AN INTERVIEW WITH JACK WYLES OF RASCALTON - 18/03/2018

RASCALTON - photo credit to Neelam Khan Vela

From left to right - Greig, Mark, Steven and Jack

RASCALTON are the punk-rock quartet from Glasgow who recently began their UK tour which shall see the boys of the band extensively tour the UK as well as the EU and shall bring them nicely into festival season 2018.

Back on 1^st March, Jack Wyles (lead vocalist & guitarist), Steven Long (lead guitarist & backing vocalist), Mark Buchanan (bassist & backing vocalist) and Greig Taylor (drummer) visited Derby to play my latest gig night at The Sitwell Tavern in Derby at which I sat down with frontman Jack for a quick chat about all things Rascalton.

1.    So first off how was it that you all first met and Rascalton came to be?

“Well, me and Steven the guitarist, we met each other at school and then kinda met our drummer Grieg at parties and that and then we met wee Markie, I used to live on the same street as him and we played in a band before. Then we just made a band ourselves.”

2.    When was it that you first realised music was something you wanted to pursue? Was there something specific that triggered it?

“For me it was forever, I never thought anything else would be good enough so it’s quite a buzz. Now it’s the biggest thing in my life.”

3.    Recently you released your latest single ‘Told You So,’ tell me a bit about that track?

“It’s just kinda track track we’ve been playing for about a year now. It’s a tune about in relationships obviously there’s different kind of opinions and stuff. Just kinda stuff like that, I won’t go too much into it.”

4.    If you could buy any instrument from anyone, dead or alive, what would it be and why?

“Probably Hendrix’s guitar, just because he’s a cool guy.”

5.    Last night you kicked off your tour in London which continues tonight at The Sitwell Tavern in Derby, how is it getting back on the road, especially after the essential warm up with Baby Strange?

“It’s really good, I’ve missed it being away. Obviously we were away for quite a while with Baby Strange so it’s good to get out again, it gets too boring going to normal life so yeah.”

6.    Tomorrow you begin to grace the stages of your homeland of Scotland, how are you looking forward to that? *One of these dates, Falkirk, was rearranged to 14^th April due adverse weather conditions*

“I can’t wait, as long as the weathers not too bad and it goes ahead but aye, I’m really looking forward to it. We’ve not played in Edinburgh in a good while now so should be a good one and I think it might sell out. Be good.”

7.    So, recently you posted that your debut EP has been recorded now. When can we expect that to be released?

“That’ll be released this year at some point. It’ll be released just before Summer time I would expect, as long as everything goes to plan.”

8.    What else can you tell us about the EP?

“So there’s five tracks on it, three of them are completely new song and two songs that we’ve brought back from a wee while ago and aye, so hopefully people enjoy it.”

9.    You will shortly be supporting Marmozets, in Ireland. Will it be your first time playing over there?

“Yeah, it’ll be my first time in Ireland so I’m looking forward to it. It’ll be an expensive one though but I’m sure we’ll work around that and it’ll be alright.”

10.  What are you most looking forward to about those shows?

“Well we’ve played with Marmozets before and it was actually a really good match with us, sometimes it’s kinda different music so didn’t really expect it to match up quite as well as it does but yeah, I’m just really looking forward to playing with them again and just getting on the road with the boys.”

11.  Other than what we have spoken about, what else can we expect from Rascalton throughout the duration of the next few months?

“Just gonna be gigging and gigging constantly. Just tryna get down South as much as possible really. We’ve kinda get to the point now in Glasgow where you kinda expect things to be busy so we want to move away from that and get a bigger fanbase.”

12.  So you’ve got quite a few dates announced already, are you going to be announcing anymore?

“Yeah. Obviously we just got announced that we’re playing with IDLES, which is one of my favourite bands and the other ones, there is a few festivals and stuff that we’ll be getting announced for soon.” 

13.  People have a lot to be looking out for yourselves then?

“Yeah, totally.”

They truly do have tonnes coming up all round the UK, go see them at a date near you:

MARCH:

24^th March – The Sound of Young Scotland – Beat Generator Live, Edinburgh

31^st March – Stockton Calling Festival – Stockton

APRIL:

4^th April – The Tunnels, Aberdeen – supporting Cabbage

5^th April – The Mash House, Edinburgh – supporting Cabbage

7^th April – The Victorian Suite, Greenock

12^th April – Greenroom: The Academy, Dublin – supporting Marmozets.

13^th April – Oh Yeah Centre, Belfast – supporting Marmozets.

14^th April – CSC Weekender Falkirk Edition – Warehouse, Falkirk

20^th April – Wide Days, Edinburgh

MAY:

4^th May – The Sunflower Lounge, Birmingham 

5^th May – Handmade Festival, Leicester

5^th May – Live at Leeds Festival, Leeds

6^th May – Hit The North Festival, Newcastle

6^th – Stag & Dagger 2018, Glasgow

8^th May – Jimmy’s, Manchester

9^th May – BBC Introducing – Purple Turtle, Reading

10^th May – The Horn, St Albans

11^th May – The Sugarmill, Stoke

12^th May – The New Adelphi Club, Hull

14^th May – Café Totem, Sheffield

15^th May – The Lock Tavern, London

17^th to 19^th May – Great Escape Festival, Brighton *date playing yet to be announced*

JUNE:

13^th June – The Tunnels, Aberdeen – supporting IDLES

AUGUST:

3^rd to 6^th August – 110 Above Festival – Oopall Hall Farm, Leicestershire *date playing yet to be announced*

18^th to 19^th August – Hardwick Live Festival – Hardwick Hall, Dumfries *date playing yet to be announced*

30^th August to 1^st September – Electric Field Festival – Drumlaing Castle & Country Estate, Dumfires *date playing yet to be announced*

Written by Sophie.