WITH a seemingly insatiable ability to craft one exuberant pop gem after another, Vistas returned last month with the release of their brand new single ‘Calm’. Another indie dancefloor banger to add to their increasingly impressive repertoire, the track looks set to follow in the successful footsteps of previous hits ‘Strong Swimmer’, ‘Hold Me’ and ‘Retrospect’; the latter of which has racked up over a million streams on Spotify.
Widely regarded as one of Scotland’s most exciting young talents, the Edinburgh outfit have a massive year lined up with a support slot with Circa Waves coming up, a number of festival slots confirmed and their very own Scottish tour taking place throughout May. With the official video to ‘Calm’ now officially unveiled to the world, TTV caught up with lead singer Prentice Robertson to talk about their whirlwind year so far and the many exciting things they’ve got coming up.
Can you tell us about the inspiration behind your latest single Calm?
The word ‘calm’ has kind of become a motto for the band. We all sometimes feel like things can get on top of us and just need a reminder to stay calm. So it felt really appropriate to write a song about that. That’s where the inspiration came from and the song is then about a person in your life who keeps you calm.
You’ve received a massive online reaction for your previous singles. How does it feel to have reached over a million streams?
We still can’t get our heads round it and we are so incredibly grateful. I don’t think it’s something we’ll ever get totally used to but it just means so much to us that people have connected with the songs in some way. It’s amazing to see a song like ‘Retrospect’ still connecting with people 4 months after its release. We can’t thank people enough for the support.
How was your recent tour with Marsicans? What has been your favourite city to play over the past year?
The tour was amazing, every gig was class and the Marsicans guys are so great too. For us the best thing about that tour was returning to some places we’d been before (Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds) and going to new places (Bristol) and seeing how much our audience had grown in the 5 months since we were last there.
It’s definitely tough to pick one city because we’ve always had such great experiences every time we’ve played Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham etc. But you can’t really beat a gig in Glasgow can you?
You’re also confirmed for a few festivals this summer. What’s your favourite thing about festival season?
There’s something about festival gigs and festival crowds that’s different to a regular gig crowd. I think some of the most special moments you can have in a band or as a music lover happen at a festival. So yeah we just love playing to as many new people as possible at festivals and enjoying those moments you can’t replicate anywhere else.
What’s your favourite festival memory to date?
Would have to be TRNSMT for sure. It was our first ever festival and it was a bit like being thrown in at the deep end. It was one of the biggest crowds we’ve played to and to be part of such an unreal line up in Scotland was amazing.
Why should people come to see you on your Scottish tour in May?
I think this is the best we’ve ever been live now, we’ve been constantly getting better as a band and our live show is stronger and more exciting all the time. We’ve got lots of new songs to share with people too. So people should come along for 45 minutes of very high energy indie which will hopefully make you forget about everything else for a while.
Have you started thinking about an album?
I guess it’s always in the back of our minds, like when you release a single you think “this could maybe be track 3 on the album”. But right now we’ve got no physical plans for an album. We want to make sure we do it at the right time. But there’s plenty more music to come from us
What are your ambitions for the rest of the year?
More gigs and more music and keep building our fan base around Scotland and rest of the UK. We want to get everywhere we can this year.
Check out Vistas’ tour dates below while you can get tickets here.
9th May – Drummonds, Aberdeen
10th May – Green Room, Perth
11th May – PJ Molloys, Dunfermline
12th May – Bakers, Kilmarnock
13th may – The Caves, Edinburgh
Check out the new tour video below:
