From Chile start to being hot favourite with star DJs
WHEN you think of Pablo, it probably brings to mind the artist Picasso or famous drug lord Escobar.
So who are Forres band Be Like Pablo named after? And who do they think they should be more like?
Singer Ewen Watson revealed: “I’m teetotal so we’re definitely not named after Pablo Escobar.
“Most people usually think that it’s Picasso but we’re actually named after our friend Pablo from Chile.
“He was on a university placement to Forres for some reason and we befriended him.
“He’s a really positive guy who fully embraced Scottish culture and we loved him so much, we named our band after him.”
Ewen, 32, formed Be Like Pablo in 2009 with his brother Ross, 35, on guitar and their friend Jamie Murphy, 33, on bass.
Two pals from school – Andrew, 31, and Karen McLaughlan, 30 – joined later on drums and synths.
Since forming, they’ve played most of the Scottish festivals and released their debut album The New Adventures in 2014.
Steve Lamacq played their first single Julianne in 2010 and X Factor host Dermot O’Leary played Someone to Love on his Radio 2 show.
Ewen said: “Being played by Dermot O’Leary was an amazing experience.
“I had known for a while he was a fan of Ben Kweller – who is one of our influences – so I sent him our song Someone to Love as I thought he might like it. We never expected him to play it so we were blown away when he did.”
The group – who work in education apart from bus driver Andrew - are concentrating on releasing a series of singles rather than an album.
There She Is came out last year and next Friday, they’ll release the follow-up, My Kind of Girl, with an incredible arty video that has the imagination of Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer. It was made by Lean Dirscherl, who works at Katena Studios in Germany.
Ewen said: “She’s into the same sort of things as us – old video games and science fiction – which really suits this particular song.”
My Kind of Girl harks back to the pop punk of Fountains of Wayne or Wheatus.
Ewen admitted: “I tried to do something with a hi-fi pop sound like Stacy’s Mom.
“Lyrically, most of my songs are about how socially awkward I am but for this song, I flipped the narrative around and made it about somebody who falls in love with a girl who’s really introverted and clumsy and oblivious to romance.
“We generally try to be as in your face as possible.
“There are a lot of subtle bands in Scotland but we aren’t one of them.” ● My Kind of Girl is available on iTunes, Spotify and Amazon from next Friday.