PAWS will perform Saturday at Spanish Moon with We Are Scientists. Doors open at 9 p.m. Tickets are $15 online.
Phillip Taylor has never been one to hide his emotions. The guitarist and lead singer of the Scottish rock band PAWS isn’t content to write songs cloaked in mystery or metaphor.
“I can’t take myself seriously when I do that,” he says. “I can only write about what has happened to me.”
The band arrived on the scene with 2012’s Cokefloat!, a well-received jolt of hook-laden ’90s rock. Since then, the trio has been relentlessly touring. This month, PAWS released its self-produced sophomore album Youth Culture Forever, which is less personal and a bit darker than the band’s debut, though still rooted in blunt storytelling and distorted power chords that previously caught listeners’ attention.
“The first one was really cut and dry right off the bat,” he says. “It was a bit autobiographical. Everything on this record isn’t one million percent just about me. It doesn’t matter who or what the song is about. Take what you want from it and make it what you want it to be.”
The title of the new LP comes from a saying drummer Josh Swinney overheard in an episode of Cartoon Network’s Adventure Time, and the phrase stuck with the band’s ethos.
“There’s always going to be a new generation of pissed off kids,” he says. “There’s always going to be that youth creating a new way to express themselves through art. The youth is the future. They are underestimated. Kids are the ones who decide something is great or if it sucks three weeks later.”
Taylor knows what it’s like to be one of those teens with a chip on his shoulder. He grew up in a small Scottish town. While the kids at school were listening to Robbie Williams, his brother was playing mix tapes filled with Blur, Patti Smith and The Buzzcocks. Taylor wanted to rock ‘n’ roll, but he lived in an area that scoffed at the premise.
“A lot of people around you have no faith in [a music career] being a logical life plan,” he says. “The culture is: get a job, learn a trade, settle down. I was lucky that I had my mom. She was encouraging, supporting what I wanted to do.”
Fresh out of school, Taylor moved to Glasgow where he met his future band mates, Swinney and bassist Ryan Drever. The band never had a plan. Rather, the three guys simply wanted to make music and take whatever chances came their way. Their first tour in America, however, was a sign that the band was on the right path.
“I remember we were on the plane coming to America, and I was telling [Swinney], ‘If 10-20 people come to our shows, I’ll be grateful,’” he says. “It was a shock, a special thing. We’re now on our fourth tour of America. By the end of this one, we’ll have seen the majority of the country. I feel at home here now.”
Hear “Tongues” from Youth Culture Forever below:
