It’d be daft to use the phrase “needs no introduction” in what is after all ‘A Casual Introduction’, ostensibly to a new act you’ve maybe not heard of.
However, in the case of ULTRAS, or specifically, Gav Prentice, you’ll kind of know him already. Well, if you’re a fan (and who isn’t?) of oddball Scottish sitcom (kinda), Burnistoun, as his previous act Over The Wall were responsible for the bright an brassy theme tune.

Anyway, that was then and this is now, so let’s have Gav fill us in on the story so far / since…

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Who?

My name is Gav Prentice, and I make music under the name ULTRAS, which has also become the name for the album I’ve just made, for me and the group of producers I made it with (Joe Cormack, Paul Gallagher, Julian Corrie, Jonnie Common, Ben Hillman) and for the live band that are out playing the songs with me at the moment (Roy Mohan Shearer and Matt Clark).

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Where?

In Glasgow and the Central Belt. I’m originally from Bathgate, West Lothian. I support a football team from Coatbridge so sometimes people think I’m from there, but I’m not really. I am an internationalist; people also call me Mr Worldwide.

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When?

In late 2014 I put the first ULTRAS track online, and at that point there was no band and only a handful of songs. My previous band Over the Wall had just split up, I was doing a lot of music for theatre at the time and I was keen to get cracking with my new thing. It still feels like a new thing, because it’s kind of been evolving since then. The album, the culmination of our efforts, came out on 28th April this year.

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How?

The album features 6 producers and 9 musicians over 12 tracks, with myself as the only songwriter. I would take the songs to each producer and work on arrangements (mainly beats) together in the way that a rapper would work with a producer rather than a rock band or a singer-songwriter, inspired by hip-hop mixtapes and the variety of sounds you get on there.

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What?

“Violent pop for the patronised” is what I say. All of the songs are about violence in one way or another. And the best way to sum up the range of influences, the hip-hop, folk, electronica, rock, is actually to just say it’s pop music, cos really that’s what it is. And the young working class people that are largely the characters in these songs are the most patronised group in society.

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Why?

Not for money, or fame, or a sense of ‘cool’ – but to try and say something honest and get to some kind of truth. I dearly wish I could say something funnier than that. The record is actually kind of funny in places. Honest.

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ULTRAS’ debut album is available now, from Instictive Raccoon or Hello Thor.

See http://wwwULTRASband.comfor all the links, clips and dates that you need.