We’ve long been taken with the punky alt rock of Glasgow based four piece United Fruit. When we heard the heavy riffs and blistering, driving vibe of their new single Where the Sun Beats down, we fell for them completely. There’s a sort of wobbly brilliance about the track, perhaps eminating from the jumpy, joyous bassline and the chorus, which fires an arrow straight into your smile and head-nod pores. Ahead of the bands new, second album Eternal Return, which drops at the end of this week, we caught up with the band to find out more.
We are Iskandar, Stuart, Marco and Dean. United Fruit
We are from Glasgow, Scotland
We met at a wild party where we realised we all like the same music. And as if by magic, the band was formed.
When people ask us who or what we sound like, we say it’s not for us to tell you.
We bonded over Nirvana, Sonic Youth, Death from Above 1979.
Our name comes from Cheech and Chong. “I got a buddy with United Fruit”
We got together, and our first rehearsal was in 2007. It was pretty different from the music we play now. We were still finding our way. We were not bad though.
Our first gig was at Bar Bloc in Glasgow in May 2008. The first of many gigs there. It’s our spiritual home.
Our new record is Where the Sun Beats Down is the new single and Eternal Return is the new album. The song is about a girl Iskandar knew who he cared about very much but died. It’s about him imagining a life with her.
We recorded it at 45 Aside Studios and was produced by Bruce Rintoul. We recorded the record over the last couple of years. We wanted to make sure everything was perfect with the album so took our time with it. We thought a lot more about our parts and melodies and I think it shows on the recordings.
The writing process for us is Iskandar usually has a full song or a basis for a song. I will then go over it with him and we sort of the structure. We take it to the rest of the band and it gets jammed out until we’re all happy. It depends though, sometimes I’ll have a part or two kicking about that can get thrown into a tune. Sometimes we just jam and something comes out.
We tried to make it sound like a more complete album than our last. It’s more sonically interesting. Ethereal noise over melodic pop.
You could say our live show is energetic. It doesn’t really let up. Unless we’re drenched in sweat at the end of the show, we’re not happy
You can catch us on tour in the UK in May
Look out for The Van Ts, Damn Teeth, Hiders, Black International. All awesome bands
This year, we are going to try to play as many shows as possible. That’s all we ever want to do.
Keep in touch with us at
www.facebook.com/unitedfruit
Twitter : @unitedfruitband
Instagram: united fruit
