Post-Brexit and post-Trump, youth disaffection is rife, and Aberdeen act Cold Years seem more downbeat than most on their new album ‘Paradise’.
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However, as someone once said, anger is an energy, and the quartet do seem to be channelling their frustration into explosive, anthemic rock music which is gaining them like-minded fans around the globe. Louis Craighead takes up the story…

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Who?

Our band consists of four best mates (Ross, Louis, Fraser, and Fin). We play together in the band Cold Years and we are signed to Eone Music. Our manager Jamie has been with us from the very start and is basically the fifth member of our band – he also takes on the role of ‘Dad’ a lot and we stress him out far too much on a daily basis.

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Where?

If we aren’t touring you will find us on the blowy northeast coast of Aberdeen, Scotland, probably indoors because it’s more than likely raining outside.

We spend most of the time in our local studio writing or rehearsing when we are home anyway so it doesn’t bother us. Scotland is an amazing place, but bring an umbrella.

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When?

We got together around 4 – 5 years ago. I (Louis), wasn’t in the band then. Ross got the boys together in a practice room without telling either of them and I think it went a lot better than they thought it would.

Shows started happening, a few tours, and Cold Years’ first couple of releases came out. I joined and we put out another release and most recently our debut album ‘Paradise’ which is where we are at now.

Things are moving so bloody fast it feels like time is flying by just now but we are trying to enjoy every minute of it!

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How?

Our approach to recording is becoming more common with a lot of bands nowadays. We do a lot of stuff ourselves. I produce a bit of music outwith Cold Years and Tom our friend who owns a studio in Aberdeen lets us use his studio to do a lot of production.

We demo in that studio a few nights a week and we all have recording rigs at home to send ideas to and from. Recently we have done a lot of work with Neil Kennedy at The Ranch in Southampton, that’s where we made ‘Paradise‘. Working with Neil is a dream – we click as a band and as producers together. We had the whole record demoed out and fully written before we travelled down to do the proper thing with him, it made the whole process completely stress free. Everything was so well rehearsed and thought out it was literally a case of making the record with real drums, real guitars and with a far better producer!

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Neil brought so many ideas to the table, which helped shape the sound of the record too which was awesome. It’s really cool when you think you have a song totally finished and a fresh set of ears can take it even further and make it even more exciting than it already was. We honestly can’t wait to work with him again in the future.

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What?

In the past, we have been compared very closely to the likes of The Gaslight Anthem and The Menzingers. For a while we took it a bit personally because we were very conscious of the fact we never wanted to copy another band’s sound or do something that has been done before.

As the years have gone by we have changed as people, and with that our music and our sound has changed. We take any comparison to those bands as a huge compliment now, we love those bands and to be put in their category is so cool. When you first start a band your influences will always shine through before your own unique sound – that’s standard practice, it’s what makes a group of friends want to get in a room together in the first place.

As a band the one thing we are most proud of with ‘Paradise’ is that we pushed the boundaries with our sound. For instance, we took a very old song called ‘The Waits’ which was off Cold Years’ first-ever release and took away any punk elements it had and made it a huge ballad, but thrown into the album it still works, and to this day it’s our favourite song to play live and one of our favourites from the record.

When you do something like that as a band you worry that you are going to disappoint a certain demographic of fans who like you for your old sound and what you would usually do, but to us progression and pushing ourselves as musicians is so important.

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‘Paradise’ is out now. More at www.facebook.com/coldyearsband

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