TeenCanteen release their debut album – sort of – ‘This Is How It Starts’.

Now available on vinyl via Last Night From Glasgow/HIVE and self-released on all other formats, the eight track effort should have been the band’s debut long-player, but for various reasons wasn’t released at the time, almost ten years ago.

Instead, the new record, including recent single ‘How We Met (Cherry Pie)‘ marks the five year anniversary of the band’s debut proper, ‘Say It All With A Kiss’, which then made the Longlist for the Scottish Album of the Year Award in 2017.

The band – fronted by Carla J Easton, and with Sita Pieraccini on bass, Chloe Philip on guitar and Debs Smith on drums – then put out one further EP, ‘Sirens’, before splitting.

Easton has since produced several acclaimed solo albums under her own name, including ‘Impossible Stuff’ and ‘Weirdo‘, as well teaming up with Joe Kane for ‘Homemade Lemonade‘ under the name Ette.

Amanda Wilkinson later joined TeenCanteen when Chloe Philip departed to join The BMX Bandits – whose lead singer, Duglas T. Stewart, provides guest vocals on ‘This Is How It Starts’, while another Lanarkshire musical legend, Eugene Kelly (The Vaselines) also appears.

Lead vocalist/synth player Carla Easton says of the debut album: “Having written and released five albums I can look back at this with different eyes and I think it’s good, it’s energetic, it’s the sound of four friends in a room having fun learning as they go and discovering how they sound together. ‘This Is How It Starts’ is a key part of our journey and story that has been lost and overlooked.

“It’s raw and fresh and fun. It’s carefree and innocent. It’s tentative first singing, sometimes naive lyrics, it’s new. It perfectly captures that special point in a band’s time when everything is beginning.”

Bassist/vocalist Sita Pieraccini adds: “It’s great to hear these tracks again and share it with our fans and beyond – I hope it’s fun to hear how a band developed and how you can write your own music, lyrics and tell your own stories.

“This is us having fun as a four piece and pushing the lyrical element with harmonies and fun twists in musical styles, driven by fun beats and jumping rhythms and a playful attitude. The tunes that followed are just as heartfelt with a more developed pop aesthetic. I think we always capture the energy of the band in all our records but this is more intimate, like a live set in your living room.”

‘This Is How It Starts’ track listing:
You’re So Analog
It Could Be Beautiful
Under My Cover (ft. Duglas T. Stewart)
How We Met (Cherry Pie)
One More Night
Atlas
Fireworks
Friends

The album is available in three colours of vinyl at Last Night From Glasgow, or digitally elsewhere – more at www.facebook.com/TeenCanteen.