I’ve been an admirer of Penguins Kill Polar Bears for a while now, and gave them a spin on my radio show last month. Let’s meet ’em…
Introduce yourselves…who’s who in Penguins Kill Polar Bears?
We have Ben Proudlock on vocal and guitar duties, Fraser Sanaghan on lead guitar, Kieran McGuckian on drums and Gavin Cormack on Bass. Collectively we make up Penguins Kill Polar Bears.
How have things changed in the last three months for you?
We’ve been on the road a lot more playing shows all over the country. We released our debut EP in June and spent a lot of time afterwards playing shows to promote the EP. Our manager has been awesome and helped us out by booking some sweet shows in London and all over Scotland. We’re now in a place where we’re trying to refine our sound and work on some new material.
Who do you consider the most important people in having got you this far?
We’d be pretty lost without Murray [Reid, manager], he’s helped us raise our game to a new level and been a great friend and manager to us all. The boys from Light Guides have been awesome as well and helped us out where ever possible, they’re a great a band and everyone should give them a listen.
What’s been the best experience of performing live?
We always try and have the best experience when playing live. I think the best show to date that we’ve played would be our recent gig at King Tuts with Light Guides and Make Sparks. The place was packed with lots of new faces and old friends. We were definitely on a high when we got off the stage after that show.
…and the worst?
We had a pretty funny experience in Dundee on our headline tour. One of the local crazies managed to dart into the venue mid set and went leaping towards our merch. I saw the whole thing unfold in front and trying to hold in the laughter was a pretty hard experience. Luckily the promoter managed to grab the dude and eject him from the venue before he managed to cause any chaos.
Do you think the word ‘indie’ still means something in 2010 or is it just a description of a particular sound?
I think that the word indie has evolved to encompass all bands who go for the jingly guitar sound and live for being on the cover of NME. I always feel slightly weird when I try to describe the bands sound to someone. We’ve got a bit of an indie sound about us but the second you tell someone you’re in an indie band they seem to think you’re going to automatically sound like Oasis.
Which bands/artists have been the biggest influences for you as a band?
We’ve taken influences from bands such as The Appleseed Cast, Aereogramme, The Smashing Pumpkins and Manchester Orchestra. Our music tastes are all slightly varied so we all tend to bring different things to the table when we’re writing. We’re always trying to keep our sound fresh and interesting.
Which bands/artists would you most like to work with?
We’d love to play with The Unwinding Hours, The Appleseed Cast or Brand New i think. They’ve all provided much needed moments of inspiration for us and they’ve been helped influence the sound of the band in different ways.
What are your plans for the next six months? Will we get an album?
We’ll be playing shows up until mid December then taking a break until after January. We have some exciting things happening before 2011 though, such as a UK mini tour, support for The Twilight Sad and Errors, and there are a few other surprise supports on the way. Not to forget our next Edinburgh gig at The Wee Red Bar with Trapped in Kansas, then Roktoberfest for Oxjam in Glasgow on 31st October!
We’ve already started writing for the debut album due for release in June 2011 and have some interesting ideas.
Will you be playing outside of Scotland?
We’ll be hitting up London, Manchester, and Leeds in early November. England watch out!
Penguins Kill Polar Bears’ debut EP Dawn can be heard and bought from their bandcamp page.
Try this for starters:
For tourdates and live performances, check out their myspace page here
Thanks to manager Murray for passing on my questions and getting them back to me!