As international rock star Kyle Falconer gears up for the release of his second solo album later this month, he takes a moment to look back at where it all started.
His latest solo venture, No Love Songs for Laura, is out on July 30 and offers a snapshot of what’s been “going down” for Kyle in the last few years.
A strong believer of past experiences shaping the person we are today, Kyle looks back at where it all began – his school days and talent shows with The View bandmates.
As a former St Mary’s Primary School pupil, what were you like in primary school?
Kyle: “I was quite good in school, I was always a wee bit cheeky but not bad cheeky, you know what I mean. I was kinda mischievous but I wanted to learn. I remember that I was a wee bit different from everyone else. Everyone was into football, I kinda got into football in about primary five, but I remember when I discovered Grease, the musical, when I was younger. I had it on vinyl so I recorded it onto tape. I thought I was trying to educate everyone on musicals and West Side Story and stuff.
“So I used to make tapes and draw the cover and colour them all in and try and dish them out in school under the desk as if it was drugs (laughs). But I remember that nobody was really interested, even the girls weren’t interested. I was always just kind of into that stuff, which when you’re from Lochee nobody’s really into that. But yeah, I loved school, man, I just got on with it.”
Was it just singing at that point, you didn’t play any instruments in primary?
Kyle: “No, no, I always had shots but I think it was when I was in first year and my brother-in-law gave us a shot of his guitar, a Yamaha acoustic, and then I started. When I got to first year I was into Eminem and started writing raps. I remember writing them and being quite nervous to show people. Then I showed my mates and they were like this is actually good. That was how I first started wanting to write songs, was Eminem, I was obsessed with his lyrics. You probably did get Google at the time, but I didn’t know how to use any of that. So I’d listen to the CD and pause it, and get all the lyrics and write them all down from every track on his album and the NWA stuff and that.
“Then I discovered The Beatles just at the end of first year and got my own guitar and then started playing, and by second year we were, like, trying to get into the talent show and forming bands and that was where it all started.”
By that time you were at St John’s High School, who did you enter the S2 talent show with?
Kyle: “That was with The View, but we had a different drummer. Well, I think that was second or third year, I can’t really remember, but it was with Kieran Webster, Pete Reilly and we had a different drummer, called Ryan Brown, at the time because Mo, Steven Morrison, went to a different school, he went to Harris.
“He went to the same primary as us, but they were all a year above me at school but I got into playing the guitar first and then that’s how we started being mates with older ones because I played guitar. In school you were called a mosher if you played guitar, even though we didn’t like mosher music but that was what it was. Then all of a sudden it became cool.”
How did you guys come across each other?
Kyle: “We all lived in the same area as kids, I used to pal about with Pete. Pete was, like, my best mate when I was younger. We used to go round to each other’s house and record stuff and we kind of grew on the guitar together. Kieran was the last one, he was wanting to play guitar but there wasn’t a space in the band so he went and got a bass guitar. Then we started playing together and we were first called Kyle and the Casuals because we had no name when we went up to do our first talent show.
“As we went to go on stage they were like ‘What’s the name of your band?’ and I think we wanted to call ourselves The Lost Weekend because it was like when John Lennon went on his bender for a couple of years and had the lost weekend because we were all Beatles daft at the time. Then he, Mr Cousins, was like ‘Sorry what’s it called?’ while he was on stage introducing us, and he couldn’t get the name right so he just went ‘Kyle and the Casuals!’ So he just made the name up on the spot and that’s how we got our name.
“We started doing weddings and a couple of Christenings. Then we stopped playing for a bit, they all went and got trades and I was still at school and it was at my dad’s funeral that we all met up and I’d been writing more stuff and said ‘why don’t we start playing again?’ I think the first song we done was Coming Down and straight away it was like, ‘Wow, that’s brilliant’.
“The next one was Claudia, then we done Street Lights and then we done Superstar Tradesman and then we had five songs. We started going around pubs playing and getting the reaction from people, and we got a manager and we were just obsessed with writing songs because we knew we were good at it.”
How did your writing style develop?
Kyle: “That kind of depends, because when we done our first album we’d done the songs before we even got into the studio. We’d toured the album for years, so we knew the songs before we got into the studio. But the second album we’d just wrote a couple of songs, a couple ideas, so it was all kinda writing in the studio and it was madness. The second album was crazy partying going on so I don’t remember much of that, but it was all, like, really wacky and strange.
“And then by the third album we were in with this totally different producer and he was like there’s no drinking in the studio or nothing, so it was all dead straight and that was more like what do I want the album to sound like and I was listening to Fleetwood Mac at the time. So it all just depends on who you’re in with, like, the touring with The View was just non-stop, non-stop, non-stop for 12, 13 years. Never had a break, so the writing was just when we could get it in. Now I’ve got more time, I’m doing more stuff on the piano and I’ve got more time to write. I’ve kinda grown up in my head a bit so I realise that it’s actually a process rather than just trying to cram it in.”
When did you write your new album, No Love Songs for Laura?
Kyle: “I was over in America so I had a lot of stuff, I suppose I wrote about half of it in lockdown and half of it was already written. I had about 30 odd songs. There’s only 13 on the album, that was whittling it down to them. I’ve always got songs spare.
“They sometimes get put into b-sides or the Japanese versions always, like, ask for more songs so they’ll probably get thrown onto the Japanese version of the album and I’ll never hear them again, unless I go back to Japan. When I do the next record I won’t be using any of these songs. I’ve already got the new album written so I won’t be using any of the older songs.”
Can you tell me more about it?
Kyle: “I’m not wanting to say too much about it yet but it’s a concept album, if you listen to it from start to finish then you’ll kind of get the drift of what’s going down. It’s not just like there’s a couple of singles, it’s like the whole thing is kind of a story. As in kind of what’s been happening in the past few years and what’s happening in my life and everything.”
And what about The View are you guys going to come together again in the future?
Kyle: “Yeah, we will do, I just don’t know when. At some point yeah, we’ll just need to see how it goes.”
Looking back, is there anything you would have done differently?
Kyle: “I would have stayed away from drugs, and I would have spent more time with my mum when she was alive. I feel bad about that because when I was kinda living the high life in London, she was here on her own. After my dad died and she was kinda on her own and although I helped out with cash and stuff but I always think I should have been away on holidays with my mum and stuff, I always feel guilty for that. But I was young, I was 18 and I got loads of money and I wanted to get out of Dundee.
“I was 21 when she died. She was the last person that I truly loved and the last bit of authority, and anybody that I looked up to. After that I kind of felt like I was on my own. I was in London, on my own, just doing what I wanted. Pleasing myself at that time was with money and alcohol and drugs, it was not a good time. But I believe it that you’ve got to go through that stuff to come back because I appreciate life now.”
Have your parents inspired you in terms of the sort of parent you want to be, for your two girls?
Kyle: “Yeah definitely, yeah. One of my songs, Life, I mention that I’m gonna love my son like you loved Ron (Kyle’s brother) and I’m gonna be the same parent as you because they were great parents. I never had a lot of money but they gave us everything that we wanted, in abundance, it was great. My mum and dad were really supportive of me playing the guitar and my music. My mum was always dead chuffed and she’d go to the bingo and people would cut out things from the paper and hand her it and she’d be like ‘oh, that’s my boy’.”
What advice would you give to youngsters starting out in a band?
Kyle: “Definitely stay away from drugs. (Pause.) Even if you’re not cosmetically good or, like, if everything you do doesn’t sound like everything else, just keep at it, it eventually comes. Even if you’re not the best guitar player, you might be the best writer, or if you’re not the best writer you could play guitar, there’s always some place you could fit in. So if that’s what you want to do, just do it.
“If you’re in a band you’ve got to, I mean, at one point there wasn’t a very good scene in Dundee. Then all of a sudden it kicked off and everyone from Glasgow was moving here. But right now, there’s a great scene in Glasgow and music is good there. So if you’re into music you should be kicking about Glasgow, don’t stay where you’re from, go to where it’s at and be involved. Go out and meet people, it doesn’t matter if you’re on your own, just go meet people, man.”
