Kyle Falconer - Wylde about his new album No Thank You

by Margaret Chrystall

IF you want to see a picture of a besotted dad take a look at Kyle Falconer’s big smile as he plays with his baby daughter Wylde in the Family Tree video.

The View frontman is talking on the verge of returning to Inverness to play the Ironworks on his No Thank You tour – named after his debut solo album which came out to great reviews at the end of July.

“I have always wanted children,” said the 31-year-old.

“But it hasn’t been the right time.

“Now I’ve got the right mentality – I found the right woman, I’ve got a house now, I’ve got a car.

“You are never sure of what is going to happen in the future, but everything feels right and my baby is unbelievable.

“There were a lot of people who went to me ‘Oh, you’ve got a baby, your life is going to change’ but I’m taking it in my stride and I think I am good at parenting.

“I had a great upbringing from my mum and dad even though they died when I was quite young – my dad when I was 16, my mum when I was 21.”

Though his dad never saw the success The View had, his mum did – and was proud of Kyle.

“She saw the start of it and yes, of course, she was.

“All her pals when she went to the bingo would bring her snippets about me from the papers – ‘That’s my boy!,” he laughed.

But despite the massive success of The View – five albums so far including debut number one charting Hats Off To The Buskers in 2007 – Kyle’s partying began to cause problems.

In June 2016 his drunken behaviour meant the plane he was on to Barcelona was diverted to the south of France and Kyle was arrested.

In the following court appearance he was fined and had to pay a total of £25,000, partly for the cost of diverting the plane.

Kyle went into rehab in Thailand in 2017 and on the album there are references in his lyrics to therapy, what happens in Alcoholics Anonymous and in song Family Tree his own determination to be “... putting bottles of whisky and vodka behind me”.

It’s a song with a catchy tune, but the lyrics add something different.

A reference to “I write my jolly jingles and document my time” makes it sound as if the phrase “jolly jingles” is a bit tongue-in-cheek for the Dundonian musician and the song has a wistful last few lines.

Kyle said: “There is a sort of melancholy to the album.

“The whole idea is it sounds dead chirpy and stuff, but there is a darkness behind it as well.”

He added: “I think the whole Family Tree theme sounds happy, but it’s actually about a sad thing in a way because it’s hard on me to not go back to my old ways.”

In one way it sounds as if writing a solo album was liberating, and it is a frank, raw set of songs revealing some insecurities not everyone would be brave enough to share with the rest of the world.

Kyle said: “When you are playing in a band it’s more the band you are worrying about, like.

“You know ‘Is it too much?’ – ‘Are they going to question it.?’.

“But on your own, when you’re writing the songs, you don’t think the world is going to hear them, so you write what you want and you don’t question it at the time.

“Next minute it’s on the radio and you think ‘Oh sh**! everyone is hearing that!’,” Kyle laughed.

He takes a fresh look at some of the well-known elements of Alcoholic Anonymous’s meetings, commenting in song Poor Me on the ‘Poor me, poor me, poor me, pour me a drink’ line that highlights the line of a self-pitying drinker justifying the need for a drink.

And Kyle has talked about hearing the stories of others at AA meetings and feeling their troubles are greater.

He said: “You go in there thinking ‘It’s all about me, I’ve got serious problems’ and then you hear everyone else’s problems and they’re monumental.

“But then they hear yours and they say ‘Oh, your problems are quite serious’.

“Sitting in group, telling your story and people are crying at it and you’re thinking ‘I never thought it was that bad!’.

“But everyone tries to deflect and not be consumed by what’s happening – and to pretend it’s not happening”.

For a songwriter, episodes such as the plane rage and its aftermath, being hospitalised in 2007 in Japan with suspected blood poisoning or being caught with cocaine which led to problems playing America – it must all be food for thought for a songwriter?

Kyle said: “When these bad things are happening – ‘bad things’, or whatever you call them, when they are happening, you are in the moment, you’re just thinking ‘Oh my God, this is so bad!’.

“But you’re not thinking ‘I’m going to write about this one day!’ or think later ‘Know what? It was worth it!’.”

Even the experience of the early success of The View must have been quite a lot to take on when the band were youngsters who suddenly found themselves flavour of the moment with a debut album nominated for the Mercury Music Prize.

Kyle said: “It asked a lot of us and because there was so much going on, it wasn’t just the charts or selling out shows, it was headlining Glastonbury and so much other stuff, but there was the writing and just so much else going on too.

“We never knew we were on a major record label until the second album!

“We thought we were on an indie label, we never knew how much money we were earning. We were just completely in the dark.

“We were just loving partying and having money – so we never asked and the money never ran out.

“So we never asked for any more and just thought ‘That’ll do!’.

“We were just enjoying it and always have done up until the last year or so when we started to wise up and went ‘Shit, we’re going to need to get management sorted out’ and work out what we are actually spending.”

Kyle laughed: “We have a million lock-ups with loads of random gear all over the country and we’re starting to work out where the money is going and it’s just now we are kind of switched on.

“But it’s better late than never – it’s only 12 years later!”

And more mature ears mean some possible regrets.

“With the first record, when I hear it, I always think ‘That could be so much better’.

“But they were the only songs we had at the time and I think the band agreed, ‘We are not putting any harmonies in’ – or we put in a couple of harmonies – but they are not like what we had on Bread And Circuses and later albums.

“I think what we were wanting to do – we were listening to the Beatles and stuff – but I think we were trying to be Clashy and sort of punky.

“That was our element because that was the way we were living at the time. We were living like wee scoundrels and we needed to put in all that energy to make it.

“So though I’d love to go back and re-record it, it would actually ruin the vibe of the songs!”

So does Kyle find release in songwriting – his job, in a way– from the pressures of his life?

“It’s good to be able to express yourself, but I have never treated it like a job.

“I’ve done some pressure writing when you go into the studio and have to come up with a song that day.

“But normally I’ll be walking along – I’ve always got something in my head. I never listen to music unless it’s the Beatles and I’ll put them on if it’s a party or something and put them on loud.

“I don’t like to sit down and write – and wait until it comes.

“You’re coming up with songs pretty much all the time I’ve never thought of it as a job – and I like expressing myself!

“Normally I like to let my head go wild and songs just come out.”

Kyle plays the Ironworks, Inverness, tonight ( Friday, August 24) playing his new solo album songs with his band and including The View hits plus local support from The Roov, Dylan Tierney and Keir Gibson.