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I’M BUILDING A KAMPFIREGERRY CINNAMON

WHERE: GlasgowFOR FANS OF: Neil Young, Vance Joy, BobDylanJIMSAYS:First Run Records go from strength tostrength with their latest signing. The Glasgowlabel have previously brought us singles fromModel Aeroplanes, Vukovi and United Fruit.

Castlemilk lad Gerry Cinnamon is another art-ist who’s been turning heads in recent years.

He sold out King Tut’s twice before he’d evenreleased anything. Gerry told me “First Run gotinvolved after one of the King Tut’s gigs. Fromthere it’s turned into a signing then the releaseof a single and a music video.”

The single Kampfire Vampire is a song that’sbeen floating around for a while now, so it’sgreat to see it getting a full release.

He said: “Kampfire Vampire is a kickback atthe falseness of the music industry. From realityTV shows to upcoming artists on the local cir-cuit getting exploited by people who are onlyinterested in money. For a lot of young artists itbecomes a choice between joining them andbecoming part of something you don’t agree

with, or quitting. Most people just quit. KampfireVampire is an expression of a third choice. To doyour own thing. Build your own campfire. If youbelieve in what you do, you’ll be satisfied.”

Gerry’s also a politically active songwriter, andlast year appeared at the Hope Over Fear rally inGlasgow’s George Square, organised by thesocialist campaign for an independent Scotland.

He explained: “A few weeks before the refer-endum I wrote a song in about 15 minutes calledHope Over Fear. I posted it on Facebook and itwent viral. I recorded it in less than ten minutesand then put it on iTunes.

“It went to No5 in the alternative chart andstayed there for a fortnight without any marketing.Crazy! It knocked Coldplay off No5 as well, whichis class! When I performed it in George Squarethere were thousands singing along. That blewmy mind!” Gerry’s been making music for as long

as he can remember. He said: “I wrote rhymes andpoems since I was a kid but my mum couldn’t aff-ord to buy me proper clobber never mind a guitar.

“I ended up learning on an old classical guitarwith three steel strings on it. All you could reallyplay on it was a blues riff so I’d play that till myfingertips fell off and write lyrics. Slagging peo-ple off mostly, childish stuff. It wasn’t until I wasa teenager that I started to write songs.

“I’ve been writing and recording rough demosever since. I’ve never really released anything untilrecently. Last year songs were pouring out. I didn’thave recording equipment so I recorded a bunchof late-night demos on my phone and releasedthem for free on Soundcloud.”

Now with a label in place and a publishing con-tract, Gerry’s ready to take it to the next level.Kampfire Vampire is released on May 4. Forth-coming dates include The Drygate Brewery inGlasgow on May 9 as part of The Playlist’sUnearthed festival. In June he supports JohnPower (The La’s/Cast) in Edinburgh and Glasgow.MORE: facebook.com/Gerrycinnamonmusic.lJim presents Drivetime on XFM Scotland, Mondayto Friday 4-7pm. www.xfm.co.uk www.jimgellatly.com

By JIMGELLATLYNEWMUSIC

Something for the WeekendSomething 2ONE2

WATC

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EENEY ONE 2 SEE

ONE 2 HEARBANGING duo Slaves are reallyon it at the moment.New single Cheer Up Londonis a stinging attack on folk whoput money above everythingelse.The boys— Laurie Vincentand Issac Holman from Tun-bridge Wells in kent — aredubbed as “British punk withharsh bluesy garage riffs”.The new single features theirtypical boisterous sound. It’s ariot of a song.And it comes out on June 1.Listen to it now at youareall-slaves.com.

RAPPER Nas’ debut albumIllmatic is one of hip-hop’s alltime classics.He’s been taking it all over theworld for it’s 20th anniversary.Unlike lots of rappers, Nas—his full name is the spectacularNasir bin Olu Dara Jones— isnot washed up and in hisdotage.The New Yorker is still a chart-topper in the US, but is takingtime out to give a nod to thepast.He’s at Glasgow’s 02 Acad-emy on June 2— get tickets atnasirjones.com

BELFAST rock boys AndSo I Watch You FromAfar must need a fam-ily-size tub of Persil onthe tour bus.

The band keep breakingnew ground — and they haverevealed they get wrackedwith nerves thinking aboutnew levels of success.

With their fourth album setfor release in a few weeks, theylook like smashing into themainstream.

Guitarist Rory Friers admitted:“We constantly have to makesure we’ve got clean underwear,as we’re always so nervousabout taking it up a level.

“There’s nothing worse thanturning up to a 1,000-plus venueand wondering what 20 peoplewill look like down the front.Thankfully it’s not happened yet.”

The guys went into thingswith their eyes open.

They realised it was going tobe a hard slog.

Rory, 31, said: “By the sort ofmusic we make, we knew weweren’t a band who’d be playedon Radio 1.

We built it in theDIY grassroots way

“We took that decision tobuild it in the DIY grassrootsway. We’ve been chipping away.

“It’s not the way everyonewould want to do it. But we feela lot more stable at this stageand the rug can’t get pulledfrom underneath our feet.

“You’ve got to respect that,there’s certain music that every-one isn’t going to like. You haveto be comfortable that you sitwithin those parameters.

“Everybody loves McDonald’sand that’s why you get so manypeople going there.

“But the caviar market is alot more niche. You’ve got to becomfortable where you’re at.

“We knew we wouldn’t be abig pop sensation. In some waysit is frustrating as you do wantpeople to hear you.”

New album Heirs is eagerlyawaited.

And the band feel it mighttake them to the next level.But they haven’t watered any-thing down.

Rory said: “We always strive totake a good step forward and agood step sideways to progress.

“It feels a bit more of agrown-up album.

“When you make your first

The band load into Glasgow’sKing Tut’s on Tuesday nightnext week.

It’s part of their Europeantour. And it’s a typicallylong run.

They pride themselveson hitting outposts

The guys also pride them-selves on hitting outposts allover the globe including Russia,Vietnam, Thailand, China andthe Philippines.

Rory said: “There’s two types

of touring we do. One is work-ing to grow the band.

“But there’s another aspectwhich all bands might not wantto do. We feel we have theopportunity to go see someincredible places.

“So if a promoter in Vietnamwants us to do a South EastAsian tour, although maybe it’snot going to be super lucrative,we like the adventure — that’swhy we’ve been to so manyplaces.

“It’s incredible as you have aroom full of people who don’t

see many bands as no one trav-els there, as there’s supposed tobe no music industry, eventhough loads of people might beinto your band.

“So the people in these placesare full of gratitude.

“It’s great and makes for afun show.

“You can’t speak the languagebut it’s super nice to communi-cate with these people overmusic. It’s a cool feeling.”l For tickets and to pre-order newalbum Heirs, go to: www.facebook.com/andsoiwatchyoufromafar

album, you have no one toimpress. Making the second, wedid think — ‘holy s***, we havea small amount of people wait-ing for this’. But you have to gointo it and try to be brave andsatisfy yourself.

“I remember our first royaltycheques from the radio and TV.

“You can very clearly seewhat songs are putting moneyin your bank account.

“There’s a certain amount ofdiscipline to not go ‘let’s writea bunch of songs exactlylike that’. And we’ve kept that.”

The band load into Glasgow’salbum, you have no one to

Hits makeus nervous