Scottish music is the best it’s been in years, say The Van T's

The group, tipped to be one of Scotland’s breakthrough acts in 2017, will headline a New Year’s Revolution show at the venue.

And drummer Shawn Hood believes that the local scene is flourishing right now.

“The grassroots is really exploding at the moment,” he says.

“It’s crazy the amount of bands that are coming out. We’re friends with a lot of them and there’s a lot of support amongst everyone there for what everyone else is doing, so when something like Stag and Dagger or the Tenement Trail comes along then you end up seeing your friends all day and then playing a gig among it.

“It’s really good fun at the moment. I think it’s great for Scottish music that you’re seeing that, or things like New Year’s Revolution where there are a lot of bands playing over a few weeks.”

Of all the bands appearing at the January event, which highlights fresh bands on the Scottish scene, the Van T’s might be the furthest along the way to stardom. Originally formed by twins Hannah and Chloe Van Thompson a couple of years ago, they’ve since expanded to a foursome and have already released several well-received EPs, spotlighting a style that’s part surf rock, part grunge with lashings of reverb for good measure.

Now they are beginning to build towards an album.

“We’ve got one new song on the cards and we’ll release that around the spring,” says Shawn.

“We’re just gigging away as we’ve got a fair amount of shows booked for this year, and we’ll see about having a few releases as we go along. The long-term goal is getting an album down, but we have already released a fair amount of EPs, so the plan for now is to do one or two new songs, then get started on the long road that’s the album process.

“For the Fun Garcon single (released last November) we worked on it with a different producer, Chris Marshall, than before (where Paul McInally produced their work). We actually like both producers equally, so it’s a tricky one as we’re going into the studio again! I think the plan is that we’ll use both of them for different tracks as we go along.”

Shawn actually attended the first Van T’s gig as a punter, as the band was just Hannah and Chloe to start with. A pal of Hannah since their teens, he then found himself being asked to take the drum stool as the group’s line-up expanded (bassist Joanne Forbes rounds out the line-up).

Since then the group have steadily gained a following, with 2016 seeing them play T In The Park and touring in England, including playing their first headline gig in London last December. They also found themselves supporting rapper Rat Boy when he played the O2 ABC.

That gave the Van T’s the chance to play to a different crowd then they’re used to.

“That was our first time playing the ABC main stage and we only found out we were doing it about six days beforehand,” recalls Shawn.

“We were away recording Fun Garcon when we got the message that he’d picked us for the show. It was a competition thing they’d done, and we were lucky enough to be picked – it wasn’t an obvious support slot, because Rat Boy is popular with a younger crowd than we are used to playing in front of, but that was a good thing. It’s like with getting to play in England, just getting a new audience is really important to play to when you’re a new band.”

The Van T’s, tomorrow, King Tut’s, £8, 8.30pm

JONATHAN GEDDES