Last week, I got the chance to speak with Jamie and Matt from Eckø, a Scottish indie-rock band. We met via Zoom, Jamie and Matt on a sofa with a guitar, an Eckø banner, and a Celtic flag–the Glasgow Football Club, not the Boston basketball team–visible behind them.
We spoke about the band’s formation, their songwriting process, their favorite gigs, and a few other things. Here is the transcript of the interview, edited for clarity and conciseness, and because I may have missed a thing or two when listening to their beautiful, but very thick, Scottish accents.
Alana: Could you guys introduce yourselves and your roles in the band
Jamie: My name is Jamie [Warden] and I’m the singer
Matt: I’m Matt [Welsh] and I’m the guitarist
[Johnny Armstrong, the drummer, and Liam O’Connor, the bassist, are the other two members of Eckø]
Alana: In three words– you can do more than three– how would you describe your music?
Matt: Nappy (adjective: rich and heady), quite infectious, and loud
Jamie: I’d say it could be better, but I’d agree with those three, definitely
Matt: I feel like loud and infectious are the main two.
Alana: Your first single, Don’t Get Me Wrong, was released in 2022. Did you guys get together in 2022? Or was the release of the single a long time coming?
Jamie: In 2021, we kind of formed, we had other members before. It dates back to quite a while ago, when we had other members [but] we never really gigged. It was just like friends in the studio muckin’ about. Around about April in 2021, Matthew, the guitarist, he came up first, and he knew Liam, the bassist, from school, so then he joined. And then Johnny, we put an instagram post up looking for a drummer, and Johnny was one of the first people to respond.
Matt: We gigged from the start of 2022, maybe for about a year or year and a half, until JT– the drummer on Psycho Candy and Don’t Get me Wrong– left. Then we had to just find somebody quick because we wanted to keep going with the gigs and just not stop, so then we put out that post and Johnny messaged us and that was that. As soon as we spoke to him and did a session it was like, well, that’s our drummer then, we don’t need to find anyone else.
Jamie: So to answer your question: 2021.
[Matt and Jamie laugh basically on cue with one another]
Alana: So you feel like once Johnny appeared, you found your groove around then?
Jamie: Oh yeah, absolutely. [Matt agrees] The drummer, that’s the heart of the band. Not to say anything negative about the last drummer, he was perfect for the time, he just didn’t want to do it any more. Johnny is King.
Alana: What would you say is your biggest influence? These can be people, these can be things, these can be general concepts.
Matt: Bands, probably. I’d probably say The View [Scottish indie-rock band formed in 2005], because they’re Scottish, and it’s when they’re from Scotland and you’re from Scotland, it gives you that buzz and you’re like “We can do this.”
Jamie: I feel like the atmosphere of the gig is inspiring, even just being there as a watcher, it makes you want to do that. But definitely The View, watching someone that you can relate to, doing the things that you would love to do… it’s just one of those things.
Alana: Do you feel like being Scottish is a huge part of your music? Either overtly or just in the way you’ve come together, does it feel like a big part of your identity as a band?
Matt: Absolutely. You want to do well because of it. When you go to England to do gigs, they always notice your accent, and then they ask “Are you Scottish?,” and it’s like “Yup, I’m Scottish.” It puts a good name on Scotland, so I like the idea of being quite proud of that.
Jamie: Of course being Scottish [is influential]. Scotland’s a very musical country as well, so you’re brought up on a lot of different styles of music. It’s a tiny country but you can go from one place and then travel a couple of hours and it’s a completely different accent, different music, different taste, but at the same time, everybody in Scotland is all together, they all support each other, people always like to see everyone do well.
Alana: I feel like I’ve heard that from a lot of Scottish and Irish singers in particular. [Music] It’s such a huge part of your cultural identity and upbringing, and it’s like, how can you separate that from your own music?
Jamie: It’s destined to bleed into the stuff you write, it’s just in you… it’s just the way it is.
Alana: So thinking about your process as a band, what would you say you start with when creating a song? Is it a vibe? Is it lyrics? Is it some metaphysical feeling that you can’t really describe?
Jamie: We don’t really have a process. I’ll write a song and bring it to the band, and Matt will write then bring it to the band… we don’t really write together.
Matt: We make the song together, but we’ll write kinda separately. I would say lyrics come separately and then music comes together with the four of us.
Jamie: Definitely. I usually just spit out whatever, just spit out sh*te and then try and find a melody at first when you’re doing it. It’s always fun in the studio, it’s always better writing together. Usually I just do the lyrics because I’m singing them and it’s easier for everyone.
Matt: The best tunes I think are the ones that come from jams. You’re jamming a riff or a melody, and it just kind of builds off of that. Those are the best ones that we write, anyway. When you’ve been in the studio and you’ve just finished running through a set or something and you’re just messing about. You’ll play the same riff for two weeks and then the next week Jamie is humming a melody to it, and it just kind of comes from that.
Jamie: You can have this idea and play it in the studio for three weeks and no one will notice and then the following week you play it and somebody picks up on it and it becomes a tune from there. That’s usually what happens, we can’t really explain it.
Alana: So it’s very collaborative [your process]?
Matt: Well song writing is a very personal thing, and it’s a lot easier to do alone. We’ve written tunes together and it always takes longer. I feel it’s always faster writing alone, as opposed to writing together, but that’s because it’s personal preference.
Jamie: I feel like you’re more open to making mistakes when you’re alone. Your song will be better because you’ll let yourself mess up and then you’ll go and fix it up.
Alana: So who wrote Danny Mackenzie (new single)?
Jamie: That was me. That’s actually quite an old song, I wrote that in 2022 as well. It took us so long to record it for some reason, we just did different things before it, for some reason.
Matt: That song has probably been in the set for about three years, and it’s not come out.
Jamie: We probably played it about 300 times, maybe more.
Matt: We’ve probably done about 100 sets with it.
Alana: So is it one of you on the cover?
Jamie: ahh no
Matt: It’s an old Scottish photo, I don’t even know the year [it’s from].
Alana: Ah I see, so it was like “This has just got to be the cover”?
Matt: For us it was just quite cool
Jamie: We had a few ideas, but that one just kinda stood out.
Alana: I have a few more questions, these next two are a rapid fire situation. First one, favorite artists– besides yourselves.
Matt: Right now?
Alana: Yes
Jamie and Matt: Can we do top five?
Alana: Ok, give me your top five
[There was a lot more thinking and talking that transpired to get to these lists, but here are the five they each listed– in no particular order]
Matt: The Fontaines D.C, Wunderhorse, The Cairos, The Lapellles, and
Jamie: Pixies, Elton John, The Fontaines D.C, Wunderhorse, Yello
Alana: Favorite performance thus far?
Matt: You can’t not say Shiiine On. [Eckø played at the 2024 Shiiine On Minehead Weekender, an annual three day music festival] The room is five times the size of anything you’ve played, and it’s full, so that was definitely an experience. As for gigs, anything in Manchester I enjoy, probably the first time in Manchester. It was the first time playing in England, we weren’t in Scotland anymore, we branched out a wee bit. So first gig in Manchester at Lions Den, I’d say.
Jamie: Good shout. I’d probably go, maybe not my favorite gig we’ve played, but just in terms of the band, I would say the first time we played King Tut’s in Glasgow, is probably the one that sticks out to me. If you grew up in Glasgow, King tuts is quite a famous venue and a lot of bands have played there over the years.
Matt: I’d say it’s a historic venue. People come to Glasgow and if they’re into music go to King Tut’s. I’d say the same thing now actually, King Tut’s with Vida.
Jamie: Yeah, that was sold out actually
Matt: Vida, they’ve been going for a bit, probably 15 or 10 years and they’ve kind of done it all. They broke up for a bit and when they came back, they had a bunch of gigs and King Tut’s was one of them, and we supported them at that. That was a sold out King Tut’s, so that was a good experience, to be able to say that you’ve played at a sold out King Tut’s.
Jamie: You should listen to them, Vida
[Eckø played King Tut’s in March 2024 as openers for Vida, a Scottish indie-rock band]
Alana: Drink of choice?
Jamie: Blue milk (full fat milk)
[Matt laughs, a lot]
Matt: I thought we were going alcoholic. Right now, I’d say RedBull but if it’s alcoholic, rum and coke– Morgan’s Spiced rum and coke– can’t go wrong
Jamie: I would agree with that for alcoholic, but for normal drink, definitely blue milk
Alana: Last question, anything you’re working on right now that you want to share?
Jamie: We’ve got a new single coming out in December. It’s called Mag Pie, it’s coming out December 10th. We’ve not said anything about it yet because…
Matt: This is our first time ever [talking about it]
Jamie: …Obviously Danny Mackenzie has just come out, so we wanted to let that do its talking and then promote the new one. But, we might as well while we’re here. So, 10th of December. It’s called Mag Pie.
You can listen to Eckø on Spotify and follow them on Instagram @weareecko_