Pastel are a band that have come out swinging. With sold out tours and a number 1 spot in the vinyl charts, all before the release of their debut album, they’re a band that look to be on the cusp of true breakthrough success. Gigslutz sat down with them for a chat about their upcoming debut, their upcoming tour and the importance of musical history.

Your debut album comes out this January, how are you guys feeling about it?

Yeah we’re really excited, it feels like it’s been a long time coming but it adds to the magic a little bit. So yeah we’re really excited for it.

And you’ve already hit number 1 in the vinyl charts, so there seems to be a genuine excitement for the debut

Yeah there seems to be. I think a couple of press people have had a listen to the album, and it’s different when we listen to it because we’ve heard the songs a thousand times but we’ve had a few messages from people who’ve listened to it saying, “this is fucking incredible” so it’s really nice to get that fresh opinion.

Have the songs on the album been there since day 1 of the band?

They’ve been there for a while yeah, but these things do take time. It’s not a case of writing 10 songs and in 4-5 weeks it’s out, at the minute we’re already writing for the next album.

There was a different formation of the band, a different line up, the main songwriter left. So we got Joe in and (it was) the three of us so we thought no ones gonna write songs for us.

But I quite like that because it gives the songs a rawness because we’ve not been doing it 20 years.

 

And the record is released on, ‘ Spirit of Spike Island’, paying homage to the iconic Stone Roses show. Do you think it’s important for younger bands to pay their respects to what’s come before? 

Yeah it’s important to have your respect for it. I remember my auntie asking me, “what bands are you listening to?” when I was sort of 15, 16 and all the bands I told her about she said, ‘But aren’t you listening to anyone now?”, I said, “I’m trying but there’s not many”.

I remember the first time I went and bought the Second Coming and played it. I only knew  couple songs from it at the time and it absolutely blew my head off. I think because I wasn’t born (when it released) and I grew up with the first album. I was almost like I was 16, 25 years prior and I heard it for the first time because it was still so fresh.

You guys have been on the up and up over the last few years before the album has even been released, how does that feel?

We’re excited because we’ve toured quite a bit, done a load of gigs, but there’s only a handful of songs on Spotify. Which I suppose is amazing, because we sold our first headline tour out with only about 8 songs out.

And we’re excited to get the record out because it’ll hopefully improve the gigs too. To tour the album is going to feel like a big event.

And do you think a lot of these songs will take on a new meaning after being played live? With fans having their favourites etc?

Yeah definitely, you can sense it because some of the songs we’ve played that aren’t out yet they’re already loving it. And when we’re out touring it’s going to become a real moment, a proper us and them thing, doing it together.

 

And just touching on the tour you’ve got some legendary venues lined up, are there any dates that stand out in particular?

Definitely King Tuts, we’ve played there before and sold it out. When we booked this tour we had to go back, to be honest Glasgow’s probably our favorite place to play. Or Scotland in general the people just love it!

And the Manchester date, at the Academy, that’s one that obviously stands out but to be honest they all do! Looking at the dates they all just feel strong to me, when I look at the poster I think, “Yeah every one of thems gonna be fucking bouncing!”

Pastel’s upcoming album as well as tickets for their upcoming tour can be found here.