01Profile
A PAWS Photo
PAWS
Musicians — Scotland
03Interview
What are your names?
Phillip Taylor, Joshua Swinney, John Bonnar
Where are you from?
Phillip: Well, we all live in Scotland in different places, but I am originally from the Highlands in Scotland. Josh is from Edinburgh but we met in the Highlands at the same school. John is from Glasgow.
Describe your style in 3 words:
Phillip: Rock and roll.
What is the first song that you remember playing on repeat?
John: ‘Fairground’ by Simply Red
Josh: ‘It’s The End Of The World As We Know It’ by REM.
John: Or maybe ‘Ninja Rap’ by Vanilla Ice, actually.
Phillip: That’s shite. It was probably ‘2 Become 1’ by The Spice Girls, which I used to love. I still do love The Spice Girls.
What is the best gig you’ve ever been to?
Phillip: Seeing Sonic Youth playing ‘Daydream Nation’ from start to finish at the ABC in Glasgow. It was pretty much incredible. I was a teenager when it happened. It was great.
John: I’ve only seen my favourite band once - a band called Zeke, who played in Edinburgh in 2003. I’ve got to say that was my favourite.
What was the last album you bought?
Phillip: I bought the new Japandroids record. I went to the shop excitedly to buy that, ‘Near To The Wild Heart Of Life’. It was really awkward when I bought it though, because in the shop it was the release day and they had a copy of the sleeve on the desk so you could have a look at it, and I realized there was a photo of us on it, so I looked like a total weirdo buying it.
John: I haven’t bought anything for ages. It’s mostly stuff when I’m at a gig I will buy a record. I don’t go out of my way to go and buy records.
Is there a song you like that people might not expect?
John: Thousands! I like a lot of Cajun music and stuff like that.
What music did you listen to growing up?
Phillip: Whatever my oldest brother was listening to. A lot of Cranberries. My dad listened to a lot of Queen, and my mum listened to a lot of Dusty Springfield and stuff. I listened to a shit ton of Cranberries and REM because my older brother was a teenager and I was pretty much a baby. So, constantly listening to that, and Nirvana.
Josh: Weirdly, two bands I listened to a lot when I was young was The Cranberries and REM, because my mum and dad had all their tapes. I listened to their tapes. There was loads of hippy music, because my dad is an old hippy. So, lots of Velvet Underground, Jimi Hendrix, stuff like that, and then I started branching off into discovering more darker stuff.
John: When I was 11 or 12 I was obsessed with the Britpop stuff that was happening at the time in the mid-’90s, and then started getting into old UK punk and American punk that was out at the time. I started getting into faster and heavier music, but a lot of Britpop when I was young.
02Playlist
04Playlist Notes
A song from your favourite album
Phillip: ‘Iris’ by The Breeders, from their first album, ‘Pod’.
A song you wish you’d written
Phillip: ‘Because The Night’ by Patti Smith and Bruce Springsteen.
A British music icon that has inspired you
Phillip: What’s the icon category? That’s quite subjective.
Josh: We partied with Steve Diggle from Buzzcocks. That was pretty fun. We ended up back in my kitchen at seven in the morning.
Phillip: Yeah, ‘Love You More’ by Buzzcocks.
A song from the last piece of music you bought
Phillip: ‘North East South West’ by Japandroids from their new record.
The most meaningful lyrics that inspire change
Phillip: ‘Changes’ by Tupac Shakur.
The best song to bring people together
Josh: I instantly wanted to say ‘Come Together’.
Phillip: ’Dirt Track’ by Lee Bains and the Glory Fires.
The best song for getting ready to go out on Saturday night
Phillip: ‘Saturday Night’ by Whigfield.
Josh: That, or ‘Boom Boom Boom’ by the Outhere Brothers.
The best song for a Sunday morning
Phillip: ‘Easy Like Sunday Morning’, but the Faith No More version.
A song that makes you cry
John: ‘Brothers In Arms’ by Dire Straits gives me a lump in my throat. It reminds me of my dad.
A song that reminds you of childhood
Phillip: ‘Ode To My Family’ by The Cranberries.
John: ‘Return Of The Mack’!
The first song you learned to play
Phillip: ‘Zombie’ by The Cranberries. There’s a lot of Cranberries!
Josh: I think a John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers song was the first I learned to play on the guitar.
John: I think it was ‘Here Comes The Sun’.
An underrated gem by a major artist
Phillip: Oh man, there’s probably a million of those I could rattle off!
Josh: I’d probably say something by Springsteen but everybody knows them all!
Phillip: Um…pretty much anything by Townes Van Zandt. He’s obviously iconic now, but I feel like if you were around at the time when all that was kicking off, he didn’t really get as much of the spotlight as he could have in comparison to all the other singer/songwriters at that time. So, in a hindsight way, anything by him.
A song from a new artist that people should check out.
Phillip: ‘Tonight’ by Dude York, who we’re going on tour with.
03Interview
What are your names?
Phillip Taylor, Joshua Swinney, John Bonnar
Where are you from?
Phillip: Well, we all live in Scotland in different places, but I am originally from the Highlands in Scotland. Josh is from Edinburgh but we met in the Highlands at the same school. John is from Glasgow.
Describe your style in 3 words:
Phillip: Rock and roll.
What is the first song that you remember playing on repeat?
John: ‘Fairground’ by Simply Red
Josh: ‘It’s The End Of The World As We Know It’ by REM.
John: Or maybe ‘Ninja Rap’ by Vanilla Ice, actually.
Phillip: That’s shite. It was probably ‘2 Become 1’ by The Spice Girls, which I used to love. I still do love The Spice Girls.
What is the best gig you’ve ever been to?
Phillip: Seeing Sonic Youth playing ‘Daydream Nation’ from start to finish at the ABC in Glasgow. It was pretty much incredible. I was a teenager when it happened. It was great.
John: I’ve only seen my favourite band once - a band called Zeke, who played in Edinburgh in 2003. I’ve got to say that was my favourite.
What was the last album you bought?
Phillip: I bought the new Japandroids record. I went to the shop excitedly to buy that, ‘Near To The Wild Heart Of Life’. It was really awkward when I bought it though, because in the shop it was the release day and they had a copy of the sleeve on the desk so you could have a look at it, and I realized there was a photo of us on it, so I looked like a total weirdo buying it.
John: I haven’t bought anything for ages. It’s mostly stuff when I’m at a gig I will buy a record. I don’t go out of my way to go and buy records.
Is there a song you like that people might not expect?
John: Thousands! I like a lot of Cajun music and stuff like that.
What music did you listen to growing up?
Phillip: Whatever my oldest brother was listening to. A lot of Cranberries. My dad listened to a lot of Queen, and my mum listened to a lot of Dusty Springfield and stuff. I listened to a shit ton of Cranberries and REM because my older brother was a teenager and I was pretty much a baby. So, constantly listening to that, and Nirvana.
Josh: Weirdly, two bands I listened to a lot when I was young was The Cranberries and REM, because my mum and dad had all their tapes. I listened to their tapes. There was loads of hippy music, because my dad is an old hippy. So, lots of Velvet Underground, Jimi Hendrix, stuff like that, and then I started branching off into discovering more darker stuff.
John: When I was 11 or 12 I was obsessed with the Britpop stuff that was happening at the time in the mid-’90s, and then started getting into old UK punk and American punk that was out at the time. I started getting into faster and heavier music, but a lot of Britpop when I was young.
04Playlist Notes
A song from your favourite album
Phillip: ‘Iris’ by The Breeders, from their first album, ‘Pod’.
A song you wish you’d written
Phillip: ‘Because The Night’ by Patti Smith and Bruce Springsteen.
A British music icon that has inspired you
Phillip: What’s the icon category? That’s quite subjective.
Josh: We partied with Steve Diggle from Buzzcocks. That was pretty fun. We ended up back in my kitchen at seven in the morning.
Phillip: Yeah, ‘Love You More’ by Buzzcocks.
A song from the last piece of music you bought
Phillip: ‘North East South West’ by Japandroids from their new record.
The most meaningful lyrics that inspire change
Phillip: ‘Changes’ by Tupac Shakur.
The best song to bring people together
Josh: I instantly wanted to say ‘Come Together’.
Phillip: ’Dirt Track’ by Lee Bains and the Glory Fires.
The best song for getting ready to go out on Saturday night
Phillip: ‘Saturday Night’ by Whigfield.
Josh: That, or ‘Boom Boom Boom’ by the Outhere Brothers.
The best song for a Sunday morning
Phillip: ‘Easy Like Sunday Morning’, but the Faith No More version.
A song that makes you cry
John: ‘Brothers In Arms’ by Dire Straits gives me a lump in my throat. It reminds me of my dad.
A song that reminds you of childhood
Phillip: ‘Ode To My Family’ by The Cranberries.
John: ‘Return Of The Mack’!
The first song you learned to play
Phillip: ‘Zombie’ by The Cranberries. There’s a lot of Cranberries!
Josh: I think a John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers song was the first I learned to play on the guitar.
John: I think it was ‘Here Comes The Sun’.
An underrated gem by a major artist
Phillip: Oh man, there’s probably a million of those I could rattle off!
Josh: I’d probably say something by Springsteen but everybody knows them all!
Phillip: Um…pretty much anything by Townes Van Zandt. He’s obviously iconic now, but I feel like if you were around at the time when all that was kicking off, he didn’t really get as much of the spotlight as he could have in comparison to all the other singer/songwriters at that time. So, in a hindsight way, anything by him.
A song from a new artist that people should check out.
Phillip: ‘Tonight’ by Dude York, who we’re going on tour with.