We had a chat with Scottish Punk Band, Century Thirteen, who release their new self-titled album on Friday 13th July. The four-piece have also just released a new track, Not My Place –
What is the full band line-up, who plays what?
We are a four piece band from Glasgow. The line0up consists of Kevin McGuire and Scott Macleod, both on guitar duties and alternating on lead vocals, alongside Dale Gardner on bass guitar and Lewis Harwood on drums.
How and when did the band form? Tell us anything interesting about your hometown.
The band formed in 2013 with Kevin and Lewis, later adding Scott and Dale to the lineup. Glasgow has an amazing music scene, no matter what kind of music you like to play there are others that will be able to collaborate, and the band was the result of one of those collaborations, where the members of the group were able to connect musically on a level that led to a number of songs being written quite rapidly and forming the early stages of the band.
The music scene in Glasgow has to be our favourite thing about the city, every day of the week there are local shows all over the city, as well as being a top destination for touring bands, so as a music fan there’s nowhere better to be! We also have Irn Bru, which is an added bonus!
When and how did the band really start gelling and solidifying?
From the point when the lineup was finalised we very quickly gelled and got to recording our early material very quickly – our first demo was released just a few months later and was followed quickly by more new songs. We did a lot of DIY recordings ourselves and that allowed us to constantly release new material, and at that point we were more concerned with getting new music out than we were about making the releases really polished. We wrote a lot of songs in quite a short time and this allowed us to be very flexible without live setlists, so we were able to get a lot of gigging experience with our live sets rarely being the same from one gig to the next.
Who are your musical influences?
All of us have a variety of influences which come across in the music we create – some of the more important being Green Day, Millencolin, Lagwagon, Coheed and Cambria, Feeder, Placebo, Muse, Ash, A, Radiohead, Thrice, Mineral, Sunny Day Real Estate, Bad Religion, Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Machine Head, Lamb of God, Limp Bizkit, Devin Townsend, Blink-182, Godsmack, Three Days Grace, Zebrahead, Less than Jake, Army of Freshmen, Bowling for Soup, Patent Pending, The Offspring, New Found Glory, Jimmy Eat World… between the four of us we could go on all day! Music is a huge part of all of our lives and we aren’t afraid to listen to music that’s completely different from what we play, and we’re happy for different influences to pull our songwriting in different directions as that keeps our sound from stagnating.
How far back does your history with each other extend?
Kevin and Lewis used to be in a band together back in 2012- 2013 which ended when the bass player quit. Still wanting to continue writing music they looked for new band members, this time deciding to go for a four-piece instead of a trio. Kevin contacted Scott – the two were friends and had previously worked in the same job together – Kevin knew that Scott was a singer-songwriter and a good guitarist, so invited Scott to jam with them, and they immediately clicked in the studio.
Dale joined shortly afterwards after responding to an advert as the band were still looking for a bassist – and it turned out Dale had actually grown up with the bass player from Kevin and Lewis’s previous band! So in a way things came full circle. The line-up of the band has stayed the same ever since.
Where have you played or toured?
We have mainly played in and around Glasgow at a variety of venues including the legendary King Tut’s Wah Wah hut, however we have also played further afield – even travelling to Bowmore on Islay to play the first Islay Punk Festival for mental health awareness. We have also played other charity events including the C in the Park festival in Kilsyth which raised funds for various charities, and we played a show in Gourock in support of R.E.A.C.H. for Autism. We were also part of the live@troon 2017 festival.
Some notable bands that we have played alongside include Fenix TX, The Bottom Line, Better Days, Speaking in Shadows, Chasing Cadence, Everything Aside (Formerly known as Prophets), Yeah Detroit (the former band of several members of Woes), Altered Sky, Your Illuminations, Homebound, Six Time Champion, and Lightyear.
Where can we find your social media sites?
https://www.facebook.com/centurythirteen https://centurythirteen.bandcamp.com
https://www.instagram.com/centurythirteen https://twitter.com/c13band