Victorian Trout Conspiracy Interview w/ Fraser and Gerard

“We’re usually quite complex musically while being accessible to anybody that would want to hear it”

As I sit down to talk to guitarist Fraser Fulton and saxophonist Gerard Sykes, the Scottish gents find themselves out of water - two drunkards in a beer garden without any beer, a longshot at most but I go along with it. Fresh from a gig on Friday night, the pair is eager to open up secrets and tell us exactly what this damn conspiracy is.

So, Victorian Trout Conspiracy... What’s the catch and what sets you apart from the rest?

Fraser - “We set about playing in this band with the intention of putting on the most outrageous lives show that we physically could, there tends to be a lot of jumping around. Clothes are optional, except from our female band member, they're usually more of a legal requirement; then there's Phil who always gets his man nipples out. We're usually quite complex musically while being accessible to anybody that would want to listen to it.”

Victorian Trout Conspiracy has members stretching from various backgrounds and musical heritages In which there are various age groups, which you might not expect to flow. However when watching the Trouts you notice a strong bond of unity existing between all members which is somewhat of an essential element for bands to have:

Fraser – “Well initially we started off with four members and then we brought in more members. The band sort of formed like the Avengers It's gradually got to the stage where there is no room on stage - I've had bloody nose bloody lips and people bumping into me all the time on stage, but it’s regular now!”

As a band they class their sound as "ska dirty urban ghetto funk", when asked about the influences both Fraser and the band have their key bands and artists that influence the sound they ultimately look to produce when writing songs:

Fraser – “Personally from me, Biffy Clyro draw a big lyrical influence. There is also a (Red Hot) Chili's (Peppers) as well as an American jazz band called Snacky Puppy. Also Ryan Adams, not Bryan Adams... and dare I say it Snow Patrol.”

Gerard – “...I like Bryan Adams”.

Fraser – “It’s all drawing on different sounds and bringing them together, I mean we have funk, classical indie coming together – our percussionist even came from a metal background. The thing that we try to do is treat the brass as a main focusing point of the band's sound, almost treating it like that of a lead guitar which definitely brings something to the sound of the band itself and is a distinguishable feature in our live performances.”

Taking from the aspect of live performances, Victorian Trout Conspiracy recently embarked on a tour across the UK playing multiple shows in venues both close to home and far away. It was a great opportunity for the band to see that it wasn't just an exclusive scene in Scotland but could be popular all over.

Fraser – “It was brilliant and for the first time we had our tour bus. Prior to that we spent most of summer playing gigs travelling around with our instruments on our laps which was highly uncomfortable, but with the bus we could become proper rock stars.”

Gerard – “Yeah, plus we only got one parking ticket which was pretty good, though it was for a few hundred quid which was a bit bad - London charged us so much on the congestion charge for the bus as it's fricking huge! But it’s great as it means we can actually relax when we’re on tour, whereas before we’d be in loads of cars just holding stuff.”

Fraser – “When playing out of Scotland, the crowds are pretty universal which is nice as we thought it might just be a Edinburgh ska-scene, but everywhere we've played people get into the fact we don't take ourselves particularly seriously. Our crowds are usually split into two people, the people who are moshing and dancing about at the front, and then there are the people who are just listening to the music at the back, noticing what we've put in that music. It's when someone comes up to us at the end of the show and says they liked what we did with one of our songs that is what makes it for me, as that is a bigger compliment personally rather than complimenting the fact we jump around on stage and swear a lot.”

Even more recently, that ginger fellow Ed Sheeran turned up at their acoustic set in Aberfeldy and joined in – when asked about it laugher erupted from the lads:

Both – “Oh! Our mate Ed! Haha!”

Fraser – “There were rumours he was going to be there, he just turns up and then sits in through our songs. He then played a few of his songs, I got to play drums for him and then he joined in to jam for one of our songs. It's nice to see how someone who is probably one of the biggest stars to come out of Britain recently since he won a Grammy recently, and he's still so down to earth to hang around with a group of drunkards.”

“So is that one of your most interesting tour stories would you say or are there others?”

Fraser – “Well Gerard is narcoleptic so that’s always an interesting one. As far as he’s concerned we teleport to gigs which is really not fair as the journeys are boring as hell! But the greatest moment was when we went to London for the first time and I had a really good Chinese meal; I like the Chinese. That or the board game Articulate, I think there was even a game of even of I spy. There was a day in Camden where some weird guy with a ginger beard was following us so we ended up finding a shop called Cyber City or something  with giant robots outside! I was filming the day’s event but couldn't film inside so we just focused on the glow in the dark vibrators and neon butt-plugs; that was actually going to be our next EP title but then we decided to go against that idea”

In regards to future music recording, stories were kept all secret, could this mean talk of a new EP or album, but this is most likely just a ruse and one of the band’s many conspiracies. However there was talk of plans for another UK adventure in the upcoming months which is promising to any of the existing fans, whilst also being exciting for news to new members of the Trout cult:

Fraser –“Well our main activity is secret so we can’t divulge any information on that,  but our manager is trying to get us a tour sorted, we’re playing quite a few UK festivals I believe. There are also plans for going to London baby! That’ll be around March or April. There are also plans to go for Liverpool and Dublin, which is an interesting experience to give them a run for their money when it comes to drinking!”

To catch the Victorian Trout Conspiracy, keep your eyes peeled on the facebook group and look out for their deubt self-titled EP out now.