When it comes to writing these things, especially about new bands, we’re always looking for a hook line, a strong opening gambit.

Imagine the joy, then, when it transpires that the debut album from Glasgow’s Sons & Daughters, the excellent Love The Cup, found its original release six months ago on a small US label. How could it be, we want to know, that a Glaswegian band is forced to look so far afield to get its record released?
Unfortunately, for us at any rate, drummer Dave Gow is about to rain on our journalistic parade.
“Well,” he explains, “it seems like it was like that but it wasn’t really. A friend of ours runs Ba Da Bing Records in New York and we sent him some demos and some to Domino as well. Ben at Ba Da Bing said that he’d put a proper record out if we could make one. We got some money from the Arts Council to make it. Ben loved it and pressed it up and we sent those out to other people, including Domino again. It’s not like we aimed to get signed in America, it’s just the way it happened.”
Nevertheless, Sons & Daughters have made frequent trips across the Atlantic, most recently as tour support to Franz Ferdinand.
“That was fantastic,” says Dave. “We were playing to unbelievable crowds every night.”
He also found the audiences surprisingly knowledgeable about the state of British music.
“A lot of them are real Anglophiles. The first time we were over we were staying on people’s floors and you’d find that they were massively into Belle & Sebastian and even bands like Slowdive. They’re focusing on the UK a lot right now, particularly The Darkness.”
Not that the band sound particularly American, despite what some reviews – and songs with titles like ‘Johnny Cash’ – might suggest. Indeed, there seems to be a general confusion as to their sound, with their country’s own musical history also featuring in the mix.
“People pick up on the folk or traditional Scottish element but that’s maybe because of the mandolin, even though it’s not being used in a particularly folky way, but when they hear that sound they automatically think of Celtic music,” Dave observes. “Scott and Adele sing in their own accents as well and people pick up on that. If they were singing in cheesy American accents it wouldn’t work so well.”
What makes S&D so interesting is that their music comes with a range of other sounds and influences, from garage rock onwards.
We all have our own tastes. Scott likes a lot of traditional American music, Adele is into singer songwriters, Allidh likes disco and funk and I like punk.”
Does Dave think that the band sit apart from the Glasgow scene?
“Not really. The thing is, there are a lot of bands around at the moment that we all love and we’ve played with and hopefully they’re fans of ours. Stylistically, even though everybody’s different musically there are a lot of similar reference points; it’s just that bands seem to use them in different ways. There are so many great bands up here and we’ve ended up playing with so many different ones on various bills - a Devo inspired punk band, an electro band and then us but it doesn’t seem wrong because everyone’s trying to be the best they can be within their own boundaries.”
He does note one key difference though.
“Perhaps it’s less kind of post-rock and more pop nowadays. People have realised that you can still make good records and be true to your aims without having to compromise, and still make good catchy pop music that a lot people can get into. The snide, holier than thou indie boy attitude has gone.”

Love The Cup is out now on Domino Records