:(
(pronounced "colon open-bracket").
By Nick Butterfield

Punctuation in their band name? Check. Met through myspace? Check. Shared stages with the likes of Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly and ¡Forward, Russia!? Check. A setlist full to the brim with fantastic electro-punk mini-anthems? Check. In fact, I reckon :( (pronounced "colon open-bracket") couldn't really be much more "in the moment" if they tried. However, unlike so many of their counterparts this Aberdeen troupe are not a flash in the pan resulting from the music world's current infatuation with any band that have ever been in the same room as a keyboard or disco beat. Actually :( 's unique brand of hyper-active, disco-friendly, electro-punk is so good that REPEAT caught up with lead singer Mart (via myspace of course) to find out the back stories behind the tracks on their forthcoming EP First Blood:



Lucy: Your band have been quite quiet for the last few months. Are you looking forward to playing gigs again?
Katie Jane Garside: I think I give very obtuse ans

Fake Blood: The story behind this came about when a friend was cutting themselves and being very open about. I'd seen some other friends do a similar thing, where they would cut themselves and go out in the cold with short sleeves on, so everyone can see. Anyway, they'd been calling us up saying they were going to hurt themselves because they were upset. So we arranged to meet the person to speak about what was happening, to try and help them, but they were smiling and laughing about our concern, as if to be happy about getting the attention. I felt sickened and used by this. The music kind of reminds me on minor threat.

Codes: It's my favourite song on the EP, it's also one of the fastest, and it reminds me slightly on 'omega man' by the police. Lyrically it's about anonymity between people. growing up in Aberdeen, a place where everybody knows each other and because it's small, everyone knows everything about what's happening in your life, or at least they think they do, they're very quick to judge you based on someone else's opinion. So when you see someone in the street you're never totally sure if they are going to acknowledge you, it's just the kind of shit I can do without.

Pre-emoticons: It's about ending relationships and the confusion and conflict that can arise from not talking to someone in person. It's a little weird musically, I cant think of many electro songs that are in compound timing, plus it has a good bit of disco in it, rok rok emo disco party!

Heartache of soccer moms: It's the oldest song on the EP, it's about just drifting apart from someone you really liked because of various reasons, finding someone else and then realising that the first person still really likes you and there's a bunch of stupid shit that comes from that. It's a true story..haha! It's another song with a disco part in it....we loves the disco!

Hunt Hunters: I'm vegan, this is another sort of hardcore punk song. The lyrics are basically my frustrations with society's standards and ignorance when it comes to using animal products, I'm tired of people trying to tell me that "it's natural" to murder and rape animals and I think it's another form of racism...i'm sure 100 years ago the same people would have justified the slavery of Africans.

First Blood is out through MUST DESTROY! On October 30th.

http://www.myspace.com/colonopenbracket

wers to qu

Lucy: 'Taxidermy' and 'Drink Me' are quite drastically different in their musical styles, so what kind of sound can we expect from the 3rd album?
KJG: We don't know yet. We're playing a lot of new material tonight so you'll be able to judge that for yourself. When I'm this close up to it, it's really difficult to tell. I'm on a bit of a negative slant today, but usually with our music I can only hear the bits that have gone wrong rather
than anything that went right. When you reflect back on something it's very difficult