So first off how did you all meet?
Jack Mohan (vocals/keys): Jury duty
Jamie Bookless (bass): Tinder
Mark Anthony Carroll (guitar): We all used to talk on Bebo
Jack: Aye, he gave me all three of his loves one day and that was me hooked for life
Where are you all from?
Jamie: Barmulloch
Mark: Springbriggs
How long have you been playing your respective instruments?
Jamie: Since I could walk
Jack: I used to do piano lessons, but I didn’t practice
Mark: Seven years for me
Gavin McCusker (drums): On and off for almost fifteen years
Jamie: I’ve only been playing bass since I’ve been in the band so probably about 2/3 years. I’ve played guitar since I was in school
What genre of music do you consider your work to be?
All: Trap grunge
What are your influences?
Jamie: Katy Perry
Mark: Example
Jamie: Tony Hawk
Gavin: DMX
Jamie: Big Narstie
Do you do covers and if so what’s your go to?
Jamie: Oblivion by Grimes. We did Hot Stuff once, and never again.
Mark: See to be honest, I enjoyed that.
Jack: Aye, that was funny
What if anything does your name mean/why are you called that?
Mark: I initially liked the name The Plastics, after thinking ‘National Plastics’ was a cool song title. I’m obsessed with German bands, so German-ified the name
Gavin: We are all plastic people.
Do you have a process for writing your songs? /Which of you writes the songs?
Jamie: Normally Me or Mark will have an idea then we present it in the studio and Gav will come up with the drums and Jack will do the lyrics and keys
Gavin: We just come up with a riff.
Jamie: Not all the time.
Mark: Sometimes it starts from a riff. In the beginning, Jamie and I had hundreds of riffs each and once we kind of ran out, we adopted new methods. Fahrenheit was written in the studio.
Jamie: Some of the tunes have just happened spontaneously.
Mark: Recently, we’ve just had a kind of backlog of tunes that each of us had to show.
What are your rehearsals generally like?
Jamie: Shambolic
Mark: Jamie and Jack are always late. That’s a fact.
Jack: To be honest though, you’ve got the record for being the most late. You were an hour and a half late once.
Mark: But if you average it all out…
Do you have any interesting/funny stories about gigging or touring?
Mark: We were touring South America once and we got abducted by an aborigine tribe.
Jack: Before our first gig, some mad guy at the bridge at Tradeston tried to scrap with me for my keyboard.
Gavin: The guy was like “wantin do’d?” and Jack was like “naw, do you?”
Jamie: After the gig someone got knocked out as well
Jack: That was all at our first gig as well!
Mark: It was a heavy good gig though.
What song do you remember most from your childhood?
Jamie: Out of Space by The Prodigy
Gavin: Heaven Is A Halfpipe by OPM
Jack: Numb/Encore by Linkin Park and Jay-Z or Pure & Simple by Hearsay
Mark: Smells Like Teen Spirit
What has been your biggest challenge as a band? Have you been able to overcome that challenge? If so, how?
Jamie: Gavin ended up messing up his wrist playing fifa and that forced us into a bit of a hiatus.
Jack: Gavin and Mark both broke their wrists, but generally, not having time trying to balance the band with uni and work.
How can fans-to-be gain access to your music?
Jack: Come to the live shows. It’s all about the live experience.
Mark: We’re performing artists, so…
Gavin: Spotify if you want to keep us in your pocket
Jamie: Our new EP is available on Spotify/Soundcloud etc now. We’ve also got plans for new material to be released throughout the year
Have you released anything yet/if you have how has it gone down and are you planning anything for the near future?
Mark: The hounds
Jack: We’ve just released our EP online
Jamie: The only physical copies of our stuff we’ve released was our single Fahrenheit which was recorded by our pal Blair Crichton of Fat Pigeon fame. We designed all of them separately by hand so everyone was getting something different. People seemed to dig it.
Where have you performed? What are your favourite and least favourite venues? Do you have any upcoming shows?
Gavin: We’ve played Broadcast a few times.
Jack: Aye we’ve played up and down Sauchiehall Street loads.
Jamie: We’ve played in various venues over Glasgow and did a gig in Edinburgh. One of my highlights was probably our sell out show at the Hug and Pint or supporting The Ninth Wave at King Tuts. Our next gig will be on Valentine’s day supporting Public Access T.V. at Broadcast.
What do you think about downloading music online?
Jack: I like using streaming platforms like Spotify because at least the artist is getting some sort of money from it.
Gavin: It’s not the best sound quality though, it’s really compressed.
Jamie: I used to download music all the time, but now I just use Spotify or buy records. I don’t think there’s really any issue, because most of the time, if people like you enough they’ll pay for it. If anything, it’s just another platform for people to hear your music, so what’s wrong with that?
What’s your outlook on the record industry today?
Gavin: I think locally, like in Glasgow, it seems to be pretty good.
Jamie: It seems as though record companies are taking less risks with bands that are getting signed, but it’s forcing a lot of bands to go out and do it on their own, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s still possible to get your name out there with all the platforms available to bands.
And let’s end with something a little different…Which famous person, alive or dead, would you have dinner with and why?
Jack: A young Billy Connolly.
Gavin: Leigh Griffiths.
Mark: Professor Stephen Hawking.
First Published on: https://offtherecordblog.org
