PRONTO MAMAWHO: Marc Rooney (guitar/vocals),Ciaran McEneny (keyboard/guitar/vocals), Michael Griffin (bass/ vocals),Martin Johnston (drums/ vocals)WHERE: GlasgowFOR FANS OF: Arab Strap,Bombay Bicycle Club, Hue & CryJIM SAYS: It may seem strangereferencing Hue & Cry in a pieceabout essentially an indie-rockband. Pronto Mama do rehearse inGreg and Pat Kane’s home town ofCoatbridge, but more significantlythey share some jazz tendencieswith Hue & Cry.Drummer Martin backed that up,

saying: “Michael and I met at a jazzsummer school when we wereyounger and kept in touch. Thenhe phoned me an hour before arehearsal, as their originaldrummer had pulled out, and theband started. I dragged Ciaran intothe band and we finally soundedlike Pronto Mama.”There was possibly a more

laid-back, jazzy feel when I saw theband play a showcase recently atSoundwave Studios in Coatbridge.It was a last-minute appearance,

so bass player Michael wasn’tavailable. The guys apologised thatit wouldn’t be a normal set, but Iwas still suitably impressed.Their mix of indie, jazz and folk

has already attracted some of thecountry’s key tastemakers,including my pals at BBC Radio 1.Martin said: “We put our music

on the BBC Introducing uploaderand our latest single managed toget airplay a few times.“Ally McCrae eventually dropped

us an email asking us to play insession, which was a bit mental.“We had a month to get nervous

about playing live on national radio.“It was an undeniably amazing

experience. We ended up playingStill Swimming twice live on air —I’m not really sure if that’s beendone before!”Still Swimming was the track that

caught my attention and it alsofeatured in trade mag Music Weeklast November, along with tracksfrom other Scottish breakthroughacts like Miniature Dinosaurs, LittleEye and Vukovi.The guys have been working at it

since 2010, and this year take astep up with their first festivalappearances. They’ve beenselected to perform at goNORTH inInverness next month, and havejust been announced for a headlineslot on the opening night of KingTut’s Summer Nights Festival inGlasgow on July 12.In August it’s on to Doune The

Rabbit Hole near Stirling, wherethey’ll be appearing on theTenement TV Stage, and Wishaw’sBe In Belhaven.Before all that there’s the small

matter of a new single, One TrickPony, from new EP, Lickety Split.I can’t wait to hear the new

material, and look forward tocatching up with them again atgoNORTH, Scotland’s biggest freeshowcase of new music. Furtherdetails at gonorth.biz.MORE: facebook.com/prontomamaQ Jim will be featuring ProntoMama on In:Demand Uncut —Sunday 7-10pm on Clyde 1, ForthOne, Northsound 1, RadioBorders, Tay FM, West FM &West Sound FM. Seeindemandscotland.co.uk

THE ENEMY saw their boy-hood dreams turn into anightmare after falling outwith their record label.They felt Warner Brotherswere milking them for cash butthe row led to the band beingin cold storage for TWO YEARS.The boys started well with theirsuperb chart-topping debut album,We Live And Die In These Towns,which five years ago made themone of the biggest bands in the UK.But its follow-up, 2009’s MusicFor The People, saw the wheelscome off.Bass player Andy Hopkins said:“It got to the point on the secondalbum where the label didn’t haveto put any money in. They didn’tseem to care.“We rushed out the secondalbum because Warner was telling

By CHRIS SWEENEY

us to. We didn’t know 100 per centwhat was going on and they kepttelling us to get it out, but all theywanted was more money.“We were pretty young and now,taking a step back, it’s like, ‘Whatwere we thinking?’“We didn’t even have songs wewere happy with. It was writtenand recorded in the studio, wewere putting things down weweren’t 100 per cent sure of.

Poster“And it didn’t get advertisedenough. Warner just put it on theinternet and thought it would befine — but it’s not.“Real people drive home fromwork and pass a poster, then see itand think, ‘I’ll buy that’.“That’s why we left. You can’thave a a record label who are not

behind you.” Now the band —Andy, frontman Tom Clarke anddrummer Liam Watts — haveregrouped and it’s all systems gowith new album Streets In TheSky released on Monday.It sees them join The View andMarilyn Manson on well-respectedlabel Cooking Vinyl — and it’s backto basics.Straight-talking Andy, 24, said:“There was no messing aroundwith songs that don’t need to beon there, the main thing is usthree playing.“All we do is turn up our guitarsand we’re in. Even with the firstalbum, the songs were there butthe recording didn’t sound like uslive which is cool, as we didn’tknow as much then.

“The second onehad the sound,but the songsweren’t there at

all. Now we all feel this newalbum has got both and we liter-ally can’t wait for people to hearit. The two years off have reallyhelped us.” Despite the Coventrylads’ lives changing dramaticallysince they burst on to the scene asteenagers, The Enemy’s men-of-the-people spirit hasn’t gone.Andy added: “Some people thinkwe moan about everything butthat’s not all our thing. We’re allfor people with inspirations anddoing well, we’re fun lads.“We’re not a political band, we’re

a social band and we want peopleto follow their dreams.“We talk about things that hap-pen in our mates’ lives, it’s moreabout us commenting and not ustelling people they have to listen.”The boys have ruffled a fewfeathers in the past, but don’t thinkthey deserve their outspoken tag.Andy hit out: “People think thatbecause you’re in a band you’renot allowed an opinion on music.“If you ask us about a band,we’ll say we don’t like them ifthat’s the case. For the guy on thestreet, it’s okay, but if a band saysit then it’s starting a war.

Talented“Speaking your mind is notoffensive. Lots of people in themusic industry are too scared tosay anything and come out withlines like ‘everything is mint’.“I mean, come on, everything isnot mint. On your own you’d besaying things are s*** and speakingyour mind, but during an interviewsome people change and make outeverything is so good. We don’t dothat.”To get the album out there with

a proper bang, the band are off ona UK tour — which hits Glasgow’sBarrowland on May 25.And Andy insists they’ll proverock ’n’ roll is alive and kicking.He said: “There is no guitarmusic in the charts and radio isnot playing it.“That’s not how it should be —guitar music is real. It’s talentedpeople who’ve learned how to playtheir instruments and write songs.

“It’s not someone elsedoing it for them, butheadlines that say ‘Rock’n’ Roll is dead’ are rub-bish. Of course it’s not.“There’s so much guitar

music on the internet.“There’s the stuff we

play but other things likeheavy metal, it’s allquality.“It might not be your

thing, but they are allguitar bands. Anyone who says it’sdead is stupid.”He added: “I don’t think everydance artist is crap. Some aremint.“It shouldn’t be one or the other.Surely a good song is a good song— you can play a dance tune then aheavy metal one.“I don’t see why so many peoplewant to follow a trend.“I’m open to all good music —and I can’t express how pleased weare with the sound and the songsof our new album.“And who cares if people thinkwe’re arrogant? We’re not going tosay our music is crap, because it’snot.”Q Get Streets In The Sky and tourtickets at theenemy.com

By TIM NIXON

AFTER a gruellingworld tour two yearsago, Melody Gardotfelt she had “usedup everything in thebag”.Seeking fresh inspira-tion, the US jazz singerpacked her suitcase andembarked on a year-long,global musical crusade.She embedded herselfin the diverse sounds andcultures of Morocco, Portu-gal, Bali, Brazil andArgentina — acting on theresulting surges of creativ-ity and penning songs forher beautiful third album,The Absence, on the way.Melody, 27, explains: “Inthe jazz world, when acat has everything thathe’s got in his bag and heuses it all the time, hegets tired of his bag oftricks.“I had used everythingthat I knew and learnedfrom people I’d encoun-tered in the cultures Ihad lived among upuntil that pointin my life.“When I cameoff tour, the firstthing I needed todo was rest. But Iwas intrigued byother parts of theworld and I wasinterested in pick-ing up new informa-tion, new languages,new kinds of music.“It wasn’t enough justto listen to it. I had tobe there.”What struck her themost was the powerfulimpact music had onevery community sheimmersed herself in.

Unlike muchof the West-ern world,songs weren’t

confined to theiPods of individuals —they were blasted out inpublic to drive all-singing,all-dancing celebrations oftogetherness.She reflects: “It’s inter-esting to walk throughLisbon — everybody’s sing-ing. In Brazil, peopleconverse through song.

You finish whatever it isyou’re doing and youcome home and play aninstrument. It’s a way ofexpressing yourself.“In the Western world,we do it only at Christ-mas with carolling. Wedon’t sit down and play,which is a real shame.”The Absence encapsu-lates the musical souls ofthe places Melody visited,hence its universal appeal.

Mesmerising opener Mirastarts with a verse sungin Spanish — one ofseveral languages shepicked up.She says: “I was learn-ing different languagesand dialects and usingthese words every day.“When I finally wentback to LA, I was almostrefusing to speak Englishbecause I hadn’t done itin so long. The words

weren’t coming out ofmy mouth.”Revitalised by her yearabroad, Melody recruitedBrazilian composer HeitorPereira to produce heralbum. And with theirshared love of authenticaudio and experimenta-tion, it didn’t take themlong to establish a strongchemistry in the studio.Melody says: “After com-ing from all these placeswhere the soundtrack to

my life was the beauty ofthe breeze, I had loads ofrecordings. I’m a bit of anaudiophiliac.“I love beautiful, natu-ral sounds. They inspireme. It could be someonewho’s singing along theirway or sweeping.“In Bali, you could hearthe sound of womensweeping for two hoursevery morning. The wholecity sweeping as the

whole city was sleep-ing.“When I met Hei-tor, one of the firstthings he said was,‘Let’s get a tree andshake some leavesand make thebreeze’.

“I silently smiledbecause I had said thisexact same thing to some-one the week before andhe thought I was crazy.”Melody’s hypnoticallysoothing voice belies herhistory of poor health.While cycling along aroad in 2003, she wasknocked down by a carand suffered serious headand spinal injuries.She spent a year on herback in hospital and hasbeen living with the debil-itating consequences ofthat accident ever since.“My nervous system isnot so good — my handsand my feet freeze up,”says Melody.“I’m in pain on a regu-lar basis, but I can dealwith it. I get out of bedslowly and move my bodyso that I can manoeuvre.“I don’t get to see theworld as quickly as mostpeople. It takes me awhile to get moving.“But if spending all day

soaking in a bathtubmeans I get to play a two-hour gig at the end of theday, then life is good.”

NEWMUSICBy JIMGELLATLY

Friday, May 18, 2012 SFTW 5