ballboy

ballboy, surely one of Scotland’s favourite indie acts, visit Glasgow for a Tigerfest show - singer Gordon Mcintyre is a long-standing favourite at is this msuic? shows but usually performing the band’s material solo and acoustic, but the gig at Stereo on the 8th May will see a full-band set in advance of their forthcoming album which seems to be entitled Pony Proof the Roof Evaluation. In advance of this they found the time for a quick Q&A…

itm?: How’s the album been coming along, it’s been a while?

GM: The album is complete and the artwork is complete. We recorded it in April of 2007 so it has taken us a wee while to get it finished - mainly because we recorded and mixed it ourselves and are putting it out on our own label instead of anyone else’s.

It does mean we’ve had more time than normal to listen to it and tweak it so we are putting it out in a state that we are very happy with. It is maybe a little quieter than previous full band ballboy albums and I like the way the songs have come out.

itm?: Any plans to tour it? Is this the first gig with the new material fully in place ?

GM: We are touring the uk throughout July including a slot at the very lovely Indietracks Festival in Derbyshire. I think we get a free steam train as part of our rider (or something).

We have been drip-feeding the new material into shows for a wee while now. Most of the new songs are up and running to be played live - there are only a couple that are still to be polished up.

Is Alexa completely ‘broken in’ now? - and I mean that in the nicest possible sense!

GM: Alexa now rules the band with an iron fist.

(We posed the above question imaging that their keyboard player had been with the band a couple of years now. ballboy-watchers of yore will release that it’s closer to 5 years!)

itm? Any fond memories of Tigerfest Edinburgh you want to share with us?

GM: I’ve got lots of fond Tigerfest memories, but we got a row at our last gig for hanging on to see if Gretna could beat Hearts in the Scottish Cup penalty shoot out and therefore making ourselves late for the soundcheck - bloody plucky underdog football teams undermining our punctuality!

ballboy play Glasgow’s Stereo as part of Tigerfest, on Thursday 8th May with guests include Popup and How To Swim. More at www.tigerfest.co.uk