Interview with Weekend Debt: ‘The ones we’ll record next are a bit more heavy and guitar driven. There are some sweet, sweet riffs!’

Glasgow alt-rock four-piece, Weekend Debt, will bring out their next single, ‘Nobody Everyone’, on 23rd April, a drum heavy pop punk belter about a break-up.

The band comprises Grant Scott (vocals and guitar), Calvin Smith (guitar), Russell McInnes (bass) and Harvey Boyle (drums). Boyle, Scott and McInnes have been friends since school and they met Smith at university two years ago. Their name, as it implies, is about the high cost of going out as teenagers: ‘It comes purely just from going out at the weekend and ramping up a bit of a bill,’ Boyle said. ‘We were 17 when we came up with it!’

‘Nobody Everyone’ was written by Smith about his own break-up and marks the first song for the band not to be written by Scott: ‘It’s a song that came from bottled-up emotions about a break-up,’ Smith said. ‘The more I let these emotions get to me, the angrier and more upset I got, which probably resulted in such a hard and heavy tune, something we hadn’t really delved into properly. It’s definitely one of our favourite songs to play live.’

Later this month, they plan to record two new songs that, for now, are just called ‘Song A’ and ‘Song B’, according to Boyle: ‘The old songs are more indie pop, happy songs that could be in American Pie,’ he said. ‘The ones we’ll record next are a bit more heavy and guitar driven. There are some sweet, sweet riffs! Calvin says it’s his best guitar work yet and he’s right.’

‘When I listen to it, it doesn’t seem like the same four guys who started four years ago’

He says that ‘Song A’ is his favourite of their songs to date: ‘It’s big, it has a long instrumental intro, big guitar riffs and a massive, massive outro! Of the ones we’ve released, I like ‘Why Don’t You Realise’ (their last single) best, even though it’s the least exciting for the drums but when I listen to it, it doesn’t seem like the same four guys who started four years ago.’

I tell him that I love ‘Why Don’t You Realise’: ‘It’s Grant’s favourite song that he’s ever written,’ Boyle said. ‘It’s about wanting to get back together with someone but they’ve moved on to someone else. He’s very cryptic about these songs about girls! He’s good at finding ways to say things and he tackled it almost in a light-hearted way.’

The track manages to be funny yet wistful, with lines such as ‘it’s raining, pouring, he’s so boring’ before a softer bridge takes the song in a more reflective direction – ‘I miss my bed when it smelt like you’, a sentiment that’s echoed in the chorus: ‘What would you do if I said I was in love with you? Would you chew me up and spit me out, you’d rinse me through and through. I miss the good old days, we’d do it on the sly, we would try our best so no one knew, I really don’t know why.’

And although Grant is normally the songwriter in the group, the final song often bears little relation to his initial version, Boyle joked: ‘It normally goes that Grant writes a happy, acoustic song, he’ll take it into the studio with us, I’ll play some drums and we basically tear the song to shreds! Calvin will play a riff and we’ll say we’ve got to keep that in. We’ve got more efficient at it. Grant is very open to suggestions but there have been a few huffs!’

‘Being from Lanark in Scotland, there is not a lot to do’

They started last year with a packed headline show at King Tut’s and the release of fan favourite ‘Legato’. They say that they found a new lease of life during lockdown and continued to create, write and improve on their abilities and relationship as a band. Growing up on Scottish artists such as Biffy Clyro, Paolo Nutini and The View, Scott jokes that they started the band out of boredom: ‘Being from Lanark in Scotland, there is not a lot to do,’ he said. ‘Harvey, Russell and I had been pals and really bonded through a shared love of music, so it started as more of a mess around. Once we started writing songs together, we decided to take it a bit more seriously, which led to Calvin joining the band, and from there it’s just been a natural progression. It’s great seeing how far we’ve come.’

Boyle is a huge fan of Fatherson, a Scottish alt rock band formed in Kilmarnock. ‘They do Frightened Rabbit type stuff, they’re huge up here, they deserve to be massive everywhere. Their third album (Sum Of All Your Parts, 2018) is just amazing, it feels so energetic. Our stuff’s not much like them but we take a lot of inspiration from them. We are all huge Fatherson fans, they made us want to be in a band.’ He’s also a big fan of Glaswegian indie punk band, Gallus: ‘They’re very, very talented, they’re good guys, one of my best friends is the guitarist.’

I ask him whether they worry about getting overshadowed by Scottish bands like The Snuts, whose album W.L. entered the Official Albums Chart in the UK last week at Number 1, beating Demi Lovato, and becoming the first Scottish band to enter at Number 1 for 14 years since The View’s Hats Off To The Buskers. ‘I feel like the attention on them can only be a good thing, it’ll make people notice Scottish music,’ he said. ‘The Snuts are two storeys up from us in the rehearsal space.’

Boyle says he’s constantly changing his mind about who he’d like them to be compared to: ‘I’d love to think we could be the next Biffy Clyro,’ he said. I ask who he’d like to tour with: ‘Ooooh, I’d have to say Biffy, that’d be one of our long-time dreams but we’re well below their radar. Russell’s big cousin is Biffy’s tour manager so we have our in, we just need a bit more exposure!’

(Photo from left to right: Harvey, Grant, Russell and Calvin)