The View’s Kyle Falconer “dinnae give a shite, man”

(Muso's Guide, January 27, 2009)

Interview

Some of rock’s greatest have been entirely unintelligible. Does anyone understand what Lemmy from Motorhead ever says? Is there still a petition running to get Shane McGowan subtitled?

As such, The View are certainly scaling dizzy mythical heights.

Hailing from Dundee’s Dryburgh, the band take the Queen’s english and make it something all their own, as singer Kyle Falconer attests to with near every word spoken.

A thick Scottish accent and a propensity to drop swears every two words make Kyle the most entertaining frontman around. Add to that the tales of drunken debauchery surrounding the quartet and you have the rock legends of the future. If they can get started, that is. Scotland’s bright young hope apologises - “I’ve got a really bad hangover. I’m lying underneath the table and nearly sleeping” - before the storm of expletives.

Having just moved into a London flat with his buddy Marko and The View visionary artwork genius Ryan McPhail, Kyle seems nonplussed by the perks afforded him by his fame - although it’s worth it being out of Dundee. “It’s alright, I miss it, and then as soon as I get back I want to get out again.”

“People either like us there, or want to smash our puses in. Many a times had my pus smashed in, fucking been loadsa times since we got famous. Definitely more since we got famous.”

It’s a good thing they’ve spent the last two years scaling dizzy heights of fame with their platinum-selling debut Hats Off To The Buskers - and getting away from their frankly dangerous-sounding hoods. Oh, ‘pus’ is slang for ‘face’, by the way.

So what of the new material? Two years after their debut, Which Bitch? is hitting the shelves - just as the band hit the road. Kyle’s confident about it in his own inimitable way.

“We haven’t rehearsed yet. I dinnae ken, we’re maybe gonna try and get some wee quartet on the go and play like strings and shit.” It doesn’t sound like there’s a game plan, but the 21-year-old doesn’t sound like he’s bothered.

Teaming up with esteemed producer Owen Morris again for Which Bitch? has gleaned, in Kyle’s opinion, the best from The View. But their reunion was not without its rougher moments.

“He’s just my best mate, man, he’s fucking brilliant. Any chance I get I go and spend it with him, man, I pure love him. I had to give him a few slaps in the pus this time like. He was pure just caving in. He’s just turned forty, so he’s in a mid-life crisis.”

The title of the record has raised a few eyebrows, but Kyle insists there’s no misogyny afoot. “It’s meant to be like which bitch, but we’re no actually on about burds, we just mean, like, any c*nt, just whoever, bitch disnae mean, like, burds.”

Based on a drawing Kyle did - “D’ken Maleficent off Sleeping Beauty, the witch?” - the title encompasses a collection of strange and entertaining tunes - like “Jimmy’s Crazy Conspiracies” - “That’s my mate Jimmy like just phoning us up, he’s off his fucking trolley and he’s like, he just phones us up at like half seven in the morning and tells us about these conspiracies and saying that he’s dug too deep and he shouldn’t have researched it because people are gonna come and get him and shit.“

Kyle’s favourite track on the record is ‘Realisation’ - “It’s one of my favourites because Owen plays like cello and recorder and shit on it, so it’s cool as hell” - but he’s impressed with the guest appearance from fellow Scot Paolo Nutini.

“I pure used to cry every night listening to ‘These Streets, man. My pal used to call me gay, and I was pure I dinnae give a shite, man, best thing I ever heard.”

And surprise instrument of the album goes to… a popular Hawaiian string instrument. “Johnny from Twisted Wheel come on tour with us for a few days, and we bought ukeleles and wrote loads of songs, and they’re fucking brilliant, they’re awesome.

“There’s a ukelele on ‘Gem of a Burd’. The ukelele’s an obsessive and superior sound, man, to anything in the world. See when I bought Johnny a ukelele, he didn’t put it down for three days! The most addictive thing you could ever touch, cos it’s that simple to play that you think you’re a genius. It’s fucking genius, man. “

And so it is that the lead singer of one of Britain’s brightest young bands spends his hungover days - talking conspiracy theories with his pals and playing ukeleles for fun. It’s a hell of a life - if you manage to understand it - with a hell of a view.