Glasgow newcomers Start From Scratch offer up a feisty and entertaining modern twist on late 90s and early 2000s alternative emo-punk and alt-rock, which they describe as “sexy, depressing and fun (not necessarily all at the same time!)”
The quartet started out when bassist Iain Carr and a previous drummer decided to get back into music after a long hiatus. They discovered vocalist Fennella McCallum and guitarist Stiart Fraser through online ads, before the drummer departed and, in February 2024, they found Ciaran Richter through another online ad to complete the lineup.
“Although we’ve only been together a year, it feels like we’ve known each other for forever,” the band told us. “We’ve quickly become best friends and just love creating music together. Sometimes we can be dark and heavy, other times light and bouncy, but we always deliver our signature sound and that connects everything together. Once you’ve heard us, there’s no mistaking or forgetting us!”
Our first chance to do exactly that is the band’s debut EP Suck, Marry, Kill, which was released at the start of this month. The band sent us the opening track Always, which opens up with light guitars immediately answered by heavier guitars and drums, before dropping into a verse led by Fennella’s engaging vocals. The pace picks up as it bursts into a big singalong chorus “Always be there, In the back of your mind, Always I’ll be there, I’ll make you hurt, Always.” A stabbing guitar riff takes over after the second chorus, and is joined by intense fast-paced vocals “Everytime you touch, Everytime you kiss, Everytime you fuck, Everytime you look” and heavy drums. The pace suddenly drops with light guitars and vocals, before the vocals intensify with repeats of “There’s no place to run away, I’ll be there always” bringing the track to a powerful conclusion.
Speaking ahead of the release, the band told us: “We are super excited for people to hear Always, and the EP as whole. It’s the opening track and we feel it’s a great introduction to the record! It’s definitely on the heavier side of our range, but it’s dark, powerful and really makes a statement. There’s a lot of nu-metal influence to it which you can really feel in the breakdown and the ending of the song, something we are particularly proud of.”
Next up on the EP is Your Own Age, which starts out with a light guitar lick that continues with the opening line “I was 16, You were buying drinks for me, And I thought that was pretty cool.” Heavier guitars kick in as it continues “I was 19, You were 28, On our first date, I felt so mature.” The pace slows slightly as engaging vocals build up to a big feisty singalong chorus that ends with the line “I was only 22 when I outgrew you.” That’s followed by Waiting 4 U, which starts out with rolling drums and a little guitar lick that drops into an engaging verse and a catchy chorus. The pace drops with light guitars and engaging vocals that end with the cheeky line “Maybe I could be such a good girl, I’ll be your little angel, I’ll let you drive real fast, and you can fuck me in the…” setting up a final blast of the chorus.
The EP concludes in fittingly angsty style with Bury It, which begins with a light noodling guitar that’s joined by a heavier riff that continues into an engaging verse that ends with the line “Now what was that you just said, And what the fuck was her name?” Heavier punky guitars kick in as it flows into a catchy chorus, followed by a second verse ends with the line “How many times did you fuck, Did she feel good on your cock?” and a slightly tweaked chorus. The pace drops, before building up to a lively outro led by intense vocals and a final scream of “I’m gonna fucking bury it.”
The Start From Scratch is influenced by a share love for alternative, emo and pop-punk from the 90s/00s, including Blink-182, My Chemical Romance, System of a Down and Evanescence. Individually, Fennella would cite Sabrina Carpenter as her biggest influence, Stuart would say Mr Big, Iain would say Nirvana, and Ciaran would say Green Day.
And on what inspires them to write music, the band told us: “The main influence for us in our writing is a genuine love of what we do – we love collaborating, sharing ideas and coming up with new material. We don’t get too bogged down in fitting into certain boxes or genres – as long as it sounds good, we’ll go with it and see where it takes us.
“In terms of subject matter, we can go to some pretty dark places with ideas around stalking and obsession, but we can also be more light-hearted and fun. Fen is a fantastic storyteller and amazing at creating characters for our songs, so she can really write about anything! We’re all in our 30s, so general life experience is definitely a huge influence on our music and we strongly believe that’s a major reason it will resonate with people. Obviously, there’s quite a lot of diversity here, but it’s the combination of all these things that makes us so unique!”
Start From Scratch just played an EP launch show and a big gig at The Garage in Glasgow last night. They’ll be heading back into the recording studio to set themselves up fro a few single releases throughout the rest of the year. You can also see them perform at the Wild on the Wall festival in Cumbria in late July.
And the band added: “We hope up you enjoy the song and the EP! We’re incredibly proud of it and just want to share it with as many people as we can. Also, get yourself along to one of our live shows – we promise we will not disappoint!”
You can follow Start From Scratch on Instagram, and check out their music on Spotify, Apple Music, Soundcloud, and YouTube.
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