Meet Van McCann and his Bottlemen
Catfish And The Bottlemen
When Catfish And The Bottlemen first played Dublin last year, many of their fans queued all day to secure the best vantage point in front of the stage for their evening show. Passing shoppers asked: ‘Catfish and the what?’ Such was the demand for tickets that the show was moved to The Academy from the smaller Whelans. A year later, they sold out the Olympia Theatre and gardaí had to be called to restore order after fans packed the alley by the stage door to get selfies with them after the gig. Now they’ve been added to the Electric Picnic bill.
Their first album, The Balcony went Top 10 but their latest, The Ride, went straight in at No.1 in Britain last week. The guitar pop band formed in Llandudno in north Wales have been working towards this fanatical response for eight years, lead singer Evan ‘Van’ McCann told me.
‘I started the band when I was 15 and we began by playing working mens’ clubs. We played 45 minutes of covers and then three quarters of an hour of our own songs. We didn’t like playing covers so, really quickly, the whole set was made up of our own material,’ the 23-year-old says.
‘We would get into the car with a load of CDs and just play whichever venue would take us. We would hook up a generator to the tow bar, play outside colleges and universities, and then give away the CDs we had made. We never waited on our doors to be knocked on we just barged down theirs and made them listen to us.’
Now signed to Island Records, their sound has been likened to that of The Kooks and Stereophonics – bands that made a huge impression on McCann.
‘We’ve played places like Hull, Doncaster and Southend. Fans were saying, “Thanks for coming, no one ever plays here”,’ he says.
‘I remember growing up in a small town and you would love any band that bothered to stop off and play there. The two bands who came that stuck out for me was Stereophonics and The Kooks. They might only have been using Llandudno as a warm up for bigger cities on their tours but it meant the world to us.’
The floppy-fringed singer’s lyrics reflect the concerns of their largely teen audience who sing the lyrics of songs such as Seven, Glasgow and Kathleen back to them loudly at shows.
‘We put up the lyrics to all the songs from the new album on YouTube before it was released,’ says guitarist Johnny ‘Bondy’ Bond. ‘On the tour the people in the crowd had obviously learned them… and were singing along.’
Van claims to have three albums worth of songs ready to record at any time. ‘We love writing songs. It’s never a chore and my computer is full of them… The lyrics come really quickly for me. I write for whoever is in the forefront of my mind at the time, whether it’s a girl, a mate, my family, or a fan.
‘Bondy is almost telepathic. When I play him a song for the first time, he will always intuitively take it where I would have wanted it to go. We have a large body of songs which will hopefully stand to us if the tap stops running.’
Their slightly kooky band originates with a busker Van met as a child travelling with his parents in Australia. The street performer played guitar and used rows of bottles on a clothes line as his percussion.
‘I’ve met him a couple of times since then, when the band went to Australia,’ he says. ‘He’s so sound. People come up to him in the streets with our T-shirts on and want to get their photo taken with him. If we get big enough out in Australia and able to pick our own supports it would be great to have a bill with Catfish And The Bottlemen supported by Catfish the Bottleman.’ That, you feel is inevitable.
The Ride is out now on Island Records. Catfish And The Bottlemen play the Belsonic Festival Belfast, August 23, and Electric Picnic, Laois, Sept 2-4.
‘I write for whoever is in the forefront of my mind at the time – a girl, a mate, my family or a fan’