The Blog Sound of 2012 - Top Five

So as the end of year album polls start to fizzle out, it's time for everyone to start making their predictions as to what they think is going to be 'big in 2012'. The BBC started announcing their Sound of 2012 tips for the year ahead, as an alternative a group of UK music bloggers were canvased to see what artists they hoped to be big this year. The winner turned out to be a girl-fronted indiefunk outfit from Brooklyn by the name of Friends. The top five artists are listed below, includes representation from Scottish outfit French Wives, who I managed to grab a few words with about their forthcoming debut album and the rest of their plans for the year ahead...

1. Friends 


2. Theme Park 


3. Beth Jeans Houghton 


4. French Wives 


5. Daughter

Having already bagged the Scotsman Radar Prize in 2010, now you've made The Blog Sound top five artists to watch in 2012. How important are polls like this to a band like yourself?

It's nice to be recognised by people whose opinions you respect, which we feel like we have been between the Radar prize and now the Blog Sound. Obviously it's not the be all and end all of being in a band and noone picks up a guitar for the first time with the view of winning awards (it's always to do with winning girls haha) but being in a band and writing songs is a very subjective exercise and it's very easy to become self conscious when putting your music out there and also take negative criticism very hard, so it's lovely to have people saying nice things about us. The fact that blog sound has been a somewhat nationwide poll is good as it's given the readers of blogs who normally wouldn't cover us in other parts of the country the opportunity to hear our music, and hopefully that can stand us in good stead over the coming year. We really didn't expect to make it into the top five as the vast majority of the bands in the longlist had much bigger profiles than us and we felt really privileged to just be included in it. I think that Theme Park are amazing as well, and they're doing so well for themselves that to be included in the same bracket as them is cool, if also surprising.

I've heard whispers that your debut album is all recorded, when might you be releasing it to the world?

Hopefully soon. As with most recording projects a lot of deadlines end up being somewhat false, but the record is finished and we're really pleased with it and looking forward to getting it out as soon as possible. Recording it was an immense learning experience and we're hoping the enjoyment and the learning curve we had in making it is apparent in the songs.

What else do you have planned for 2012?

To be perfectly honest we're not too sure at the moment. We hope to get the record out as early as possible and then play as much as possible too. We've been invited to showcase at SXSW and Canadian Music Week and are really looking forward to attending there. We just really want to boost our profile as much as possible. We don't have a manager or a booking agent or anything so it's quite hard sorting out big plans for the year, and money is always tight but we're doing our best.

Here's a quick reminder of the Bloggers who took part in this years poll: A Tidal Wave Of Indifference , Breaking More Waves, My Band Is Better Than Your Band,God Is In the TV, Sweeping The Nation, The Von Pip Musical Express, The Recommender, Faded Glamour, Drunken Werewolf, Flying With Anna, Not Many Experts, Under-classed Idle Ideas, Sonic Masala, Mudkiss, The Ring Master, Both Bars On, Music From A Green Window, Dots And Dashes, The Daily Growl, And Everyone’s A DJ, Kowalskiy! Just Music I Like, Cruel Rhythms, The Blue Walrus, Music Fans Mic, 17 Seconds, Eaten By Monsters, Seven Sevens, Unpeeled, NuRave Brain Wave, Peenko, Music Liberation, Song, By Toad.