Gig preview: Glass Mountain at Wharf Chambers, Leeds

“It’s an etching from Grimm Fairy Tales,” explains singer and guitarist Harry Hanson. “There’s two actually – there’s a piece called Shattered Mountain and another called Glass Mountain and we really liked Glass Mountain so we went for that. It’s all tied in with the whole fact that we’re from Bradford.”

Hanson and William Sand, bassist and keyboard player, formed the nucleus of the band initially formed a year ago. “We were just writing when we had the spare time in our cellar where we rehearse now. Then we were sick of programming electronic drums so we decided to get a drummer [Jonathan Newell] who William knew of.

“The first rehearsal we did was the foundation of our first single Glacial then we got offered a gig by our friends and we thought, ‘How are we going to do this live when we’ve got a lot of guitar tracks on the record?’ I studied with a guy called Lewis [Johnson-Kellett] and we asked him to come along and jam and he’d learned the parts and it flowed from there.”

Although Glacial suggests post-rock and shoegazing influences, Hanson says they draw inspiration from diverse sources. “I think we’re one of the most varied influenced bands, to be honest. I listen to a lot of rock then our drummer listens to a lot of hip-hop and he’s really into his jazz and funk then our guitarist likes his shoegaze. Collectively we all like different stuff, really. I think it brings something to our music.”

To date they’ve only played four shows – but their EP launch at Richard Watson’s unsigned showcase the 360 Club at The Library in Leeds was certainly memorable.

“My favourite part of music is seeing it live,” says Hanson. “I always think it should be completely different to the record. Musically it’s a lot different and in terms of how we think about it.

“I don’t think it’s a conscious thing making it too different every time because if you make it different every time it’s not going to be as special, but with the EP release it was our first ever headline show so we wanted to make that striking so we used paint to tie in with the Glacial video.”

EP2 is apparently “well on the way”. “Where we rehearse is where we record,” says Hanson. “We do it in our bass player’s basement. It’s pretty good that we can self-produce things because it means that we can always be active.”

The band’s next show is at Wharf Chambers in Leeds on August 8. “We’re playing with our friends from Nottingham called Autumn Diet Plans, who are a really good band. It’s a Flat Four Records show. They brought a cassette out of our EP as a special release and they’ve asked us to gig for them so it should be a really good night.”

They’re also due to play at Bingley Music Live in Myrtle Park, Bingley on September 4. “We’re all really excited because it’s our first festival as a band,” says Hanson.

For more on Glass Mountain visit https://glassmountain1.bandcamp.com/