T Break: United Fruit

But enough already, here's the story so far from one of the bands we dig the most on this year's T in the Park bill. Sunday night in out-patients anyone?

Back in 2009, you told us that United Fruit is what you want to do for a living. Do you feel any closer to achieving that goal?
Marco Panagopoulos [bass]: Our first full UK tour in May definitely affirmed that this is our passion and it really did help break new ground for us, to get out of Glasgow and play in distant lands. The recent line-up changes have been key to our progression and the tour opened our eyes to what it takes to be in a hardworking band. We were always working to this point and we’re delighted that it seems to be coming together.

What were the highlights of the tour? Were the crowds down South receptive?
Stuart Galbraith [guitar]: Getting to meet all these new people and see so many different places was great. A few shows stick out in our minds though, namely Bristol, Sheffield and Brighton. The response we got from everywhere was excellent but the people that were at those particular shows seemed to really get what we’re trying to do with our music.

Are you looking forward to playing T Break? What does this particular gig mean to the band?
Marco: We can’t wait! It’s been a long time coming for us.

Stuart : To be picked is a great feeling – to know that you have made the last 16 bands out of the hundreds that entered makes all the hours and hard work that we have been putting into this over the years worthwhile.

You have a full album of material to bring to the festival; clearly a lot of passion and refinement went into making it. How did you find the process of writing and recording?
Stuart: It was a long, drawn-out process that had its fair share of stress, but we wouldn’t change a thing. We paid extra attention – re-listening to the songs and tonal sounds we were creating and doing anything it took to get the best performance and sound that we could. We were still writing as we were making it and some songs were taken out of the final album, not because they were not good but because we really wanted to have a totally consistent sound throughout the record.

Iskandar’s lyrics seem quite personal. What are these songs about?
Iskandar Stewart [vocals/guitar]: They are a collection of thoughts riddled with teen angst. A lot of the songs are about past heartbreak and all that jazz. It can be difficult to be truthful to yourself when you write songs; when you give an honesty in how you feel, there is a vulnerability that follows. It was sometimes quite painful to bring old feelings of hate and unhappiness to the surface, but it feels good to have released a few demons.

You emerged with other Glasgow rock bands like Hey Vampires, Bronto Skylift and Citizens, while the more seasoned Hey Enemy seemed like kindred spirits at the time. Who do you identify as your peers nowadays, up and down the country?
Marco: We would still include all of those bands as our peers! We loved them from the first time we saw them and nothing has changed apart from their tunes have gotten even better. So many great bands have emerged since we formed though, bands such as: Pensioner, Lady North, PAWS, Black International, Verse Metrics and Salo. On tour we also had the pleasure of coming across some truly epic bands such as: Kept By Casino, P For Persia, Helsinki 7, Fickle Twin, Holy Stain, DZ Deathrays, Spectres and Late Night Fiction. All of whom we played great shows with and became real good friends.

Are there any fellow T Break bands you’re particularly looking forward to seeing come the weekend?
Stuart: Lady North would be a treat. We missed a recent gig they did in Glasgow but heard lots of good things about their live show.

What would you say to entice readers to check you out at T in the Park?
Stuart: Our gigs are normally pretty full on and there’s always some blood, sweat and tears, but mostly sweat. We’re not the sort of band who just stand around and play the tracks – there’s always some medical attention needed by one of us after the show.

What has been United Fruit's finest/messiest/most hazardous hour on stage so far? 
Marco: We played a show in Bloc just before Christmas 2010 that descended into sheer archaic madness. There were glasses being smashed by the crate load, beer flew over the ceiling, people flew over the floor and each other. I'm pretty sure I saw a guy do a forward flip over the monitors and land on his head. We were all scrambling and going wild for most of the set but Iskandar ended up in the crowd and cut up his hands on the floor. He was covered in blood and in turn covered Stu in it! It all ended with Isk and a few punters jumping into the kit at the end of the last song and almost killing Ross [Jenkins, drums]! Since that night, Bloc do not allow glasses at their gigs... We are fucking proud of that.

Dedicated festival stages for unsigned bands are a solid step on the steep climb to wider recognition. From your perspective, what’s the most difficult aspect of being in an independent Scottish rock group today?
Ross: Not sounding like Biffy Clyro! And money – we’re skint!

What would you be doing if you weren't in a band?
Stuart: Nothing. It's really weird when you've been so focused on a project for ages, you kind of forget everything else that is going on around you.  You wake up in the morning and  the first thing you think about is the band and when you go to sleep at night it's still on your mind.  I couldn't see any of us doing anything that wasn't related to music in some way.

The commercialisation of music is commonplace these days and – for good or bad – it's increasingly considered a necessary measure for the longterm survival of a band. Have you been approached to license your songs out, or would you consider it?
Ross: Personally speaking we don’t have a problem with underground bands getting a helping hand, whether it be for an advertising campaign or for help with touring. I can understand why people get upset with it. But think about it; if advertisers want to use underground bands to sell something what does it matter? That band can afford to make a record now. That’s not selling out. Selling out is writing music to please advertisers.

As long as the bands continue to make the music they want to then no one’s integrity has been affected. What’s wrong with a band being able to make money doing something they love? I know there’s a whole romantic idea to being a poor artist but it just doesn’t work that way if you want to make a decent go of it these days. By the way we’d just like to say our new single Drink Coca-Cola And Eat KFC will be out in the near future.

And beyond the T Break stage, who will you be checking out?
Stuart: Beyoncé, Pulp, Weezer and Tom Jones are big draws for us. See, we’re quite an eclectic bunch of chaps, and we all fancy Beyoncé.

Do you have any advice for surviving the weekend at T?
Stuart: Stay away from all drugs unless you’ve been told they’re really good.  Bring your own toilet (if possible), always use protection – we find machetes and mace are most effective.

If you could collectively curate your own festival, who'd be the headliner?
Stuart: Mew would be an incredible headliner. They really appeal to our pop sensibilities but have also got that hard groove which we love on a lot of their tracks. Their songs are total anthems in our opinion. I think bands like Coldplay are really striving to create that huge euphoric sound but fail miserably. Mew actually have soul and feeling and would be worthy to headline any festival.

What’s next for United Fruit?
Marco: We're in the middle of booking our second tour this year – finally branching out to Europe for the first time, which we have been dying to do for ages. We will also be playing King Tut’s summer nights on the 20th of July alongside Bronto, Carnivores and Jackie Onassis! I think it’s safe to say, that gig should not be missed by anyone.