Copy Haho - Indie A Go Go!

This place reminds me of Byker Grove, says Copy Haho bassist, guitarist and synth-player Richard Scott as he surveys his surroundings at The Swamp Bar, the choice of venue for their Tiger Fest show. "Something's missing though… it's missing Ant and Dec. They should be here performing. Remember Let's Get Ready to Rumble?"

And without realising it, he has served an unfortunate, albeit fitting parallel for what the next year holds for the four-piece as they get ready to - yes you guessed it - rumble.

Hailing from Aberdeen, the band formed three years ago and built up a loyal local following under the guise of Politik. Then, in 2004, along with a shift in line-up and a name change, they began on their road to the present, mesmerising audiences around Scotland as they constantly reinvented their sound to adapt to their adamant protests that they are, right now, nowhere near as good as they could be.

"It's hard to describe exactly how we sound," says drummer Rikki Will; "I suppose you could just say we're a kind of guitar-based indie band with melodic bits. You know kind of... well... kind of indie." With influences ranging from Pavement to Shellac and with Joe Hearty's shy, smouldering vocals likened to Malcolm Middleton of Arab Strap, it seems likely that Copy Haho are set to take over the Scottish indie scene very, very soon.
With the release of their first 7" last month on club night-cum-record label I Fly Spitfires, an EP in the pipeline for late summer on Pet Piranha records and a full-blown UK tour in August, you could say that the boys – and they are boys, with an average age of 19 – have got a lot on their plate. But that's without even mentioning their respective musical 'side projects'.

Despite still all being full-time students, Joe and Richard form part of the eclectic line up of the acclaimed Hooker's Green Number 1 while guitarist Mini and drummer Rikki Will plug away, quite successfully, in their hardcore band Project:Venhell – most recently having played the T-Break circuit in Edinburgh.

"We just think of it in terms of us all playing in bands, without any one taking precedence over the other," says Joe, while impromptu roadie, driver and Project:Venhell vocalist Steven Hines adds; "It's like communism, we're all equal, but of course, there's always one person who's more important than the others…"

But how do the boys in Copy Haho feel about their hometown Aberdeen? Recent focus on Hookers Green has done much to highlight the influence of a grey, dreary town bringing about a fresh, new music scene.
"It's not really like that at all," says Joe. "It's grey and rains a lot…" "It's glittery when it's sunny!" interjects Mini, "but it never really is."

"Aberdeen isn't a bad place," Joe continues. "To us it doesn't really matter at all. A lot of people have made it out to be like the scene in Sheffield where there was the whole economic thing after the collapse of the steel industry, Aberdeen doesn't have that."

But there is a shred of truth in the Granite City focus, there is most definitely a sense that many of the bands there are very close to doing something worth taking note of, not least Copy Haho.