indie pop band Dancing On Tables actually started out as a joke, according to its frontman, Robbie McSkimming.

‘It was before lockdown and we were four dates into a 14 day tour and we were chatting about how people had been dancing about and singing to our songs with depressing lyrics [laughs] and we thought: What’s the most grim story we can think of and turn into a catchy song?’

‘Riviera’ is essentially about a man hoping to run away to the coast of Italy with his girlfriend, only to find out after the relationship ends that he has been replaced, with the new couple living out his dream instead. Despite the wistful lyrics: ‘How’s the sunset and how’s the sea? Is it as blue as we thought it would be? Are you having the time of your life, or are you secretly thinking of me?’, the thrashing guitars and summery hooks, mixed with the lyrical swagger of the second verse, give it an air of defiance.

The band also comprises Callum Thomas (vocals/guitar), Gregor Stobie (bass), Hamish Finlayson (guitar) and Reece Dobbin (drums).

As they couldn’t take the song to a real beach for the music video, Dancing On Tables opted to head to ‘Big Pete’s’ beachside bar for a green screen karaoke masterclass instead.

‘As we’re maturing, we’re going to challenge ourselves more,’ McSkimming said. ‘We’ve got around 40 demos we’re working on. We were on Zoom every day in lockdown, writing as much as we could. ‘Riviera’ gave us a concept, like reading a book or watching a film, and we want to develop more ideas like that.’

The band recorded several songs in November – ‘Riviera’ actually came later – the first of which, ‘Tell Me’, will be released next week (14 August): ‘It has a similar feel to ‘Losing It’ (which came out in May), it’s upbeat. It was another challenge to think of a different concept. ‘Tell Me’ is told from the perspective of someone who knows that their relationship is bad for them. It was inspired by Valentine’s Day. You see all those couples going out, some relationships might start then but what about the ones that people might be desperate to end? The song’s defiant! [laughs].’

As the song says: ‘Tell me I’m no good for you, tell me that you hate everything I do, tell me that you found someone new, tell me anything that you’ve got to, just don’t tell me it ain’t over.’

Dancing On Tables was formed by a group of school friends who, in their words, ‘happened to play the right instruments’. It has been a whirlwind few years, moving on from playing friends’ parties to supporting Catfish and the Bottlemen on their UK arena tour.

They will be bringing out a new EP towards the end of the year, which will also include ‘Tell Me’ and ‘Riviera’. Most of all, McSkimming says, he’s looking forward to playing live again. ‘We love writing songs, me and Callum, but for me the point is to play live. My favourite song to play live is ‘Body’, it’s in your face, as heavy as it gets. The first word is ‘hello’, so I normally just say it and then get into the song! I get a buzz from that one, as does the crowd.’

Some of their songs came about by complete chance, including their ‘Dancing In The Dark’ cover from their Transpose EP, which came out last year. ‘We were in the studio in Nashville – our label is based there – and all of a sudden, our phones started flashing with hurricane warnings. They told us not to worry but we ended up having an extra hour in the studio and thought, should we do a cover? So we were huddling in the dark from the hurricane, singing ‘Dancing In the Dark’, which seemed very appropriate! We really loved it, we knew we had to keep it.’

As a band, they all have quite different musical influences. McSkimming was a big fan of The Sex Pistols and The Clash when he was younger, although these days he is a big Frank Turner fan, as well as of Bruce Springsteen. Thomas, his songwriting partner, is a fan of The Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel.

‘I met Frank Turner at a festival a few years ago. I was chatting to someone else and I saw him about to perform and ran over to tell him what a big influence he’d been on me. I think it was the red wine talking! He was lovely to me, asked what the band were doing, it was great!’

McSkimming would love to collaborate with Turner: ‘He’s such a brilliant songwriter, his lyrics are amazing. Every song is a story with something behind it, it has an influence you can pinpoint. He has a brilliant book, ‘Try This At Home’ talking about the stories behind the songs and how he writes them.’

He would also have loved to collaborate with Freddie Mercury. ‘When I was in school, we did ‘We Will Rock You’. That’s the closest I’ll get to being Freddie Mercury!’