Band are buzzing about Tales of the Unexpected
Fast Camels launch their latest album on Saturday
Rutherglen band the Fast Camels can’t wait to release their new album this weekend - and they believe it’s their catchiest collection of songs yet.
The band will be launching Tales of the Expected at the O2 ABC2 this Saturday.
It’s the quintet’s third album, following The Magic Optician and Dead Rooms and Butterfly Dreams, and features more sharp pop songs than the previous records, which were focused on psychedelic music.
Singer Drew Sturgeon, from Fernhill, said: “We’re absolutely buzzing about it.
“We think this is the best album we’ve done, and the current Camels line- up has been together all the way through it, which is a one off for us.
“You can hear the continuity in those songs.
“We’re already had people saying that as soon as you put it on you can hear the catchiness and the choruses.
“That’s not to say we won’t be going back into our roots of the big epic psychedelic ones, but there’s a nice mixture of styles this time – there’s three or four songs that could be pop singles, which is a big change for us.”
Drew admits that he and cowriter Mark O’Connor, from King’s Park, found it hard at times to keep the band’s songs so tight.
He added: “Mark and I can get carried away with chord progressions, and before you know it you’ve got all these five minute songs.
“This time around we were really strict and were cutting them down to three minutes.
“I think it helps when you’ve got some immediate songs that you can hit the audience with right away.”
Drew is hoping that immediacy will come across at the ABC2 on Saturday.
“We’ve not played the ABC2 since we supported Dodgy a few years ago.
“We really prefer the sound in there to some other places and we’re hoping to fill it.
“We’re going for a 60s feel to the whole night and we’ve got two acoustic acts beforehand, which will be quite nice.
“Then we’ll be doing the album and some of the old songs.”
The band are hoping to go further abroad in the future, too.
“We’ve already got a gig in London in September, then we’ll be doing some shows in Belgium around the New Year.
“We’re also contemplating travelling to America. After our experience playing with Johnny Echols of Love recently we’ve got some contacts over there now and maybe we can get some shows arranged.”
The Fast Camels are Drew Sturgeon on vocals and guitar, Mark O’Connor on vocals and lead guitar, Andy Rennie on bass, Joe Smith on drums and Craig Jenkins on percussion.
Tickets for the O2 ABC gig are £7.
More information on the Fast Camels can be found at www. thefastcamels.com