V for victory as band celebrate

Line-up’s pride at making awards shortlist

AMONG the nominations for a Scottish Alternative Music Award next week are Paisley’s own The Vegan Leather.

“We’re really pleased to have been nominated” frontman Gian Bernacchi told The Evening Times after playing a gig in London.

“It’s almost hard to believe that it’s happening now, but it’s just been amazing”.

Releasing their debut album Poor Girls/Broken Boys next week, the post-industrial Paisley band have had one of their biggest years since their formation, which will be rounded off at the close by a headline gig at the iconic King Tuts on November 2.

The band have come along way since their school days, when they formed. With a nomination for Best Live Act among bands like Bossy Love, CRYSTAL and Gallus, their reputation for electrifying live shows have been a stable since the beginning.

“We all started going to a local open mic night in Paisley, before we were properly a formed thing” Marie recalls. “Hundreds of people used to come to them, which was weird as it was literally just a small open mic night. It was incredible, though.

“I think it’s just about knowing what your audience want and expect your live show to be. And keeping a level of energy and things that they can feed off of, almost”.

Poor Girls / Broken Boys explores themes like social anxiety, mental health and the lived experience of coming from a post-industrial town, on a backdrop of dancing, electro-punk anthems.

“There is something really attractive about singing about important, discussion worthy things, but not making it sound heavy or hard-to-listen to, almost” explains Gian.

“I think you see that quite a lot in music nowadays, that exploration of difficult themes without the music having to sound like you’re exploring a big topic” Gian laughs.

Of course, youthful and contentious topics are definitely not off limits with a band with a name that is The Vegan Leather. Where on earth did that come from?

“I actually had a pair of leather trousers, which I am sure that you can imagine were a bit mad. They were from Topshop. We noticed there was a label inside said ‘Vegan Leather’ and after we got over the initial bizarreness of it, it just stuck.”

And are the band, in fact, vegans? “I’m definitely not a vegan but I am a veggie and I do try my best!”

CARLA JENKINS