Dancing on Tables land deal with American label

They have mixed with an American blues legend and drawn comparisons to their hometown heroes.

The five-piece now realise their dream could become a reality.

After merely starting as a band at Queen Anne High School in a bid to skip classes, they have now packed out their local music venue and featured on stages graced by iconic names in the music industry.

And now, to cap off a momentum-building 2017, they have signed on the dotted line with LV Music, a Nashville-based label founded by Grammy-winning songwriter and producer, Femke Weidema.

The label will now launch the band’s new single, OH, tomorrow (Friday) with an accompanying video.

It’s rather fitting that they’ve distanced themselves from their previous infectious indie-pop material with a darker, anthemic track focusing on the struggles of long-distance relationships.

“We wanted to try something different. We wanted to go for this big sound,” frontman Robbie McSkimming told Press:ON.

“It’s a special song and I’d say it’s our best. It’s more personal.

“For Tracey (their first single, released in July), we went all out on trying to make it as pop as we could.

“We’ve gone the complete opposite way with OH; it’s a slow build-up and feels like this real stadium-sounding anthem.

“We want this track to open us up to a new style of listener. Diversity is only ever a good thing.

“We’re so scared for the release though. There’s so much pressure on it to do well now that we have the label behind us and giving us all their support.

“We’ve got a video for it as well which cuts between live shots of us playing in our Edinburgh studio and drone footage from across Scotland.

“I was not allowed anywhere near the drone!

“It shows off Scotland’s wilderness and ties in really well with the sound.”

The Dunfermline Press Live Music Award winners of 2016 are under no illusions that signing with a reputable label such as LV Music is a moment which will help shape their future together.

Callum Thomas (vocals/guitar) flew out to Nashville in June to record the single just hours before his flight back home.

It was only after the track was complete, and at a cottage in Aberdeen, where Femke revealed she was keen to add Dancing on Tables to her pool of talent.

“She told us that she had space on the roster and that she was impressed by us,” Robbie added proudly.

“It’s a relatively new label, so the roster is quite small, but she has lots of contacts and contracts with distributors and publishers.

“The idea is to hopefully attract a new audience and they’ll help push us into the American market, too.

“We had no long-term aim when we started.

“We told our teachers that we had to rehearse for gigs we never had.

“That’s how we got out of classes.

“However, we now know that we have a chance of turning our passion into our job. That’s a scary prospect.

“We’ve hit our stride now and we feel we’ve got purpose and a real momentum behind us.

“The label is huge for us.

“It’s funny that when someone now asks, ‘Are Dancing on Tables any good?’, we can reply that we’re signed to a national label. How cool is that?

“We’ll be heading to America next year to do some more writing and hopefully find another cottage.

“We really like cottages, by the way.

“We’ll make the most of this place which has such a huge music history.

“Playing in America would be amazing. That would be another surreal moment for us.”

Not that they’re unfamiliar with surreal moments, after Robbie managed to accomplish a feat few have managed to achieve.

“I shared a bottle of red wine with Seasick Steve,” he laughed, knowing full well there was more to the story of their meeting at Kendal Calling.

“I really annoyed him though.

“I was talking to him just as Frank Turner walked by.

“Given that he’s an absolute hero of mine, my mind just went, and I started speaking to him instead.

“Steve just walked off angrily.

“He’s the most chilled, relaxed guy you could ever meet, but I somehow managed to annoy him.

“That’s typical me.

“Kendal Calling was amazing. It was truly eye-opening for us.

“I think that’s when we realised that this is real, and we could make this happen.

“This is what we want to be doing all the time.

“It was the biggest festival we had ever played.

“It was funny as when we came off the stage a guy came up to us and said we reminded him of Big Country!

“That’s a huge compliment. If you’re from here, you can’t help but be inspired by Big Country.”

With a catalogue of tracks stockpiled for release, and eyes fixated on more festival shows, 2018 looks like to could be another good year.

A third EP could arrive by spring, following on from their last effort, ‘Don’t Stop’, which was launched to a packed crowd at the now-closed Electric Circus in Edinburgh at the tail end of 2016.

‘OH’ is available via iTunes and Spotify tomorrow (Friday).