Getting to Know… Speak Easy Circus | Interview 🎤

On the 159^th interview, we get some awesome insight from the eclectic, experimental indie Glasgow collective, Speak Easy Circus.

“Our sound is based on a mix of the individual members’ influences, all of our members come from very different musical backgrounds, rock, funk, soul, and jazz to name a few.” Definitely a well-rounded answer from Glasgow collective 🎙 Speak Easy Circus, the interviewees of our 159^th Getting to Know Q&A.  The question was about what makes the band distinct or unique – always our first item of business! 🎙 Jack Avison, guitarist and vocalist for the band, who answers our burning questions (with input from his colleagues, mind you), goes on to state “we want to make sure that if we weren’t in the band, we would be fans of the band.” Spot on! As always, the interviewing experience proves to be an insightful one, so let’s let the Q&A speak for itself.  Without further ado, here is 🎤 Getting to Know… Speak Easy Circus: Interview No. 159!

Starting things off right, for those who may not be familiar with Speak Easy Circus, what would you say makes your band distinct or unique? How do you rock the audience’s socks off?

🎤 Jack Avison (JA): When people first listen to our music, the initial thing we would like them to think is that this is something different and unique, something that they might not have heard before. We want to make music that we would listen to, and the music that we listen to is eclectic, exciting, meaningful and doesn’t take itself too seriously all at the same time, so if people went away from our music thinking anything like that then we would take that as a win!

Our sound is based on a mix of the individual members influences, all of our members come from very different musical backgrounds, rock, funk, soul, and jazz to name a few. Ultimately, we want to be an eclectic group who aren’t defined by one genre, so we have songs that are acoustic ballads and songs that are supposed to make you dance, all tied together with socially conscious lyrics and storytelling. Basically, we want to make sure that if we weren’t in the band, we would be fans of the band.

Okay, let’s explore some juicy backstories. How did Speak Easy Circus form and what were some of the goals or the visions you had as a band early on?

🎤 JA: During my time at university, I flirted with playing music full time, it was always what I wanted to do but I had never really made the full push that you need. Once I finished university, I decided that I had two options, I could get a job and consign myself to the fact that music would always be a hobby, or I could commit and try my best to make something of it. So, I looked into renting a place in London, screamed at my computer screen when I saw how much it would cost, and decided to move to Glasgow instead.

When I first arrived in Glasgow, I began looking for a band and tried to play with as many people as possible, including a Radiohead cover band for a while. I really wanted to form a band that combined all the different music that I listened to, but I was never able to find the right group of people for my own project though, until I met 🎙 Jon Wallace (saxophone, keys) and 🎙 Chats [Chatonda Ridley] (bass) whilst we were all playing in a different band together. When that band disintegrated, I knew that I had to get them involved, so I told them they would get all the riches the music world had to offer if they joined. I lied. But by that point it was too late, we were introduced to 🎙 Frazer Laurie (drums) through a mutual friend and Speak Easy Circus as we know it today was formed.

Let’s talk more about goals.  Have your goals or your perspectives changed since first starting out? What do your aspirations or goals look like now?

JA: We have many plans, some ridiculously ambitious and some more realistic! Our goals have also been affected by the pandemic, as I’m sure the goals of every band have been. Really, we would like to be able to keep developing as a band, playing bigger shows and hopefully reaching more people.

We would also love to create a series of all time classic albums and sell out Madison Square Gardens, but we’ll take it one step at a time!

Everybody is influenced by somebody else. Who would you consider some of your biggest musical influences and how are they influential?

JA: All of us come from very different musical backgrounds so our influences are incredibly varied, it could be jazz, funk, soul, rock etc. The same could be said for each of us in general, we all like very different tv shows, books, films etc.

What tends to remain the same is that these influences inevitably find themselves translated into music. Music is such an important part of all of our lives that for all of us it has become second nature to express ourselves this way. Whenever we see a band play an amazing set, we want to write music. When we feel down, we want to write music. When we have a good night out, we want to write music. When we see a good film, we want to write music. That being said, here are some artists that we have been listening to a lot recently: Vulfpeck, Guitarricadelafuente, Phoebe Bridgers, Courtney Barnett, Arctic Monkeys, Dirty Loops, Lucky Chops, Bob Reynolds, Snarky Puppy, Victor Wooten, Rafa Rodriguez, Nathan Somevi, Dub Inc

Ah, the fun stuff.  What’s your craziest tour story or the wackiest thing that’s happened during a performance?  Feel free to be creative.

JA: We are a relatively new band and unfortunately due to COVID we haven’t had the chance to tour as much as we would have liked. That being said we have still managed to experience all the usual pitfalls of playing live, a keyboard not working or randomly playing out of key (that’s what you get for using an old bashed up keyboard – thanks Chats), guitars breaking and having to grab one from another band mid song and get it plugged in just in time to play the solo, or just needing to pee and running off stage between songs (that one’s on me, and I promise to be more professional going forward).

Up until this point in your career, what would you describe as your favorite song you’ve recorded or performed live? What makes that song special?

JA: It feels like our favorite song changes all the time; at the moment it is definitely 🎵 “Lions Should Hunt” released on the 22nd of January (plug-plug-plug). This is a song that we played live from the beginning and always went down well with audiences, so it was great to get the opportunity to record it. The other songs that we recorded as part of that session are also favorites of ours, however they will be released later this year so we will keep quiet about those for now!

I also think 🎵 “Write It Down” should receive an honorable mention; it is a meaningful song to me and I particularly love the music video which was a collaboration with a group of Spanish filmmakers. It was wonderful to see the tone and ideas of the song translated to a visual medium.

Another fun project we worked on last year was our 🎵 “Quarantune” project, which was a way for us to keep sane and also be creative with what we had around the flat:

Is there anything else awesome, cool, or left of center the world should know about you? Secret talents or surprising tidbits?

JA: We have a bit of a taste for languages in the band! I speak Spanish and am learning French, Chats speaks French, and Frazer is learning Spanish. Hopefully we will get to use our language skills on tour at some point!

I once tuned Jimmy Cliff’s guitar.

Hugh Grant once told Chats to fuck off.

Jon was one of the youngest people to do a theatre tour with the Dundee Rep and they did a news story about him.

Frazer used to be a mechanic and know loads about cars.

Closing things out, what is Speak Easy Circus currently working on, promoting that you can share with us or want us to know about? We love secrets, but there’s no pressure. 

JA: Our new single is coming out, 🎵“Lions Should Hunt”, which we are very excited about. We have some more singles lined up for 2021 and potentially an EP is in the works.

In terms of live shows, we are going with the flow, we would love to play some festivals and shows in Scotland and further afield but given the current situation we will play it by ear and take whatever we can!

Thank you so much for sharing taking the time to answer these questions, and best of luck moving forward. 

Follow Speak Easy Circus: FB • Twitter • IG • YouTube • Spotify

[📷: Speak Easy Circus, Brent Faulkner, The Musical Hype]