AFTER firmly cementing themselves as one of Glasgow’s most formidable live acts and strong contenders among the UK’s rock ‘n’ roll elite with the Ghost, Dance Movement EP, Tijuana Bibles had no inclination to rest on their laurels and immediately set about recording new material.
Yet to be aired to the public aside from within the confines of live performance, the latest compositions from the four piece represent a marked evolution in the band’s sound and has birthed a fearsome, nihilistic new attitude.
After he’d decompressed from the recording process, the band’s frontman Tony Costello guided us through how the new music was brought into existence alongside a set of candid photos from inside their inner sanctum.
Can you tell us a bit about where you recorded these new tracks and how they came about?
We took all the half ideas, the 4am scribbles and phone warblings and spent a few days away recording demos in a little cottage on Loch Fyne. It was totally serene, picturesque – hairy pigs in the garden and peacocks wandering in and out of the studio. Very Rod Stewart of us, I thought. Then we took them to our friend Thomas McNeice at Rubber Gum Studios. We worked with him on our previous records and for us he’s the best producer around. He’s a very busy man so thankfully, the timing was right for us to get back in the studio together.
Where did the inspiration to get back in the studio come from and what can we expect from the new material?
I think previously our songs were more introspective, these new songs are definitely more outward looking. You can’t help but be affected by the dystopian nightmare we currently live in. All the nuclear man-babies throwing their rockets out their prams and the mono browed knuckle draggers “taking back” their country. The human reality of living in Glasgow under a Tory government – that feeling in the pit of your stomach, hopelessness, anxiety, serotonin like a bouncy ball…
So rather than go on social media and vent about how rubbish everything is, effectively playing into the hands of our evil overlords, I thought I’d be as well ramming that energy into our songs. At the very least it’s cathartic for me and hopefully, some form of escapism for anyone listening. We’re not sitting around lamenting – We’re talking fast, aggressive, in your face, hedonism
Independent music and releasing new tunes without a major is never easy, what gives you the drive to continue on this uncertain path?
I wish I could think of a better answer but we just love it. I suppose first and foremost we feel compelled to write and secondly we get to travel around all sorts of places, playing these songs to characters we’d never meet otherwise. That sounds quite naive but it’s my favourite thing about being in a band- the strange avenues it takes you down. All the other stuff that comes with it is quite irrelevant. Is a major a necessity? I don’t think so…
Having said that, on the occasions we do receive the odd cheque it’s usually met with gratitude and actual tears of joy.
What’s your favourite of the new tunes and why?
I’ll say ‘Pariah’, for now, as it’s our next single. It’s about an impish little sociopath, someone who is quite happy being alienated from society, liberated by it even- running away to do their own thing regardless of the world falling apart around them, revelling in all the shit like the proverbial little piggy, denouncing all they see before them.
A night out with the little devil on your shoulder. A mental cunt, if I may.
But there’s plenty more where that came from…
Tijuana Bibles will take over King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut in conjunction with Jack Rocks for two nights in June. Tickets for both shows are available via Gigs In Scotland.
Watch the band performing ‘Apogee’ at the aforementioned venue below:
