Following the release of their self-titled debut album, we caught up with Better Enemies.
The Aberdeen pop rock four-piece were established in late 2011 under their former name Suburban Saints, releasing an album and touring internationally including a stint in South Africa.
It was the summer of 2015 that brought a change for the band as they found their new sound and created Better Enemies.
With the release of their new album under their belt, we spoke to the guys to find out more about the band’s evolution and their latest release.
Can you tell us about the formation of the band?
The band was formed as this line up in late 2011 after three of the band met at college. Dave and Jamie had known each other since school and had already been playing some gigs as Suburban Saints when Chris and Rhys joined to complete the full band line-up.
Were there any bands/artists in particular that inspired you to start the band?
Bands like Arctic Monkeys, Libertines and The Vaccines were big influences in the sound we were playing in 2011. That’s kind of different now with the new change in sound. We all love the Scottish rock acts like Biffy Clyro, Twin Atlantic, The Xcerts etc. It’s inspiring to see bands from Scotland making such a big impression on the music industry.
What prompted you to change your sound and name last year?
After recording the album, we didn’t feel the new material fit in with anything we had done before. We decided to go for a new name to mark this change in sound. We always preferred the rockier tracks from our old material so decided to start making music based on what we loved to play live the most.
You recently released your debut album, how did you go about the writing process for this?
For this album, Chris wrote and recorded a whole bunch of music in his home studio that we jammed and then narrowed down to around 15 tunes. Jamie wrote lyrics to the songs that had just music and the tunes were then jammed again as full songs. From that, we chose the final 10 tracks that we wanted to record in the studio. We are really happy with the ones that we selected.
Are there any tracks in particular you’d recommend our readers should check out first?
‘Get Me Out’ was the first single we released from the album, I think it’s a great introduction to the album and to the band. It demonstrates the dynamics we can create in our songs as well as the energy we can perform with. Also ‘Back Home’ shows a totally different style of track from us on the album. It’s much slower and more like a ballad but it’s a track we are extremely happy with.
In terms of a live show, what can we expect from Better Enemies?
Anyone who turns up to a Better Enemies gig can expect a fun show, full of sing along moments and catchy melodies. We give 100% effort at every show and we love to get the crowd involved. We also like to drop in a cover early on in the set to get the crowd involved as soon as possible.
As festival season approaches, which festival line-up would you most like to join?
I think our dream festival would be the main stage at T in the Park. T in the Park is such a big part of Scottish music and somewhere that we’ve always wanted to end up.
What do you have planned for the rest of 2016?
We are trying to focus on gigging this year and try to play as many locations as possible. We are looking to do a small tour at the end of summer and hopefully get some London shows booked, something we have been wanting to do for a while now. It’s also likely we will have some more music released towards the end of the year which we are looking forward to!