SUCIOPERRO — probably Ayrshire’s least pronounceable rock trio — always enjoy a trip north.
This weekend that means shows in Inverness and Thurso and a chance for singer and guitarist J.P Reid, drummer Fergus Munro and bass player Stewart Chown to catch up with some enthusiastic fans.
"We’ve played Inverness a few times over the years and they are always really good gigs and hopefully this will be no different," Chown said.
"We’re looking forward to getting up there and to Thurso as well because we’ve tried to play Thurso a couple of times.
"On most of the tours we do, we’ll certainly try and cover Glasgow and Edinburgh and most of the main cities, but we’ve been playing in Inverness almost since the band started — we played there first in 2003 — and places like Inverness and Thurso we’ll always try and get back to because every time we go it’s always great. On this tour we’re also playing Kirkcaldy, which isn’t really known as a music hot spot, but we’ve been before and any time we’ve played a great show, we always want to get back."
With them the three piece bring a taste of new album "Fused", Sucioperro’s fourth length release, and the band are looking forward to seeing how it goes down with the fans.
"It’s just been really, really busy rehearsing for the tour and working out how to play the new songs. The album’s out and we’ve put it out on our own label, so we’ve been busy setting that up," Chown said.
"I suppose it’s been so busy you don’t get time to think about the excitement of it, but now the album’s out we’re starting to get feedback from it and there’s a bit more buzz around."
Not only is the new album the first the band have produced an album for their own label, it also marks the shortest period between recording and release of their career.
"It’s been great just to be able to do it and have it out much sooner," Chown continued.
"The whole album was originally demoed by J.P. who wrote and recorded all the songs in 10 days. I guess when we all went in to record the album together it was probably a maximum of two weeks, excluding the mastering and all that, which is definitely quick for us.
"Everything about this album is a little bit guerrilla. It was written and recorded very quickly so as not to lose the essence of the songs. We haven’t laboured over the arrangements. If something came up and you had that gut feeling about it, we just went for it. The album’s about half an hour long and the speed of the whole thing has been influenced by us just following our instincts 100 per cent."
However, band devotees should rest assured that this is no "rush job" in the sense of being a sub-standard product.
"It’s quite a cliche, but every time we release an album it has to be the best one we’ve done. We have to feel that way otherwise we wouldn’t bother putting one out," Chown declared.
"But with this one we feel it’s certainly our best yet. It’s very different from all our other albums. I’m glad people have an affinity with our older albums, but we’ll never make the same album twice. Those albums are already out there, so if you are holding out for something similar to our second album, go and listen to that. It’s what that album’s there for."
While Chown acknowledges the usual reason a band set up their own label is either because they have been dropped by or have issues with their record company, this was not the case with Sucioperro’s decision to go solo.
"We never had any problems with our record label," he said.
"We just felt this time that if we recorded an album ourselves we could get it out much sooner."
There have been changes live as well with Hooligan Sadikson and Gordon Love recruited to beef up the sound.
"We are a lot louder, we know that much!" Chown laughed.
"But it’s been great having them around. Just having them in the band makes it new for the rest of us."
The changes come in a significant year for the band. It is now 10 years since Sucioperro’s first gig, though Chown — who also provided the artwork for the new album — said the anniversary had not provided the band with an excuse to look back on how far they had come in the last decade.
"With the album coming out, it’s not something we have thought about massively," he said.
Even less are the band considering what the next decade might bring.
"We are not thinking ahead about what we should do," he said.
"JP as the songwriter does have three to five year plans for albums, but the main thing for is to keep playing music and produce the best music we can."
• Sucioperro appear at The Ironworks, Academy Street, Inverness, this evening (Friday 21st September). Doors open 7.30pm. Support comes from Swamp Radio.
They will also play the Newmarket Bar in Thurso tomorrow with support from What The Blood Revealed.
