By Hannah Oman
Tijuana Bibles | Artist Spotlight
We caught up with Scottish indie rock band Tijuana Bibles ahead of their show at Tut's...
For new fans of Tijuana Bibles, can you tell us a bit about who you are as a band?
We’re very close-knit, having been around for some time - my brother Danny is in the band, his best friend since birth Mikey, and James who we lived with for years. We’re like family, having toured all over, from playing motorcycle clubs in the Baltics, to getting sun stroke (tequila stroke) in Austin, Texas. We’ve always regarded ourselves as a ‘live’ band, so we put the breaks on releasing music during the pandemic and now we’re all in again! 2023 has been great and I think 2024 will be eventful now that our debut album Free Milk is out! Regarding our ‘sound’? A DJ once described us as "Arctic Monkeys' evil cousins" I thought that was pretty amusing!
Your new album Free Milk was released last Friday and we are loving it! Could you guys sum up the new tracks and what the process recording these was like?
Thank you! We recorded it at 7 West Studios with Chris Marshall and Johnny Madden. We had a quick live run through and we were good to hit ‘record’. We wanted the album to sound sharp and to the point - the whole process was like that, and if there was any room to go faster - do it! ‘Tempo, tempo, tempo’ was a bit of a mantra, and I’ve seen the terms "visceral", "propulsive", and "poltically charged’ used to describe the album. I wouldn’t argue with that. There are points where it feels like we’re screeching round the corner on two wheels but, I’d like to think, there’s an atmosphere and density to it that keeps us from flying off the edge; "Controlled chaos" if you will! There are also more delicate and vulnerable moments within it and we’re so happy it’s resonating with people.
Do you guys have any stand out tunes on the album that you keep coming back to?
To be honest, we were looking forward to seeing what tracks stood out to other people - We can’t pick our favourite baby! There’s a song called Architect that people seem to be gravitating towards and another called Moth man. They’re both very different songs at opposite ends of the album spectrum, so that can only be a good thing!
What’s next for the band? Anything you’re really excited about coming up?
We always surprise ourselves! We just want to play as much as we possibly can and, generally speaking, that takes us to some weird and wonderful places, where we have the opportunity to meet people and experience a life less ordinary. Looking forward to gigging early next year and going into festival season!
What can fans expect from your live show?
Every single emotion from Free Milk absolutely scorched to the floorboards of King Tut's. We will leave it all out there.