Model Aeroplanes are a band of four Dundonian lads who specialise in making infectious indie-pop mantras that will fly around your brain for days.
The band have been working their way up the ranks of the Scottish music industry since their debut single release, Crazy, in 2013. This release sparked a frenzy in the youthful minds of the country. Their next 2014 singles, Electricity and Innocent Love followed suit, quickly building their fanbase to an impressive level.
"We wouldn't be where we are now, without the help of our younger listeners."
By using their developing knowledge of the industry, Model Aeroplanes have managed to establish themselves as one of Scotland's most well-known indie bands of the last 4 years.
Since their first releases, the quartette have refined their sound, making it more definitive of their generation than it has been before. They've gone from inoffensive pop songs, to multi-layered indie tracks they can be proud of.
"...it was done consciously and subconsciously... conscious in the sense that since we’ve started we’ve always taken some check points and thought ‘what do we want to do next, where do we want to go next with this sound?’ There might be a couple of months where we are experimenting with key changes, then a couple of months where we do timing changes. Because of that, the music naturally develops."
Their creative growth has induced a change in what used to be a slightly female orientated demographic. Now, they play to a more mixed audience - which is something they'd like to see a lot more of: "some bands find it easier to tap into that sort of 'lads culture' and all that, but for us it has always been that little bit harder. But, personally, it would be a fucking great feeling to see even more of a mixed crowd, rather than it be dominated by just one gender.”
Kieran, Rory, Ben and Grant have got a very easygoing nature and their long-term friendship makes writing and recording an honest and collaborative process: “the whole process [of] writing songs, through to getting them ready to record, is all totally shared. Most stuff's done when we’re all in a room together, so its pretty good."
The boys' camaraderie shines through in their sound. Model Aeroplanes have taken the most fun parts of working with your pals and turned them into dead catchy tunes that you, yer mam, yer dad and yer auld auntie can all dance to: "It’s always stuff that we want to be doing, its never like [we're] trying to write a certain type of music, for a certain setting, like specially for radio or anything like that.”
They've got a DIY studio, which is pretty good for recording demos just now, "but one day we want to just self record - if the label trusts us enough to give us free reign. That would give us [enough] money to buy our own gear. That’s years down the line, but that's what we'd really like, you know.”
Outside their self-made recording space, the band use people they've met and friends they've got in the business to help nurture their sound and produce it to a level that reflects their talents: “our friends been producing us lately, a guy called Rob, who’s the singer in a band called Dog Is Dead. They’ve been working on their own stuff, but Rob’s been helping us out. We’ve been down in Nottingham working with him, living with him and it's been fantastic.”
This outside perspective from Rob has been particularly useful in creating new music that sticks to the original integrity of the band. They might talk about shifting their demographic slightly, but the melodic twists and turns in Model Aeroplanes' sound is what keeps listeners coming back time and time again: "Rob's helped us kind of bring the pop vibes back, which is good. So when we went ‘lets make this instrumental bit twice as long', he’s went 'no, bring the vocals out a lot more.’ Its good though, cos he’s kept us on a bit of a leash. It's easier when it comes from someone whose music you’re already totally into. So it's nice, we're all on the same page.”
They are by no means restricted by the sound they have developed over the years, but the boys want to use their edgier new music to go a wee bit crazier (2013 pun intended) onstage:
"We're totally [celibate] onstage just now, and we don’t do what we could be doing. We could be going mental onstage - and I don't mean biting the head off a bat or anything - I mean just making the live show a lot more interesting and a bit different from everything else.”
Rory explains: "I think when we’ve got new music out and we can re-work the set, we’ll just kind of make it a bit more of an experience. We're working on making it kind of trippy: so that if you're sober you can enjoy it, if you’re steemin' you can enjoy it and if you’re tripping balls on acid, you can enjoy it."
Capitalising on their mutual passion and natural flare for what they do, means Model Aeroplanes have given life to a sound that is relevant and consumable by many different folk. They've already conquered half the battle. If their most recent EP, Something Like Heaven, is anything to go by, then we can only expect exciting things from the band in the coming months.
Find Model Aeroplanes on the following sites (they're everywhere, you canny get rid of them):
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/modelaeroplanes/about/?entry_point=page_nav_about_item
Twitter - https://twitter.com/modelaeroplanes
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/modelaeroplanes/
SoundCloud - https://soundcloud.com/modelaeroplanes
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/user/ModelAeroplanesVEVO
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/artist/6pRhh4bqV7XtCWbNAONmay
iTunes - https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/something-like-heaven-ep/id1081083318