There are plenty of things competing for attention in Edinburgh during August. The Fringe, the Film and Book Festivals, theatre, comedy, galleries and music make it difficult for anything new to cut through. It’s not a problem for Keyside.
The young Liverpool band take the roof off Assai Records with an infectious set of songs that already feel like the soundtrack to many young lives. I meet frontman Dani-Lee Parker at the shop on Grindlay Street, with guitarist Ben Cassidy also dropping in and out of the room as he prepares to play. Cassidy’s guitar work takes me back to those classic Smiths singles, chiming chords, ringing notes and melodies woven into the rhythm rather than simply sitting behind it.
Dani-Lee, who also plays acoustic guitar, has the unmistakable Scouse voice that immediately places him. He comes from Garston, an area of Liverpool familiar to me through a family connection, and there is a strong sense of place in his songwriting. Their return to Edinburgh follows an earlier appearance at the Mash House, another memorable night when the band discovered that Scottish audiences could match the enthusiasm they were accustomed to back home. “Yeah, we done the Mash House. It was mad, that, because it was our first time. We didn’t really know what to expect, but like, that was on par with Glasgow.”
King Tut’s was the band’s first Scottish venue, and Glasgow had already made an impression. “Glasgow, like Liverpool, is quite accommodating.” Edinburgh has also made its own mark. Later that afternoon, fans give Keyside a rapturous welcome, with people of all ages at the front singing along to every word. It is quite a sight, and one that feels deserved. There are not many new bands arriving with a collection of songs possessing this combination of melody, observation and immediacy. Dani-Lee sees a kinship between the audiences. “They’re so similar, Glasgow and Edinburgh, I think Scotland as a whole, and Ireland with the chemistry, and there’s a playfulness and a cheekiness to all of them. It just tends to be all of Scotland; it’s boss, like.”
As we chat, Edinburgh Castle rises above the city. During festival season it remains an arresting sight. “Honestly, it’s the first time I’ve seen the castle properly close up!”, says Dani-Lee clearly impressed amid all the activity in the city.
Keyside’s self-titled debut album is packed with melodic songs and sharply drawn characters. There are names such as “Angeline”, “Michael (What’s Your Call?)” and “Nikita”. “I love bands like the Lumineers who do the same. For me personally, I find it quite hard to write about myself in the first person, so I tend to channel that through a character. Or I’ll have a real person in mind, but to save them calling me, going, ‘What are you writing songs about me for?’, I’ll just change the name! They are all real things, but I put them into a character so I don’t get a phone call. Though loads of people still think songs are about them when they aren’t!”
The road to becoming a musician began with a guitar behind a bedroom door. Dani-Lee’s uncle lived with the family for a time and was a musician. At around 10, Dani-Lee would put his ear to the door while his uncle played Oasis’s “Wonderwall”. When his uncle went to work, he would sneak into the room and “flick the guitar”. By 16, Oasis had become an obsession of his own. The budding songwriter soon went from the bedroom to the streets of Garston. The Mersey was close by and Dani-Lee remembers walking beside the water, finding melodies along the way: “Garston is dead old. There used to be an old mill factory by the church. I grew up under the bridge; there are two parts, and my bit is not the poshest, but it was nice growing up there. The Mersey is literally just behind it, so I used to walk a lot by the water. I actually wrote a song that’s on the deluxe album, the lyrics to ‘Paris To Marseille’, while walking down there. I tend to tune in to the melodies when I’m out walking.”
That sense of place sits alongside a formidable Liverpool musical inheritance. When Dani-Lee and Ben first met, their conversation quickly turned to The La’s and The Kitchen Tape, the fabled 1989 rehearsal recording that has become part of the band’s mythology.I think for about two hours the first bit of conversation was just about The La’s and The Kitchen Tape; that’s what got that ball rolling, really.”
The influence is important, but Keyside are not interested in recreating it.“Although we originated from the La’s influence, the only song that really sounds like them, I think, is ‘Red Ruby Red’. In these four years since we bonded over them, I think we’ve really just found our own thing; but they were the origin of it all.” For Dani-Lee, The Beatles’ presence was also unavoidable, absorbed simply by growing up in Liverpool. “Being from Liverpool, the Beatles just get planted within you. My favourite is mainly the Please Please Me album. When they’re all bobbing their heads.”
Keyside’s songs can often carry considerable emotional weight. One fan contacted Dani-Lee online to tell him about his troubled home life, including his mother’s alcoholism, and asked if his story could become a song. Dani-Lee recognised elements of his own experience and “Heaven” emerged from the meeting of the two stories. This account is also reflected in recent coverage of the song and Parker’s explanation of how the fan’s message inspired it. “It was a collaboration of both our stories. His request pushed me to do it for him more than for me, but it ended up being a way of processing and doing it for myself, too.” Dani-Lee describes himself as “a very yin-yang kind of guy. I love when music has a balance of happy and sad stuff. Some songs on the album are just happy, so I balance it out with songs that are melancholic to keep a good balance.”
“Rock My Love” takes one of those everyday experiences and turns it into a metaphor for being a painkiller. I like getting into everyday things for everyday people.” Even the artwork has its roots in an ordinary moment. Working with artist Neil Keating, the band met at The Bookbinder pub in Liverpool to discuss the release. Dani-Lee went to the toilet and noticed stickers gathered around the flush. “I thought it looked cool, so I took a picture.” The photograph became the inspiration for artwork designed to resemble a bathroom in a nightclub.
As Keyside play at Assai, I find myself standing beside a selection of classic debut albums, including Oasis, the Sex Pistols and Guns N’ Roses. Watching them, there is a sense that this could become one of those “I was there” moments, an afternoon fans will remember if Keyside go on to fulfil their promise. Looking at those records, I wonder how long it will be before a Keyside album sits among them.
Keyside’s debut album is out now. The band will return to Scotland later this year.
