FANS of twisty, turny alternative rock may be about to discover their new favourite band.
Local foursome Verse Metrics, who play Stereo tonight, are rapidly gaining attention for their complex yet catchy slices of rousing rock.
“We’re not rigid songwriters,” says their bespectacled singer and guitarist, Robert Dick.
“I’ll tend to come in with just riffs for us to work with. Occasionally there’ll be more solid ideas but what’s unusual is that the vocal parts usually get written last.
“I come in with a riff, we’ll assess it all, everyone will do their own parts for the song and then we’ll rewrite it as many times as necessary until there’s a full song.”
That approach has certainly worked, given the melodic flair on recent single Modern Sleep, or the epic noise of the terrific Sad Bones, which closed their debut EP, VM1, which was released at the start of this year.
That earned the group comparisons to Death Cab For Cutie, Mogwai and the Twilight Sad, and the quartet are now working through new material, with the aim of releasing a follow-up EP early next year.
“The whole aim is to bring out something that’s as good as the first one, that’s the plan,” says Robert.
We were really chuffed with VM1, it sounds just like we wanted it to when we went into the studio.
“I’ve been in various bands and have had decent recordings, but sometimes you can be disappointed with what you end up with.
“Over the years I’ve gained a lot of knowledge of recording, so had a good idea what we wanted.
“We were really happy with the feedback we got, and have spent this year trying to make more people aware of it.”
The band have had some success with that, earning praise from various Scottish pop pundits and gaining radio airplay from Vic Galloway and Jim Gellatly, as well as a string of comparisons to other bands, including melody-heavy American act Death Cab For Cutie.
“We’ve not been compared to any bands we don’t like, actually,” says Bob.
“Death Cab are very melodic, and that’s what we’re all about. People have mentioned Mogwai and the Twilight Sad, or bands like American Football, but we’re varied in what we listen to – our bassist just listens to Korn and Limp Bizkit, and Martin [Dalziel, their drummer] loves the Deftones, so we’ve always wanted to do something that was loud and powerful.”
Speaking of powerful acts, tonight’s show sees the band joined by new outfit Arches, who are playing their long-awaited debut gig, after releasing the colossal sounding Like Fireworks single over this summer.
The connections between the two bands go back some years.
“I’ve been friends with Mike [Rice, Arches singer] since school,” says Bob.
“He’s always helped Verse Metrics, and when we recorded our first song in July 2010, he was one of the first people to listen to it. We’ve fairly similar styles of music, so we definitely fit on the same bill.”
18 NOV 2011 – BY JONATHAN GEDDES –
Click here for link
