Endless Adolescence: Teenage Fanclub vs TeenCanteen

Built on bricks of sisterhood, sequins and sleek, shiny pop, TeenCanteen’s Say It With A Kiss is as warm and welcoming as a rare sunny day in a Scottish summer. After four years of songwriting and a storming crowd-funded campaign, the band will release their first album via Last Night From Glasgow, a brand new label created by one of their pledgers.

Teenage Fanclub, meanwhile, have become one of Scotland's best-loved bands over the past 27 years, evolving from squalling, Dinosaur Jr-indebted college rock noiseniks to something far more gentle but no less vital. As new album Here – their tenth – demonstrates, there's something timeless about their combination of understated hooks and softly chiming guitars; unfettered by commercial ambition or anything beyond the desire to make music for and with each other, there's a tangible warmth to their sound that endures even as their public ventures become more sporadic.

As TeenCanteen's chief songwriter Carla J Easton explains, the younger band have more in common with the Fanclub than a title-based dedication to those awkward years of puberty. The Lanarkshire-born, Glasgow-based bands both conjure off-kilter pop melodies from Brian Wilson-indebted harmonies, and have shared projects in the past; The Skinny spotted the Fanclub's Norman Blake (and Duglas T. Stewart of BMX Bandits, of whom Blake was once a member) in a TeenCanteen video from 2011, and last year he took to the stage with Easton's gang for their girl-band-themed fundraiser Girl Effect. 

On 9 September, both bands release records – one's a debut, the other is far from that. We put Carla and Norman head to head. 

Carla asks Norman: Do you see patterns emerging between those making music in Glasgow that grew up in Lanarkshire?
NB: Myself, Duglas Stewart and Sean Dickson are all from Bellshill – we wanted to get involved in music and went into Glasgow every Saturday. We used to busk and hang out, and through that you’d meet people going from record shop to record shop. You’d meet the Bobby Gillespies of this world. It's amazing how much music comes out of Lanarkshire and the rest of Scotland in general. We do pretty well.

Teenage Fanclub and TeenCanteen both reference and use harmonies from 60s pop music. Why do you think that is? 
NB: Not every band can do harmonies, and you have to play to your strengths!

What are your three favourite records to come out of Glasgow?
NB: One would be Blue Boy by Orange Juice. The Million Tears / Baby Honey record by The Pastels – I have good fond memories of that as I toured with the band as a bass player many years ago. The other would be Back in Black by AC/DC. Whenever someone asks who the biggest band from Scotland is, I always say AC/DC!

Norman asks Carla: How successful was the TeenCanteen crowdfunder [for new album Say It With A Kiss]? Was it an easy process?
CE: TeenCanteen’s become the most crowdfunded band on the planet! I was totally nervous about doing it. We launched it [with PledgeMusic] and thought maybe it’d take a month or two to raise the money, but we beat our target in three days. It gave us more freedom in the studio, and it wasn’t friends and family who were pledging – it was people we’d never met before! The positive thing for me is you actually get to know who’s buying your music and supporting you. In a way, it reaffirms your faith in the music business a wee bit. 

What are your three favourite Glaswegian records? 
CE: Since Yesterday, by Strawberry Switchblade – it’s just perfect pop, just phenomenal. I was a huge fan of a band called Secession; I really liked their song Touch. It’s incredible – it sounds almost like Depeche Mode. I totally grew up listening to the Vaselines' records, too. Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam… the first time I heard that I was 13, and it blew my mind. 

Can you recommend some new bands from Glasgow?
CE: I don’t know if you'll like it, but my favourite band – massively – right now, is BooHooHoo. They’re just absolutely brilliant. I heard about them by accident, because Greg (who’s in BooHooHoo) was one of the engineers on the TeenCanteen album. I think they’re maybe the most exciting band in Scotland right now.

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Say It All With a Kiss is released on 9 Sep by Last Night From Glasgow. Here is released on 9 Sep via PeMa/Merge
TeenCanteen will throw launch parties in Glasgow (Mono, 8 Sep) and Edinburgh (Sneaky Pete’s, 30 Sep), with BooHooHoo opening both shows
Teenage Fanclub play Edinburgh’s Liquid Rooms on 6 Sep, and return in December for a homecoming double whammy with two nights at the Barrowland (3/4 Dec). Turn in those R.S.V.P.s early