Pretty much local to us, one of the many bands across the central belt of Scotland who are part of a burgeoning rock and metal scene… and another we’re glad to finally have the chance of covering! With a new single out in a few days, take it away, Angelica Mode…
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
We’re called Angelica Mode, and we’re from Edinburgh, Scotland.
How did you meet?
Well, two of us are brothers, (Songwriter, Singer and Guitarist: Brian Hughes, and Bass guitar and Synth Player: Martin Hughes), so we’ve known each other quite a while! We’re identical twins, actually, which is mad to see your doppelganger standing in front of you all the time.. Those funhouse mirror mazes are a nightmare, honestly.. You’re never sure which one is your own reflection and which is your brother.
We met Stevie when the time came to do live shows with the band, as we had started as a project during Covid. Martin had met Stevie at a local show and mentioned that we were looking for a drummer, asking him if he wanted to meet up and try some of the songs to see how things meshed. (It took him so long to get around to messaging Stevie that he had forgotten all about it, and struggled to where they had met!)
Honestly, things felt very natural from the get go, and we’ve just been going ever since!
How long have you been playing as a band?
We’ve been playing as a band since about 2022, I think.. Certainly after Covid anyway. We’ve done shows all around the place, but I have to say, there has been no experience that has brought us together as a band as much as when we went to Brighton last year.
It involved an overnight bus trip, complete with transfers with copious amounts of equipment we shouldn’t have had, (so had to dodge getting fined the whole way), and no sleep; follow that with almost a week of carrying the aforementioned equipment around in the scorching heat, and it nearly broke us. That was a trip that would either make or break any band.
Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?
The name comes from a character in a short story Martin was writing a while back. It was about a fictional band, I think, and Angelica Mode was one of the . We’d always said that it would make a good band name, so when it came time to give a name to the band, we quite quickly jumped at the chance to use that name.
It is one of those things where you’re never sure if the name works at first though; it’s only after you’ve started getting shows and getting the music down that the name feels like it’s taken on some kind of significance of its own, you know?
(Martin) For those interested, the story was an allegory for the loss of youth and potential, and the opening scene is almost the exact same as the final image; The character hasn’t moved an inch, so paralysed by the possibility of failing to reach their own potential that they never even began.
What are your influences?
(Brian) God, so many, the answer for this one could totally change on any given day. I’d say some pretty consistent influences for me are probably David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen…I love all sorts though; big into Fontaines D.C at the moment, Arctic Monkeys, Lady Gaga.. I will it, I love a bit of unashamed Pop music.
I will say that one of the things I love most about the band is how we all have different influences, and what they bring into the mix.. Because when I come to the band with a demo, it’s one thing. It’s all kind of created through the lens of my influences, and what I like stylistically… But when we get into the rehearsal room and all the guys have a chance to interpret the song, and put their stamp on the parts, it’s always more exciting than what I ever would have imagined alone.
(Martin) As I play synthesizer and bass guitar, I will talk about what inspires me in this respect: When I began to play the bass guitar, I didn’t actually have a bass, so I would move my fingers in the way I’d seen Glen Matlock of The Sex Pistols do, and try to practice locking in with the bass drum that way. I so wanted to play as if I was in the Pistols or The Stooges back then, but I wanted to look like a musketeer or pirate or something.
Playing the synthesizer is something I only started to do especially for this band; I had images of Nick Rhodes from Duran Duran, Alan Wilder from Depeche Mode, and The Pet Shop Boys. I just really, really didn’t want to be in another indie band – I wanted Angelica Mode to sound like Gaga, or a space ship or something, if we were going to have a name like that.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
(Brian) I think we bring together an odd mix of ideas, personally. A little bit of that melancholy, like the Cure, and a little bit of lusty ion maybe. I am totally aware that those are quite opposing ideas, (sadness and lust), but I’m Irish, and there’s a mournfulness to even the happiest of occasions for us.. An inherent pessimism. A hopefulness without ever allowing yourself to get your hopes up.
I try to keep the lyrics quite poetic too, and that’s something the Celtic nations have always been strong at, in my opinion. I think it separates us a little from the usual Indie music fare, anyway.
(Martin) My brother’s talent is a real selling point for me – the entire reason I even play in a band is his talent. Also, Stevie is just a great drummer, and one of the rare cases where you are lucky enough as a band to have a drummer who looks that good and can more than back it up with skills!
I think nowadays it’s rare to find a band that writes all their own stuff giving a bit of a future pop/ synth heavy taste to the scene – often times bands just add that onto the album and use backing tracks until they’re successful.
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Do you have any particular lyrical themes?
As we hit on above, there are definite persistent themes of lust and ion; love really. But that’s life, right? That’s what it is to be human.
I do try to see things from different perspectives too. Raise questions, and then answer them a little bit in the next section of the song. Like have the verses from my perspective, and try to write the chorus’ from my partners perspective, for example.
I try to see things from other peoples perspective in the songs, as I do in life; everyone is just trying their best, generally, and I try to give people the benefit of the doubt.
What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?
We’ve played loads of shows, so our live show has become pretty good! Loads of fans were saying that the single launch show for our last single, “Tell Tale Heart”, was our best ever at the time.
We try to be quite a style conscious band, as we have the word ‘Mode’ in our name, which is French for fashion. We have a lot of energy and like to add a bit of pageantry to things. A bit of razzle dazzle. Martin loves to do a bit of dancing on stage, whether he’s playing bass or keyboard, and often receives compliments for his moves.
It’s quite cool that, as we’re a three piece band, we can have Stevie in the middle of the stage, with the other two of us on either side like identical twin bookends; everyone gets a bit of centre stage.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
(Martin) The wildest thing I have seen at a live show was an entire room of people flawlessly singing along to the song my brother wrote. I was so proud of him. The wildest thing I have done was that when I sang in a punk band I jumped into the audience and accidentally kicked some poor girl in the face. Luckily this unfortunate interaction resulted in a long lasting and very intellectually fulfilling friendship!
(Brian) Well the wildest thing I’ve ever seen at a show was Martin accidentally dropkicking a girl in the face at a show too, ahah.. Well, that, or I recently saw a bass player do a bass flip while playing, so I think Martin just needs to up his game all round, really..
The wildest thing I’ve done at a show was go crowd surfing and fall off the end of the crowd and break my face. I had a nose ring at the time, and I broke that into my face too… I didn’t get it seen to for too long, and it healed over and they had to remove the nose ring with a pliers, more or less.. Do not recommend.
What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?
(Brian) I play a telecaster type guitar, but it’s one I actually built myself during the Covid lockdown, so I’m quite proud of that. It’s like, walnut coloured with gold metal hardware. I have a Vox AC15 amplifier, like Bernard Butler from Suede. It’s got a really warm sound and you get a little bit of distortion that makes even the cleaner sounds interesting. I used to play an Orange amplifier, which I still love for recording, as it has a really good distorted sound. I’ve got a sick Takamine acoustic guitar too, that’s great. I’m a big nerd about this stuff, I could go on all day; I’ve built a bunch of recording equipment too.
(Martin) I play some kind of Cort jazz bass thing, and a Korg polyphonic analog synth. Unfortunately I don’t know very much about musical instruments except what name it says on there.
What, if anything, are you plugging/promoting at the moment?
Yes, we are plugging our new single, “Sweet”, which comes out on March 27th. It’s kind of about relationships; the delicate balance of giving people space, without leaving room for emotional distance to seep in, and acknowledging that, at the end of the day, you’re with them because you like them.
There’s a bit of social commentary in there about the ridiculousness of infidelity, and its prevalence in the media today; it’s very normalised I think, sadly. It feels a bit like we’re being sold on the idea. It also kind of hits on the expectation to be constantly available now. There’s been a shift, with social media and mobile phones, to be constantly reachable.. To be always free and available. If someone doesn’t know where you are, or you haven’t answered a message, for more than a few hours they freak out, and it’s not necessarily healthy, I don’t think.
What are your plans for the next 6 months or so?
Wow, yeah, we have a lot planned for this year! We have a load of singles ready to go; “Sweet” being the 2nd single ahead of an E.P hopefully.
We have a bunch of shows planned around the new single coming out; loads of record store performances, and a launch party at CC Blooms in Edinburgh, where we’re doing a set, followed by a club night on April 2nd.
We’re also planning on going down to Brighton for the Great Escape festival this year again, which was amazing last year. We’ve also been shortlisted for Y Not festival this year too, so we have our fingers crossed for that.
Then at the end of April we’re playing a show that we’re recording, so that will definitely be exciting.
If you were second on a three-band bill, which band would you love to be ing and which band would you choose to open for you? A chance to plug someone you’ve toured with, or a mate’s band we’ve not heard of before!
(Brian) At the moment, I think the band to be ing would be Fontaines D.C, and we’d be quite a feasible too, genre wise. I’d love that.. They’re just at the top of their game.
As to who would precede us on the bill, I would like to see The Folk Drama. I know one of their , Aaron, for years; since I started gigging actually. He’s just a beautiful songwriter, and a cool guy. I’d love to get on a tour with those guys at some point. Bonus points for having the boring priest from Father Ted in their video for “Sunset Chaser”, absolutely amazing.
(Martin) The band I would love to on this imaginary bill, would be The Only Ones. Apart from Brian, Peter Perrett is my favourite songwriter/lyricist of all time. They are my favourite band.
I would love to have Glasgow band, The Dead Cinderellas us. They’re lovely guys, and very, very good.
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