Young Inverness musicians The Citrus Scene, Casanova and K.I.A.N. play the Ironworks, Inverness Hour-long debut made in a month K.I.A.N finds solo life can be difficult

On Friday three sets of young Inverness musicians take the stage at the Ironworks, Inverness. It is a big moment for all three – it’s singer songwriter K.I.A.N’s first gig, Citrus Scene’s first headlining one at the venue and for Casanova it ends a busy year where they had a month to get their band ready for their first-ever gig. Here, all three answer questions from Margaret Chrystall about their music lives so far ... SEE PICTURES AND REVIEW NEXT WEEK!

The Citrus Scene

Q What’s been the biggest learning curve since the band started?

A The whole experience has been a learning curve from when the band started up until now. Just taking the first two years or so to figure everything out has been incredibly beneficial to us and we’ve loved every minute of it. Even just the little things, like learning what a backline is – the instruments and tech provided by the promoter – that took time for us to understand what that meant.

Q Favourite gig ever – to play?

A When it comes to our favourite gig to play, we could list off a good few. However, we would all agree on Sneaky Pete’s in Edinburgh last year.

The sound technician was spot on and the atmosphere was great but it was the crowd that made it extra special for us.

Q Favourite gig ever – to see?

A For two of the band, the favourite gig to watch was The Strokes at Victoria Park in London. The atmosphere was amazing and it was good to see a band play live after such a long hiatus. Arctic Monkeys at TRNSMT comes in at a close second, though. Again, another band playing their first gig after a long hiatus. They just had the crowd captivated by the music. We’ve never seen a band do something like that.

Q Best thing about 2019?

A The best thing that happened in 2019 was undoubtedly the release of our debut EP. Recording Ready When You Are was the most fun we’ve had as a band because our producer Steve Bull allowed us to get involved in the technical side of things rather than just making us record our tracks then going home. It was a great experience for us at the time.

Q Plans for 2020?

A The major plan we have so far for 2020 is our headline show at the Ironworks on Friday. We have another gig at Sneaky Pete’s the next day and a slot at Forres Live 2020 in May.

We also have ambitions to record more tracks, which is our ultimate goal for this year. Watch this space, as something interesting could be coming later on down the line.

Find more: https://www.facebook.com/TheCitrusScene

Casanova

Q What’s been the biggest learning curve since you started?

A The biggest learning curve we had as a band was when we started. We had a month to get an hour set together for our first gig. We had to really give that our all to make the deadline we did, as we were getting to know each other as well. It was probably the busiest three weeks we’ve had. Just constant rehearsals.

Q Favourite gig ever – to play?

A Playing Mad Hatters in Hootananny’s was the tightest we’ve played as a band. There were a few folk in and the place was bouncing. Good fun.

Q Favourite gig ever – to see?

A Joshua and Jake saw Catfish and the Bottlemen in Aberdeen last year. They are an awesome young band that prove to us if we want to work for it we can take ourselves anywhere.

Q Best thing about 2019?

A Meeting each other and forming Casanova.

Q Plans for 2020?

A To gig around the circuit in Scotland, developing our fan base.

More: www.facebook.com/casanovabandofficial

K.I.A.N

Q What’s been the biggest learning curve since you started?

A Being a solo artist can be difficult because it means that I have to do everything such as production, writing my own lyrics, mixing and mastering my own music all by myself. This takes a lot of time, hard work and skill but I think about how much it is going to help me in the future when times get hard.

Q Favourite gig ever – to play?

A This will be my first gig! So this one is going to be special. On February 28 people are going to see how good I really am and how much of a show I can bring. This is going to be a start to hopefully many shows in future.

Q Favourite gig ever – to see?

A Seeing Yungblud live last year in the Liquid Rooms in Edinburgh was special because it is a small venue, so it felt very intimate with the small space, but the layout is very nice and the music just sounded amazing and was a shock to me when it had started.

Q Best thing about 2019?

A The best thing about 2019 is that I began to make music. That was the year I began my journey as an artist and showed everyone how far hard work can take me. This allowed me to experiment with different styles and different genres to make the sound that my music is today.

Q Plans for 2020?

A This year is going to be amazing with the release of my second EP which is called J’aime Cette Fille which is French and will be getting released in June. I don’t want to say too much about the project, but it is going to be better than anything you have heard from me and will involve some artists from the Inverness area. I am also working on a third EP with another artist from Glasgow called Paque – that is top secret – but more will be popping up closer to the time of that release.

Find K.I.A.N. on Spotify.