Bands start in a variety of ways; sometimes organically, through a chance encounter or fate; sometimes it’s constructed through more systemic means, like an advertisement or a pre-ordained meeting. And sometimes, it’s both.
Enter – Meep, a six-piece indie outfit hailing from Glasgow, formed at the University of the West of Scotland. With many members and many instruments, this is a musical community in and of itself (complete with their own Meepcast, the podcast the band host together). Following their announcement of their gig in Germany, I sat down with the band to discuss the origin story, their creative process, and the Scottish music scene.
“Getting together was a very staggered process. It started off during a uni assignment, and me [Declan], Sarah and Ryan got put in a band together, and we really liked how we work with each other. So after that assignment was over, we kind of carried that along.”
Fate or university intervention? Either way, it was undoubtedly meant to be. Having recruited Patrick, Gregor and Will into their merry band of troubadours, their true musical endeavours could begin, starting with ... the death of a goldfish?
“We used to really struggle to write things and the only way we could get an actual serious sounding song was by using something really stupid. “Red Herring”, the first song we released, that’s about a goldfish dying. We needed to take something trivial and try and make it sound more serious, and that sort of worked for us. But now I think we’re past that.”
“Everyone has different specialties” guitarist Ryan points out, “there are certain people that really flourish when it comes to lyricism or in composition and we work to each other's strengths and it works really well.”
“We definitely all have our zone”, lead singer Sarah highlighted, but they absolutely do not get involved with Will (drums) and Gregor’s (bass and vocals) creative process – “they are completely responsible for all of their own ****”.
Glasgow is the perfect stomping ground for a band of this calibre – with a rich history of grassroots music, Meep have an abundance of venues and visionaries to share the stage with.
“I feel like it's a blessing to be around all these people and share the same stage and form relationships. But then also it's definitely tough trying to navigate that scene because there's so many formed bands, people that have been in it longer.”
When it comes to live gigs, the band are beginning to cement their position as top performers, with a supporting slot for Miss Madison lined up for later this month and the
recent news that the band will be travelling to Germany to perform. But gigging wasn’t always an easy task for the band.
“I think for a lot of us it was kind of our first time performing as a band” keys player Declan pondered, adding that “Sarah and Ryan, they were probably the more seasoned performers, but we were like really green at the start for stuff like that. But I think no, just like the stuff we stressed about before doesn't even face us anymore. The things that stress us out now are like. how can we make it better instead of, oh, how can I get through this?”
Having seen Sarah perform solo for many years outside of Meep, I had one burning question to ask before the end of the interview – what was it like to be in the band?
“Being in a room with other people that are equally as creative, if not more, is like, it's just, it's great to be able to like bounce ideas off other people. But also, I don't know, it's a completely new sound, I think, that I think each of us individually would never have come up with it on our own. Just the six of us together sort of, I think, makes something really cool.”
Written by Charlotte Atkinson
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