I have been meaning to post about Trapped in Kansas for ages, but I kept waiting until I heard some of their new material before I stuck anything up. Having been impressed by their earlier releases, the Glasgow based four piece really have stepped up to the plate with their new EP, 'How to Go'. Having appeared at goNorth, T in the Park, Wickerman and Rockness, they certainly a band who are on the up. In anticipation of the release of their forthcoming EP, I caught up with the boys to get them to introduce themselves to you all...
Would you care to introduce yourself to the Peenko readers?
Hi we're Trapped in Kansas, we consist of Finn Le Marinel, Chris Ward, Colin O'Hara & Iain Symes.
It’s that question that all bands seem to hate answering, but how would you describe the music you make?
That's a tough question for us, we've never really sat down at any point and said let's make music like this or let's be indie or rock. We've always just done what comes to us, people seem happy to pigeon hole us as math rock and we're fine with that but I think there is certainly a wider variety of stuff going on with our music. I'd feel like we'd be cheating a math rock purist if we were solely billed as math rock, there is definitely elements of indie, rock, post-rock, emo wedged in there for good measure too!
How did the band come together then?
Well we all lived together at uni, we hung out and started a band, as you do, and we felt we had something good and a wee bit different. We got offered to play our first show at King Tut's and from then on we've just been working away hard to craft what we do.
So where does the band name come from then?
It comes from a bad travelling experience, we were talking about worst places you could imagine to be stuck in, Finn has actually been trapped in Kansas before and that's how the whole thing began.
Is there a certain process that goes into the way you write songs
Usually Finn or Colin will come to practise with a idea/riff and we'll build the rest up from there. Finn will normally have a few ideas kicking about in his head, we take song writing as organically as possible, if something doesn't work, we all have an idea to go in there, so invariably we end up trying loads of different parts to see what fits best. We kind of start with a core idea/riff and then weave everything else around it.
What artists would you say have had the biggest influence on the band?
I'd say people like this town needs guns, maps and atlases, Manchester Orchestra, Biffy Clyro...generally people who make interesting music.
What would you like someone who’s listening to your music for the first time to take away from your music?
That we're interesting, a bit different and hopefully that we're good.
Do you feel that where you come from has had much of an impact on the music that you create?
Yes, very much so. We're all from different parts of the country and we all had very different lives growing up and I think that has really helped to expand our creative range in the band. Finn spent alto of his youth travelling round with his family. He spent time living in America, Cyprus and the UK, Iain is from Co. Claire in Ireland, Colin grew up in Clydebank and Chris is from Glenrothes on the east coast of Scotland.
What has been your most memorable gig to date, (be it good or bad)?
I'd probably say T in the Park as it was all a bit crazy and as a band the most exciting weekend of our lives.
Aside from world domination, what are your plans for the rest of the year and beyond?
Well we're releasing our EP on the 3rd of October, we've got a couple of launch shows coming on the 27th in Edinburgh and the 2nd in Glasgow, we've got Oxjam in October over in Edinburgh and we're planning a tour in December. We're probably going back to the studio early next year to record our follow up EP and then hopefully do some extensive touring and festivals next summer.
Trapped In Kansas - I Was Born
Sadly Trapped In Kansas have had to postpone their EP launch gig which was due to take place on Sunday coming. The boys have promised that they'll make up for it by playing a 'mega show' in Glasgow in the very near future. The EP will be available to buy in physical format and digital download via the bands website from Monday the 3rd of October, be quick mind as they sold out of the pre-release within a matter of hours.
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