Interview with The Katuns: ‘We want to give people a taste of what we can do’

Four-piece indie rock band from West Lothian in Scotland, The Katuns, burst onto the scene earlier this month with their rifftastic and seriously catchy debut single,’ Friend Like You’.

The band, which have been together since January, comprises frontman and guitarist Adam Frame, Declan Milne (lead guitar), Declan Fisher (bass) and Matt Collins (drums). Frame took their name from k’atun, a unit of the time in the Maya calendar, after watching a couple of YouTube videos about the Maya. Frame and Fisher went to school together. Milne also went to school with them and then onto the same college as Frame. Collins and Frame met on Twitter when Collins messaged him to say he’d be interested in drumming with them.

‘I wrote the lyrics and the chords to ‘Friend Like You’, I don’t know if it’s fiction or not,’ Frame laughed. ‘Everyone knows what it’s like to be friends with someone and like them but the song’s not really based on me. It’s like Sting, he might get inspired by a line from something.’

As the song goes: ‘Fast forward a couple of years on, I quite like you but it seems quite wrong, we’ve been friends for so long, start to think and I can’t deny, if we just gave it a try, in your heart all you need’s a little spark.’

Interestingly, the first version of the track was quite different: ‘We thought it was going to be six minutes long,’ Milne said. ‘We seemed to have a long instrumental bit at the end!’ That version is one they might save for playing live, according to Collins: ‘What I’ve noticed with bands playing gigs is that you want to hear something different to the tracks as you know them.’

‘We want to give people a taste of what we can do’

The band is hoping to get back into the studio to record another single this year, although lockdown is making it increasingly difficult: ‘We’d like to put out anothe single and then an EP,’ Fisher said. ‘Adam’s demoing some stuff, so when we know, we’ll know. We want to give people a taste of what we can do, show our diversity and gather a bigger audience.’

They are already off to a good start, supporting The Lathums when they played Glasgow not long before lockdown. ‘I know someone on Twitter who’s involved with them,’ Frame said. ‘Last year, he messaged me and asked me if we wanted to support them.’

Frame is a big fan of Scottish bands such as Vistas and The Snuts, particularly their Matador demo EP. ‘It was brilliant, they have a very unique sound,’ he said. Over the years, he’s been influenced by many genres from blues to rap, starting to write his own riffs when he was 10 years old but became really interested in the indie rock/post punk scene from listening to bands such as The Strokes, Arctic Monkeys and The Libertines. Fisher is a big fan of bands such as Blossoms and The 1975 as well as singer-songwriters like The Lumineers and James Bay. He also likes Glasgow’s rock/punk band, The Dunts: ‘Glasgow has quite an underground scene.’ Milne likes Scottish indie band, Dictator, as well as rock band The Shambolics. He’s also a fan of bands such as Neck Deep, Idles, Be Charlotte and The Japenese House. Collins is into classic rock bands such as Duran Duran.

If they could support anyone, Fisher picks Blossoms: ‘Their tie between 80’s sound and modern indie is very cool, they have a great sound.’ They joke that maybe they should say Sam Fender as everyone says Fisher looks like him. Collins says ‘it would be very cool to play foreign festivals around the world’. Frame is quick to say that he’d love to tour with The Strokes: ‘They’re just so cool, plus they’re really down to earth. I’d also love to support The Libertines and Arctic Monkeys. That’d be a dream come true.’

(Photo from left to right: Declan F, Adam, Declan M and Matt)