Be Like Pablo- Interview.

Be Like Pablo are a 5 piece indie power-pop band from the small town of Forres in Moray, Scotland. Formed in 2009 by brothers Ewan and Ross, the pair were joined by Jen, James and finally Blair who completed the line-up. Music wise, the band mix up your classic pop song with some loud, electric guitar, Moog synths and is completed through the use of girl/boy vocals, echoing Beach Boys harmonies.

The New Adventures will be the title of Be Like Pablo's debut, self-funded album. They began recording in 2009 in Glasgow and are working with experienced people who have been involved with Isobel Campbell (ex Belle & Sebastian) and also American rockers Queens of the Stone Age. Recording was completed in January and now it's a waiting game until the 3rd of August when the album will be released for free on the bands hand-drawn website. Be Like Pablo have a number of gigs under their belt including time on the T-Break stage at T in the Park as well as Belladrum and also the goNORTH showcase event in Inverness.

If you sign up to the bands website, you can receive monthly tracks, artwork and also limited edition merch, if you're lucky enough. Best of all, this is free and a great way of spreading the word of Be Like Pablo!

I caught up with Ewan from Be Like Pablo- have a read to find out how the name came about, what they are looking forward to most this year, and also his tips for future bands.

Hello, please introduce yourselves!

My name is Ewen Watson and I play in Be Like Pablo: Forres' premier powerpop band!

Who is Pablo and why should we be like him? 

Pablo is a good friend of ours from Chile.  Jen, our synth player, randomly met him on a train a few years ago.  He was doing a work placement in Forres for some strange reason that I don't quite understand.  We ended up befriending him and he turned out to be the most upbeat, enthusiastic and hard-wroking person we've ever met.  Naturally, we believe that everyone should be more like him.  And so the name was born!

How would you describe your music?

We make noisy music with guitars, synths and lots of vocal harmonies and we place an importance on making our songs fun to listen to.  We make music that sounds a little bit like early Weezer, Ben Kweller and Grandaddy but we mix it up a little by drawing from classic '60s bands like the Beach Boys.  As you can imagine, there's not a lot of this sort of thing kicking about right now.  Especially in the north of Scotland.  We're quite old school.  

What has the band been up to this year?

We've been quiet on the gig front this year so far but have been incredibly busy preparing for the release of our debut album, The New Adventures.  We've been recording it for quite a while now and we're all set to let the public hear it on the 3rd of August.  We've also been busy booking gig dates for summer and beyond to support the release and let people see us live.  I can't wait!

What are you looking forward to for the rest of 2012? 

Of course, the release of the album's the big one for us this year.  It seems like we've been building to this forever.  In fact, we basically have.  The first thing we did when we formed the band in 2009 was start recording the album.  We're really looking forward to playing at Rockness on Sunday the 10th of June too.  I've never been to that particular festival so it's exciting!

What made you decide to self fund your upcoming album and release it for free?

I'm not sure it was a conscious decision to self fund the album.  I've been writing songs for nearly 10 years now and I wanted to do a whole album because I thought it would be really cool to write 10 songs that would work well as a collection.  Admittedly, we're not that well known a band in the grand picture and, at the time, we had no music industry contacts at all.  So we weren't going to get the funding to do it any other way, really.  So we hit the studio whenever we had enough money.  I think we recorded it in about 4 blocks over two and a half years and we played gigs, released singles and shot music videos in between.  It was a really, really weird approach.  

When we finally finished the album, we did have to actually make a decision: do we try to get it to a label or perhaps sell it ourselves; or do we do something a little bit different?  So we decided to give it away for free but make it look cool and professional and release it through our own cartoony website, belikepablo.com, where we could precisely manage everything relating to the release.

Any albums your looking forward to this year? 

I can't speak for the others in the band but I'm looking forward to the new Regina Spektor album.  She's the most naturally talented musician I've ever heard.

Any upcoming talent we should look out for?

Hrmm.  I'll pick a wide selection of musical styles to keep it interesting.  Check out Capitals, The Spook School, Cleavers, The Deportees, Kid Canaveral, Dallas Don't and Team Kapowski.