TTV TALKS: Kyle Falconer on TRNSMT, Paul Weller’s guitars and going it alone

RECORDING his first solo record last year and dropping in a few weeks after more than a decade in the limelight with The View, Kyle Falconer spoke to TTV about his hopes, fears and upcoming festival slot at TRNSMT, one of the biggest shows the band will play this year in the latest TTV TALKS.

“I can’t wait for TRNSMT, it’s one of our biggest shows this year and it will be a completely different experience to last year with The View on the Main Stage. It is strange playing without the band but I have done it without the band before. I can’t wait!

“The album is quite late on coming out and we don’t want to do last minute festival slots  and end up with rubbish slots. I am looking forward to tourung with the band and TRNSMT will be class.”

Speaking about who’ll be joining him on stage he said: “We’ve got a great band together, Stevie Anderson from The Law is playing with us and Rennie who people will know from The View. We’re sounding great and TRNSMT will be a big deal for the whole band.”

Playing the festival the same day as rock ‘n’ roll royalty Liam Gallagher and acts including Courteeners and The Sherlocks, Kyle is no stranger to the incredible stage show the Gallagher brother brings: “I have toured with Liam Gallagher in the past, so will definitely be checking out his set. I love the new stuff. I am loving a lot of new music right now to be honest, but I always try and keep listening to new stuff to the tour bus as otherwise it messes with my perception of what my music should be or should sound like!

“Before I wrote the record, I was listening to a lot of old Peter Green stuff as I had these mad plans of getting a big mad band together, but by the time I got all the songs together it would have been a case of converting all the songs to sound like something else. I am always writing, so I try not to listen to music when I am. The music from The Greatest Showman is always on in the house now, I love the songs in that. It’s on everyday and the baby loves it too.”

Discussing the new solo music, Kyle said: “The songs are really personal. I wrote some of the songs years ago, before I wrote the 7 year setlist stuff with The View. It feels class having the new music out there now as I recorded it last year. The process is slow, but I am just so glad to get it out now. .A couple of songs that Kieran has written in the past sounded better when it was just him, so that’s kind of what happened with this record.

“It’s different music. It’s been sixteen years with The View, ten of them were in the limelight. Sixteen years is a really long time!”

You are no stranger to solo shows, but this is your first solo record, how does it feel to be going it alone?

Set to tour with the band later this  year, Kyle discussed the fan reaction to seeing him without the regular The View lads: “I was on Twitter the other day and someone was tweeting me saying they went to see me in Paisley and I was shit! It is different and I am bringing in some View songs that wouldn’t normally make the set which is class. I played ‘Witches’ from Bread and Circuses recently and I have changed the tunes around a bit, playing different instruments and stuff. Making them quite Beatles’ esque, adding strings.”

Kyle recorded the upcoming record in Paul Weller’s studio and some of the rock ‘n’ roll icon’s instruments even made it onto the album: “Before I went down, I didn’t think I was able to use any of Weller’s guitars. Then he was like “What you using all this old stuff for?!” It was class, like. I was using his amazing Rickenbakers and shit, they’re all on the album. It was only me and the drummer, recording the album. I played everything myself. It meant there were no distractions or other opinions flowing about. It’s the first time I have ever done it on my own and I did think I might have bitten off more than I could chew and thought about bringing in a band but it turned out great.

“I wrote all the parts, so bringing in other people didn’t make any sense. I can’t wait for everyone to hear it.”

Kyle Falconer plays TRNSMT on Saturday 30th June  2018. Tickets are on-sale here.