One thing I love about Edinburgh is the variety of music and gigs that go on within the city. Some of my favourite gigs to attend are in the little venues, where local, unsigned bands play. I've been lucky enough to get to know some of the members of these bands and I want to share them with you.
First up are a personal favourite of mine - Run/Lucky/Free.
Who are Run/Lucky/Free?
Run/Lucky/Free are four individuals from different areas of Scotland who just happened to bump into each other whilst studying music at university in Edinburgh. It was quite a fortunate meeting.
How would you describe your musical style and who are your influences?
When we are writing songs we focus a lot on creating a good solid groove in the drums and bass before adding atmospheric guitars and emotive vocals over the top to create a dynamic blend of indie, rock and pop.
Individually we all have different influences, but collectively we all like to listen to a lot of classic bands like The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Led Zeppelin, The Band, David Bowie, Motown, Pink Floyd, Jeff Buckley, etc. We’ve also been listening to a lot of homegrown talent recently. Some of our favourite Scottish bands at the moment are Bwani Junction, Trapped In Kansas, Miasma, Maydays, Jakil, Discopolis and The Imagineers.
You’ve just launched your new single ‘The Factory’ – tell us a bit about that?
We were fortunate enough to be able to record our new single ‘The Factory’ and it’s b-side ‘Life into Dust’ for free at the amazing Castlesound Studios through a project called the YMI Project. We released the single at the start of October and did a mini tour of Scotland (Skye, Stirling, Glasgow & Edinburgh) to accompany the release. We’re really pleased with the reception the single has been getting so far.
What can we expect from you in the future?
We’re just looking to gig around Scotland a lot more and we don’t really want to waste any time getting back in to the studio. We have some new songs lined up that we really like and want to record. I’m going to be optimistic and say that we will have some new material out at the start of next year.
You’ve played in a lot of Edinburgh venues, including the Liquid Rooms and HMV Picturehouse – where has been your favourite place to play? Where would you like to play?
I think the most memorable experience of an Edinburgh venue is when we played at the Picturehouse (we played there as part of a fundraiser with Stanley Odd and Jakil). It’s just sooooooo big and there was a lot of people there which meant it was a really surreal gig for us. It was a lot of fun and a huge buzz for all of us.
Saying that, I think the most exciting venues to play in Edinburgh are places like Sneaky Pete’s and the Wee Red Bar. They’re small venues but they’re brilliant when you get a decent crowd.
We are an Edinburgh based band and we have been gigging together for a few years now so there’s not much venues left in Edinburgh that I desperately want to play. However, I would really love to play a gig at the Bongo Club.
What venues around Edinburgh would you recommend for good live music?
I’ve mentioned them already but the Wee Red Bar and Sneaky Pete’s always have some good gigs lined up. I really like Electric Circus and the Bongo Club; and the Voodoo Rooms host a night every once in a while called Limbo that usually has some of the best Scottish bands playing at it.
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So now that you know a bit about who they are, I suggest going off and having a listen to them.
You can find their new single "The Factory" on soundcloud and you can buy this and their previous songs over on their bandcamp page. If you really like what you hear, then their next gig as at Maggie's Chamber, supporting The Marvels at their EP launch on the 11th of November.
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