A band whose members will be familiar to many Jockrock readers (even if they don’t know it), Curators’ individual components came together after a few years on the Scottish indie circuit in other bands. However, as you will hear below, the results this time round are bigger and more impressive than even their most ardent followers could have hoped.
We left it to vocalist and founder member Jon to sum the band up, as ever, in their own words…

Who?

Jon (vocals and guitars), Gary (vocals and guitar), Bob (bass and vocals), Mark (drums)

When?

Gary and I have been playing together since 2008 but Curators only really came together in late 2009. After a couple of reshuffles, we eventually got a settled lineup and released our debut album “Is This a Private Fight?” on Anti-Manifesto in October 2010. We got a bit of momentum up after that, but then we lost our bassist to the Navy and so we were in danger of being back to square one again. However, enter Bob and his third part harmonies and we get to today! I sometimes wonder if Pete leaving for the Navy is why our new record has a bit of a nautical feel to it…

Where?
Although none of us are actually originally from Edinburgh, we are definitely an Edinburgh band! I’m an ex-pat Dundonian living in Leith, Gary is from Haddington, Mark is from Perth and Bob is from the north of England. Having said that, we all live and work in Edinburgh and have done for years, so that is definitely where our band is from. Ex-members of our band now live as far afield as Canada and New Zealand, so make of that what you will…

What?

The blurb! Well, this is what’s currently online:

Curators are a band from Edinburgh who, if pushed, might describe themselves as melodic indie-punk-rock plus a preoccupation with minor chords. (Continues at some length –read in full)

In less blurby terms, we’ve made a minor key pop record with dirty guitars, sea-salt and harmonies. We’ve also made use of the fact that we have three singers, so there’s a lot more going on vocally as well as musically. If the first record was straight ahead, bombastic rock music, this record is a little more considered and crafted. When we were writing it, we were determined that it should be the Pinkerton to ITAPF’s Blue Album!

Why?

Definitely not for the money! We all have “grown up” jobs (I’m a teacher), but we also love writing and recording. Our music comes out through the Anti-Manifesto collective, so we have complete control and we’re not concerned with following trends or trying to “make it”. We’ve all played in bands for years, so we’re under no illusions. We make music because we want to and because we enjoy it. We’re a good live band too, so people who are into us seem to really get the honesty in the songs, as well as the melodies. That’s far more important to me than trying to please everybody and writing banal nonsense as a result. I’ve got no interest in quitting my job to become a “famous rock star”. We’re interested in people getting to hear music that is genuine, passionate and unfettered by record labels or trends. I’m too old to care about what the NME has to say about anything. I am also positive that we are essentially a pop band in the finest tradition of intelligent Scottish pop music, but no-one tends to agree with me. Philistines.

The Cold in The Walls should be available on CD soon – you can hear it now as well as picking up their debut as a free download, at curators.bandcamp.com.