On the Prowl with Deathcats

The balaclava has one hell of a backstory for a simple item of headwear. Named after the Crimean city where British soldiers first wore them in 1854, it became the garment of choice for late-20th century terrorists keen to hide their mugs from the gaze of security forces and subsequently became a visual shorthand for bad guys up to no good.

But none of that matters to Deathcats, who proudly brandish their guitars in a black and white picture with their faces hidden, looking like a proscribed Eastern Bloc punk collective from the early 1980s. They simply wanted to avoid another average group shot in which a bunch of musicians stand blankly staring into the middle distance.

“When we started the band I never wanted to have to do any press photos,” explains guitarist and songwriter James McGarragle. “Most of them are so boring. The balaclava came from these guys in America who skate, called the Barrier Kult. There’s loads of pros, but no one knows who they are because they always wear balaclavas – they basically wanted to take the celebrity out of skateboarding. It’s just kind of a piss take.”

After the resulting picture was used to illustrate a profile of the trio in a Sunday newspaper, much to the chagrin of his parents, McGarragle decided it was time for a slight change. “Some people found it very cool, but being from the west of Scotland, and with the whole IRA/UDA thing, some people were like ‘nah’. So we reshot it for the album with scarves instead. 

“It’s just an awkward thing to do; posing for photographs isn’t natural. When we played Beat Generator in Dundee, they have the walls wallpapered with gig posters. It’s like a history of the shittiest bands of the last ten years. Wearing a balaclava, it’s easier. We like to have fun, but we don’t want to offend people, so we changed it.” But the sartorial realignment didn’t end there. “We used to play in Hawaiian shirts but we stopped doing that as well.”

"Hopefully we’ll always be a fiver at the door band. I don’t want it to be £15, fuck that shit" – James McGarragle

Deathcats are now past the point of worrying about their first promo pictures. They have their debut album, All Hail Deathcats, to talk about, and a growing reputation as one of the most exciting new live acts around, which has led to bookings at this month’s T in the Park and Wickerman festivals. Specialists in sub-three minute, reverb-heavy fuzz-pop, their songs are a lot of fun, with titles like Danny Dyer and Danny DeNato, but retain enough bite to keep you on your toes when around them.

The group got together in 2012 but remain largely unknown outside of Glasgow, where they have been a regular live fixture for more than a year, often playing three gigs a week in the city.

McGarragle and drummer Christopher Harvey hail from Cumbernauld, the North Lanarkshire town more known for its tenebrous shopping centre than its music scene, and played in Queen Jane, a more conventional group that the latter grew tired of. “When we started I didn’t even know what reverb was,” he laughs. “We played proper nice guitar pop, but I’d always been into heavier stuff and written these songs that I knew wouldn’t fit. I was at uni with Scott (bassist Scott Whitehill), and knew Harv could drum, so I decided to form a new band for a laugh. It was just a total piss take really, not even a side project – and two years later we’ve achieved so much more than we ever could have with Queen Jane. I just wanted to play songs and not have to explain them.”

Their very name, Deathcats, is a reflection of how seriously they first viewed themselves. “It was meant to be a pure thrash band singing about cats. I think it’s good to have a stupid name for a band. You want your gran to hear it and shake her head.” Harvey agrees. “A guy came up to us after a show in Aberdeen and told us he thought we were going to be a metal band.”

McGarragle reckons it’s a common misconception people have. “It’s funny when you’re at work. Someone will congratulate you on playing T in the Park and then ask what your band is called. And you say [mumbles] Deathcats. Last night someone asked if we wanted cats to die. No, we definitely do not want cats to die! But if you put death before anything, like ‘deathlasers’, it just makes it sound cooler.”

Aside from the balaclava press shot, the band’s stand-out visual profile was greatly boosted by the kind of sharp razorband logo you can imagine fans having inked to their upper arms, stitched to denim jackets or stuck to guitar cases. McGarragle himself is wearing a jacket with an impressive number of patches when he meets The Skinny at Glasgow’s CCA, shortly after arriving back in town from a gig in Dundee the previous evening. The Deathcats logo – “it’s a panther, but technically it’s just an angry cat” is inspired by the badges of American army divisions, and proudly proclaims them as members of the ‘Reverb Militia.’ It has no military meaning, rather it's an indication that this is a group that fans can rally behind and identify with. It’s also a shout-out to other fuzz-pop garage bands, like Glasgow's Halfrican or Dundee's The Shithawks, with whom Deathcats regularly share stages.

It was this scene that nurtured the band, even if it was largely ignored by almost everybody else. “For the first year, naebody gave a shit to be honest. We put out one bedroom EP, but we just wanted to play gigs. We found bands that wanted to play with us, like Halfrican, who weren’t snobby about anything, and did hunners of gigs at the 13^th Note that were just for fun. The whole time we were in Queen Jane, I think we played with only two or three bands that I actually liked, whereas with Deathcats, right from the beginning, we’ve played with so many weird, fucked-up bands but they’ve all been amazing. It’s a different mentality.”

Such a freewheeling attitude can only take you so far, however. The group teamed up with Fuzzkill, a small independent label, after playing a gig last year – of all places – in the Shetland Isles. There was an immediate rapport between the two parties and a shared feeling that some professionally recorded material was urgently needed. By this chapter in a typical band’s story, our intrepid adventurers would now retreat to a cheap out-of-town studio and record a few tracks in the hope of attracting attention from some big-shot label. But Deathcats, in keeping with their feline profile, landed on their feet and strolled right in to Glasgow’s respected Green Door studio. Thanks to a Creative Scotland-funded initiative for young bands, they were invited to record an EP over four days. Sensing a rare opportunity, McGarragle paid for an extra day so they could instead complete a full album.

“It’s insane how much money it costs to put out a record,” he explains. “But I knew we were never going to get another opportunity like this, so we put as much as we could into it. We wouldn’t have been able to afford to do it otherwise. It would have cost at least a grand. Instead, I ended up spending £150 for the last day, £100 for the artwork, £125 to get it mastered, and then a grand to get it pressed. But we raised £500 in pre-sales, and we put in some ourselves but we’re getting that back through sales pretty fast.”

It’s a modest investment considering the potential rewards. Armed with this record, Deathcats are now ready to prowl the stages at Scotland’s biggest festivals, which they hope will lead to their first UK-wide tour. “Because we don’t have a big label or a booking agent, we have to contact bands and do gig swaps. We did that with Fruit Tones from Manchester and it was brilliant; the show was mobbed and they really looked after us. But I’ve done it with bands who I would say are on the same level with us, in regards to how much coverage they’ve been getting, and so many of them don’t even email you back. It’s really bad etiquette. I don’t see why. Hopefully we’ll always be a fiver at the door band, I don’t want it to be £15, fuck that shit."

Until they get to the reunion stage in 20 years?

“Aye and then it’ll be £500 for a meet-and-greet! The Fleetwood Mac thing is disgusting. Even with Sabbath it's like £80 a ticket, I can’t get on board with that shit. But we need to make the band sustainable. It’s the same with these two guys. I’ve said that to them as of August, I want to go with this for another year, bring out another record, but if they turn round and say they want to move in with their girlfriend or something, I’m not going to say no. So many bands teeter on the edge of getting a bit bigger, but they never do." As they peel off with our photographer for a shoot across the street at Nice 'n' Sleazy, you suspect that Deathcats might be able to navigate trickier paths than most.