Kieren Webster of The View has a message for all their fans worried that the band’s Caird Hall gig tonight might be their last ever.
“It’s never going to happen,” he insists as the band prepare for a run of gigs to end the year before they take a break, “for at least a year.”
The announcement a few weeks ago prompted inevitable speculation among fans that the break would be permanent, with lead singer Kyle Falconer already heading off on his solo career and the rest of the band splintered across Britain and America.
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But, at least according to Kieren, those fears are unfounded.
“We’re taking a break for at least a year, then we’ll see what happens after that.”
Candid as ever, Kieren, now based in Glasgow, was happy to talk about his own and the rest of the four-piece band’s plans for the immediate future after 10 years’ slog on the circuit.
“A good break is well needed, but the thought of never playing together again with the boys breaks my heart,” he insists.
“Definitely the feeling in Camp View is that’s never going to happen.
“Everybody’s been doing a bit of travelling, Pete’s been to Barcelona and he’s now living in New York.
“We’ll all be doing different stuff. Kyle’s obviously got his solo thing going just now so he’s concentrating on that,” he adds.
“Personally, I’m looking to go into the studios next year, do demos and see what happens with them,” Kieren says.
“I’ll be coming back to Dundee and working with Scotty (Anderson) and Danny (Forouhar) at Magic Box studios. They’re great musicians (both are founder members of Dundee rockers Scary People and have toured with The View as drum and guitar techs respectively). I definitely want to put something out.”
In relation to this year, of course 2017 brought the 10th anniversary of their debut album Hats Off to the Buskers hitting number one in the charts and as such they’re playing the album in its entirety.
“It’ll be good to celebrate 10 years of the album made in Dundee with a gig in Dundee, and especially the Caird Hall.”
Looking back, did they think 10 years ago they would have had such an amazing career in music?
“Nah, we were never really forward thinking human beings,” Kieren admits.
“It was more like we were just thinking about the next gig or wondering where the next pint or the next party was.
“I think if you told us that we would have done all that stuff we would have told you you were off your head.”
So what are their highlights?
“If you look at what we’ve done, it’s hard to pick out highlights, but obviously playing T in the Park, that’s really special, selling out the Barras so many times, holding the record for playing the most times at King Tuts, getting awards for songwriting, getting signed by James Endecott, that was really cool to get on James’ label,” says Kieren.
Any surprises for the fans tonight?
“We never really do the surprises thing very well,” he laughed.
“We’re playing Hats Off obviously from start to finish then we’ll come back on and play all the other stuff. We’ll play until they switch off the Caird Hall lights! It’ll be a major night!”
