Viva Glasvegas!
Meet the frontman of Britain’s hottest new band
Hailed by former Creation Records supremo Alan McGee as the greatest thing to come out of Scotland for 20 years, Glasvegas are creating the biggest stir on the British music scene since Oasis.
Sony Magazine catches up with Glasvegas frontman and ex-footballer, James Allan, to talk music, football and cartoon characters…
What kind of music were you exposed to when you were a kid? There was always loads of different music playing around the house – everything from Sinitta’s ‘So Macho’ to Kate Bush, [country singer] Skeeter Davis to Bob Marley, Suicide to The Shangri-Las. My ears were always tuned into melody. I was always in search of the next great song. But I didn’t realise that I was into music, just like I didn’t realise I was into girls and beer. The only thing that really interested me was football.
You played football for a string of Scottish clubs, including Falkirk, Stirling Albion and Dumbarton, but never quite made it to the top level. Why do you think that was? I was bone idle, basically. I was the kind of player who could never be bothered tackling back. I’d just wait for the ball to come to me. Also, to be a really good footballer, you have to be completely focused. I was too much of a daydreamer. I’d stand on the pitch, thinking about that Johnny Cash compilation I was going to buy or wondering when I was going to get back that Velvet Underground album I’d loaned to a mate. I think it’s fair to say that Pele or Maradona didn’t think about The Velvet Underground in the middle of a game.
It’s different for me now. Music is the beginning of my day and the end of my day. It’s all-consuming. I think that’s how it should be. I play every Glasvegas gig like it’s our last. Every time I play a song I want to feel the way I felt when I wrote it. I want the words and the melodies to ring true every time.
You ended up on a night out with Lisa Marie Presley. How did that come about?The night out with Lisa Marie was very special. I’d recorded a demo of [second single] ‘Daddy’s Gone’ and someone I knew had passed it on to her. She called me up and told me how much she loved the song. Then she came to Britain with her husband and mum [Priscilla] to see the Led Zeppelin reunion gig. They fancied a visit to Scotland so I met up with them in Edinburgh for an evening down the pub. It was an amazing night, full of laughter and great stories about growing up with Elvis. Lisa Marie has got the greatest smile and she’s pure charisma. I was sitting there thinking, “It’s a long way from playing in the mud for Dumbarton on a miserable January afternoon.”
Which cartoon character do you most closely resemble? I’ve always identified with Goofy and could do a good impression of him when I was a kid. No matter how sad my sister was feeling, I could always make her laugh by doing my Goofy voice. Like Goofy, I’m prone to clumsiness and I daydream too much for my own good. The great thing about being in a band is that you’re encouraged to daydream. In any other walk of life, it wouldn’t be tolerated.
What’s most gratifying about being the leader of Glasvegas? When I started writing songs I was on the dole and I suppose I was writing for myself. It was unimaginable that these songs would have a life out there in the world. A song like ‘Daddy’s Gone’ – it’s like I don’t own that any more. It’s got a life that is separate from me. It’s like I’m the middleman. These songs come from some place. They go through me, then they’re away. They belong to everyone else.
Apart from football and music, what else are you good at? Absolutely nothing. But I’m the kind of person who is too stupid to know what my limitations are. I’m the kind of guy who’ll look at a van Gogh painting and think, “Hmm, maybe I’ll become an artist.” The fact that I have no talent for art wouldn’t put me off.
Finally, what’s the best rumour you’ve heard about Glasvegas? The best rumours about us are actually true. Like there’s a rumour going about that we’re about to record a Christmas album in a Transylvanian cathedral. But that’s really going to happen. We’re aiming to make the greatest Christmas album since the Phil Spector one. We believe in aiming high.
Glasvegas’s debut album, Glasvegas,
is out on Columbia on September 8.This is an edited version of Jon Wilde’s interview with James Allan. To read the full version subscribe to Sony Magazine
here