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Leftfest Inverness headliners Get It Together QnA


By Margaret Chrystall


Mark Fraser, frontman of Central Belt melodic hardcore/punk band Get It Together, answers Margaret Chrystall’s questions about the line-up’s story and the new album out next month, tracks to feature on Friday

Q I decided to look into the phrase Get It Together to see if I could guess what had inspired your band name. With songs from the Beastie Boys, James Brown to Drake & Jorja Smith, there’s also an 80s TV kids’ music show. None of that sounds right for a band described by Leftfest bods as an “upliftingly cathartic hardcore punk band”. So really, maybe I’d just better ask you. How did that end up being the perfect name for you?

A We were not around in time for the kids’ show, merely glints in our respective parents’ eyes, although most of us weren’t exactly far behind its last broadcast date.

To be honest it was my first and only suggestion to Craig when we had the name conversation with very little origin behind it. I think the view was that it would be temporary until we got things going, but seven years later GIT remains.

It’s hardly the most hardcore punk band name. Bands like Asbestos Beach, Sanction This, Insufferable and Endless Swarm have much better names than we do.

Our name makes us sound like we’re going to show up and do some sort of am-dram improv or play some low-grade funk and soul covers.

Q I think when you play Inverness on Friday (Mar 29) that will be your first time playing here. Just to let people know a bit about your history, where are you from and what have been some of the high spots of your live life so far?

A First time ever. I can’t believe it’s taken us this long to get up to Inverness, hopefully after Friday we can do it more regularly.

We’re dotted all over the Central Belt (Glasgow, Alloa, Falkirk & Cowdenbeath) and practise in Dunfermline. We started out when Craig and I met again years after losing contact with one another. After the initial “whit ye been up tae?” the next question was “ye playin in a band?” and that was that. From there we recorded some rough demos together, got Graham in to drum and cycled through a few line-ups before we got Ade in on bass a few years ago.

One of my favourite things about being in this band is seeing all the amazing bands we get to play with. We’ve been lucky and have played with a few bands we grew up listening to like H2O, A Wilhelm Scream, Down By Law and the Movielife. We’ve also been fortunate enough to have toured the UK and Europe. Although on our European tour we did play in an extremely shady abandoned garage in Amsterdam so maybe we’re not too lucky.

Q We normally ask for your best and worst gigs up to now – with some edited highlights (or maybe lowlights in the case of the worst one, if you’ve had such a thing!)?

A Make-That-A-Take Records host Book-Yer-Ane-Fest in Dundee yearly and it is consistently our favourite gig of the year. It’s always extremely lively and filled with people from all over having the best time. We’ve had some of our wildest and most fun gigs there, so we love going back when we get the opportunity.

The shady abandoned garage show in Amsterdam was rough, all our amps and the PA were powered by a weak petrol generator. The power kept cutting out when we played but after 10 failed attempts it decided to cut us some slack. We finished up and left quickly after as it genuinely felt like the roof could have caved in at any moment and I mean that in a literal sense.

Q Who inspired you to get together as a band (if anyone really did – you might have been total self-starters). And how early did you plan the sound that has evolved into your own – hardcore punk (melodic)?

A There wasn’t really a plan other than playing really fast music but we’ve definitely drawn on wide variety of influences since then. We all really like Sick Of It All, Gorilla Biscuits, Discharge, Paint It Black, Good Riddance, Subhumans and Minor Threat to name a few. We found our feet playing a less aggressive, more melodic style than we play today but we were all quite rusty with being in a band after years off so it was an opportunity to find our feet.

From there it’s evolved quite naturally into how it sounds today. Maybe it has something to do with the state of the world, moving into our 30’s or the bleak Scottish winters but we definitely sound a lot angrier than we used to. Live Free is a collection of the best songs we’ve written and represents what GIT is all about.

Q You have been together since 2012, I think. How has the hardcore punk scene in Scotland evolved over that time? What bands do you feel are your peers and maybe even mentors – or has that become your role for others?

A I’m excited by the increase in diversity amongst the bands. The surge in the representation of women and members of the LGBTQ+ community throughout the scene has been great to see. Listening to and seeing bands like Bratakus, Overwhelmed, Fit To Work, Gay Panic Defence, Hardcore Boys and The Signal is brilliant. Hardcore when I was growing up definitely seemed to be like an exclusive lads club and it still is for the most part but it’s great to see the tide begin to turn.

I’d consider bands like AVAS, Divide, Engage, Broken Oath, In Decades Decline, Atomgevitter, Allergo, Shatterhand and Turtlehead to have helped shape us in some capacity. Each band played hard and fast, had meaningful lyrics and gave absolutely everything whenever I saw them play and that’s something we really try to instill into Get It Together.

Over the last few years we’ve sadly lost a lot of our peers like Elk Gang, False Hopes, The Walking Targets and Lachance but I’m glad we can still say that Eaten By Crows, Uniforms, PMX, Bike Notes, The Murderburgers and others are still around.

Q It seems as if your new album Live Free has been long planned and for fans you have been reminding and posting about its progress over a long time. Now it’s counting down the days till the official April 26 release date. Talk us through the album and what tracks from it will you be playing at Leftfest?

A We’ve had our fair share of setbacks over the last few years which have made Live Free feel like our Everest, but I’m really proud of what we’ve created. Live Free is an immediate, aggressive and outspoken collection of songs, about subjects I wish I could live free from, such as xenophobia, sectarianism, grief and depression. Based on that description, it might sound a bit grim and grey, but there is definitely a cathartic and hopeful side to the songs.

We’ll be playing a lot of songs from the album like Gentlemen’s Club, Silence, Worn Out and one of my favourites Metamorphosis. My favourite track from the album Without You means the most to me but at six minutes long it takes up the same space as four or five other songs, so we’ve opted to leave it out this time.

Q Fife seems to be packed with creatively switched-on people with a lot of individuality and talent in lots of different ways – musicians, writers and artists. I’m not sure where exactly in Fife you are from, but is it something in the water?

A As a lifetime bairn from Falkirk, I’m not allowed to say positive things about Fife due to some daft football rivalry. However, it has to be said that there are a great deal of talented people and bands from Fife. Our guitarist, Craig was born and bred near Dunfermline, Graham (drums) has spent most of his life there and Ade (bass) is a lifelong Dunfermline Athletic fan so we have a pretty strong connection to the area.

I’m not sure if it has anything to do with the water unless they’ve tainted the supply with a certain tonic wine (the term tonic does not imply health giving or medicinal properties). If that were the case, it’d certainly make a lot more sense.

Get It Together headline Leftfest Inverness’s Citizens of Nowhere fundraiser for Highlands Support Refugees and Highland Migrant and Refugee Advocacy at the Tooth and Claw on Friday night. Joining them on the night will be music from Monsters In The Ballroom, On the Black, Will and Donald, and Teya-Jean Bawden. There will also be spoken word from Bastard Wordiness, stand-up from Braw Bricht Comedy, and a display from Highland Migrant and Refugee Advocacy's Stories of Movement exhibition. Doors open at 6.30pm and tickets cost £8 (£10 solidarity, £4 unwaged/student). Go to www.getittogether.scot


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