Fife band The Castros capped off 2023 with one of their songs being voted single of the year - and now they're looking to make a big impact in 2024.
Their song, The 90s, topped a poll on popular music site Upcoming Bands, picking up over 1000 votes.
The five-piece band, comprising lead singer Brad Stalker, guitarists Kyle McIntyre, John Gowans and Aiden Creaney, and Sean Hume on the drums, were formed just over a year ago, and plyed their biggest headline show to date at PJ Molloys last month.
Speaking about the success of their single, Brad said: “Before we got together, I had just been doing my wee acoustic gigs and I’d already written The 90s and performed it live a couple of times. Kyle and John came to see one of my gigs and that’s when we got together.
The 90s was meant to be their first release, but having recorded their singles at a cottage, they couldn’t hear them back properly, and when they did, it wasn't quite right.
Sean said: “We had went into Fife College in Glenrothes and they were able to help us out with a tracking error. The song ended up being sorted within a couple of days.”
John added: “It’s probably our simplest song in terms of writing structure, but it took us ages to get it right. It must have just been something on the day, we couldn’t get it right, so it’s amazing its ended up being our best song.”
On winning the award, Brad commented: “It feels good that we had so many people behind us. We promoted it really well on social media as well. Friends and family were spreading around so it was great to come out on top.”
The band are set to make their return to PJs as they support The Shambolics at their upcoming album launch on Saturday, February 17.
Brad continued: “We’ve known the Shams for a while and we get on great with them. Liam the lead singer came to see a recent gig at PJs, so I think he was scouting us out ahead of their show!”
Despite playing at the venue many times before, their December gig was the first time The Castros had headlined at PJs.
Brad said: “It was amazing we took it on short notice and got the place absolutely rammed, there was over 200 folk in there."
Sean added: “If you think of all the times that we’ve performed there, it’s amazing people keep coming back. I thought no one would be there because everyone in Dunfermline has already seen us!”
As for the band's next steps, they'd like to spread their wings an hopefully play some festivals down south, as well as release more singles.
Brad added: "We’ve headlined six or seven shows, with over 200 people at each. The crowds are always bouncing so we really appreciate the response we’ve had and we want to keep going.”
The band's latest single release is Idle Man, which is available to stream on all platforms.
If you want to catch The Castros supporting the Shambolics at PJs on February 17, tickets are available from https://www.ticketweb.uk/event/shambolics-pj-molloys-tickets/13360173.
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