Glasgow’s Vlure end 2023 on the crest of a wave with the self-release of second EP Heaven Sent and a sold out show at the iconic 100 Club in London at the beginning of December. Their final gig of the year was in their hometown at SWG3 over the weekend. Vlure’s DIY approach now includes production duties undertaken on the new EP by guitarist Conor Goldie and drummer Carlo Kreikaard.
The band have built a fanbase on live performance which feels more like a euphoric club night than a gig. Vlure give 100% every single time, no matter the size of the crowd. More on the show later but first the conversation with the band. Conor and Carlo are joined in Vlure by vocalist Hamish Hutcheson, bassist Niall Goldie, and Alex Pearson on keys and synths.
What is the main difference between Heaven Sent and debut Euphoria?
Hamish: I think its growth. The major difference on this one is that it’s self-produced with a great job from Carlo and Conor on that. I think it just showed more musical ability from ourselves. Every release has to be a next step along.
Conor: It kinda came about a bit more organically as well. With the first one we didn’t really set out to write an EP; we just wrote a bunch of tunes that slowly turned into an EP. Obviously I think the final difference is that we did Euphoria with our friend Darren on production duties, and then myself and Carlo have done the production duties on this one. We were a lot more hands on with all of us on this one.
Carlo: This one is more ours. I think we’re getting towards the music that we want to make as well. I feel like that first EP, it was great, but it was a snapshot of what kind of band we were at the time. This one is the one we are now and I think it is close to what we would be and what we want to make.
Conor: I think we figured out the sonic languages to properly articulate the ideas. Once the tunes were done we were like, oh this is an EP.
Conor, you also remixed ‘Blessed Be Thy‘ by Witch Fever. How was that?
Conor: That was good fun. That was cool, something completely different. I mean, I really like a lot of aggressive electronic music. So it was nice to do something with a really heavy band. Chop it up.
So again, I think it’s been good like a whole new palette to work with by, like, taking it on ourselves. You can take more time, go in every night after work and see where it takes you, so it was a bit more relaxed and probably ends up more authentic art in that respect.
You won SAMA (Scottish Alternative Music Awards) for Best Live Act; Vlure has had a phenomenal year live with so many festivals and gigs including SXSW, Glastonbury and London Calling as well as headlining dates in UK and EU. Do you have any particular highlights from 2023?
Hamish: Glastonbury – that was just one of those moments. Also headlining in Slovakia.
Carlo: Just being able to play those festivals in Europe. London Calling in Amsterdam was amazing.
Alex: The festival in Poland and also I was really pleasantly surprised about the Foul Weather festival in Le Halle. It was in this fortress at the top of the hill in Le Halle. We really didn’t know what to expect but as we played the whole room filled up instantly with crowds from the very first song. I did not expect it and it’s one that’s stuck in my head from this year.
Conor: Poland was a surprise. They were singing our songs and then our manager told us that they are our second biggest streaming territory.
Vlure played to a sell-out 100 Club in London earlier in the month. How was it playing that iconic venue?
Hamish: Very sweaty! It’s another moment to tick off the list. I remember being a teenager and seeing pictures of that place and going “I want to stand on that stage” and see our backdrop with Vlure and 100 beside it. Then, oh my God, it’s happening. This is incredible. Amazing. It was another moment when you stand up there and you, like, go “Here we are again”. And you don’t feel out of place. You know, you go, you know what we’ve earned it. We should be here. But you’re still in a bit of awe. And then it’s done and it’s like “What’s next?”.
You’ve been playing Faithless’s ‘God is a DJ‘ in your set since early on. What is it about that song that’s so special for you?
Hamish: We didn’t want to do a cover; we talked about not doing covers. We were coming up for our first couple of shows and we only had four songs at the time. Over a three day period before that first ever show we wrote ‘Euphoria. And then I think we did it first during lockdown for the “I’ve Never Heard of You” online stream. And it sounded really good! The remit of it was two originals and one cover. So we talked about it, but it came naturally that that was what we all wanted to do because we all love dance music; that’s one of the main common denominators between us and with Faithless we are so heavily influenced by their music. Maxi Jazz and his stage performance, it just felt right at the time. And it stuck! We came to do a headline show and we’re like, should we put on in?
Conor: It’s great at festivals because people don’t really know who you are. They know that song. And it just kind of worked out that way. Now we’ve evolved it and we’re using part of ‘Salva Mea’ another Faithless song, at the end. We fleshed it out and its a really massive, massive song. There were very few acts that we could look at in terms of a blueprint when we wanted to smash together a bunch of genres and stuff for a live band. One of the people that made that even possible for us to do that was Faithless, they’re the archetypal blueprint of how to be an amazing live act and still make amazing electronic music, and blur all those lines in between.
I think there is a lot of over-intellectualising the idea of doing a cover. Music is important and people come to have a good time. No-one wants to hear a rework of some B-side that no-one’s ever heard. Let’s give them a song that means a lot to a lot of different people. And this works for us as well so it’s a translation of that.
About your rehearsal sessions, it’s tough to imagine Vlure just has a calm run through of your music when rehearsing!
Hamish: I think it depends on what kind of day everyone’s had. If you’ve had a horrible day at work rehearsing is probably the best thing you can do because you can go out there and just go for it. Or if we’re feeling good we can turn it down a bit and maybe work on the intricacies of each song.
Carlo: It can involve spending an hour and a half of setting up and trying to get a run and then like having like an hour or so and then back and it’s mostly just talking shite and just catching up. Niall usually watches the football; just sits down in front of the laptop!
Niall: If we’ve recorded a practice and there’s a snag on the bass its probably because Celtic scored!
Can you briefly share a bit about your creative process?
Conor: It’s completely different for each song because we all contribute in different ways. Like the way Niall will come up with a tune or Carlo will come up with a tune, and then the rest of us will come up with something entirely different. So different things get brought to the table in different ways. Sometimes it’s about bringing rough skeletons and see if we vibe with it. But if we’re not vibing with it as a group then we’ll move straight on to the next thing. We’re spoken a lot in interviews recently about being excited by things and that’s kind of what our whole creative process is. If something’s exciting, and if someone’s really excited by something then the rest of us tend to be.
Carlo: Like Conor says it’s literally capturing the moment. If there’s like a sample loop or a beat or something that someone comes in with, then we’ll just build from there. We’ll leave it quite open, which is good because everyone’s got such different influences or the way they work is different as well. But we’re all really open to that.
You participated in the Music Venue Trusts 2 for 1 gigs sponsored by The Lottery. Is it possible to explain just how important grassroots music venues are to you?
Conor: If there was no them, there’s no us. We wouldn’t have met if it wasn’t for those spaces. We wanted to have the friendships that we have. I wouldn’t know anyone I know if it wasn’t for gig and club spaces in Glasgow. They made it a viable option to be interested in the things that we’re interested in. Having those spaces to go to is vital for the future of any sort of art in this country. If that ever goes it’s a very sad state of affairs. We are constantly looking to assist independent venues and doing that tour was part of that. It was so amazing to meet so many different people and see how each venue is entirely different, which was so cool.
Alex: We played the Adelphi in Hull and the other bands that have played there, the headline acts that have played there is just wild and just the thought of these venues with that history, like suffering with money and financial issues that’s heart-breaking. You need to have that history there, to inspire new people as well.
Conor: And at the end of the day, it’s the exact same thing that we’re doing, but they’re doing it in a different way. We do it by making music, they do it by running independent venues. Everyone contributes to this, putting forward what they can towards this bigger idea.
To finish, what are your plans for 2024?
Hamish: Making more memories with each other, and with the people that come to the shows.
Carlo: More music, more shows, make it bigger, make it better, enjoying ourselves as much as we can.
Vlure put everything into gig tonight with a thrilling lighting rig and their usual exhilarating performance. Love for the crowd was reciprocated tenfold. They put on two support bands, the ethereal Pearling and the London rapper PSweatpants who later joined Vlure onstage wrapped in a Scottish flag. He wasn’t the only guest as Glasgow band The Era also joined in the fun onstage, and crowd-surfing. It was an emotional night as the five-piece wrapped up an extraordinary year for a DIY band. The rave was real, the packed room was bouncing and the shared experience was an utter joy
However to quote a track on the new EP ‘This is Not the End’………
Photo credit: Julia Mason
For more on Vlure please check out their facebook and instagram.
