Blurring punk and hardcore ferocity with clever riffage and instrumental experimentation, Glasgow trio Citizens are a particularly proactive component in the city's evolving underground musical landscape, with it's members also currently involved in everything from promotion and DIY labels, to playing in other bands. Having already struck a chord with fellow musicians as well as like-minded gig-goers, the band have every intention on spreading the word and the noise to the far-reaches of the country. Recently, Guitarist/vocalist, Craig McIntyre was kind enough to share a few words on the ins and outs of the band so far.

So, how did Citizens originally come together?
My brother Neil and I started the band just over a year ago just jamming stuff in our bedroom. We wrote a bunch of songs then scrapped them, then wrote a bunch more and roped friends Owen and Ewan in to play with us. Since then Neil and Ewan both left due to University commitments. Owen (Batchelor) took up bass duties as well as vocals and more recently we acquired Iain (Stewart) from Bronto Skylift to play drums, and things have been working out really well so far. Neil came up with the name Citizens - we felt the name gave listeners no preconceptions of what we would sound like.

What would you consider to be your biggest influences/inspirations musically?
We all like a wide variety of stuff and we just play what comes naturally, and this is the sound we have arrived at. I guess generally a lot of late eighties/early nineties rock, punk, grunge and hardcore.

What do you enjoy most about playing live in Glasgow?
There's a lot of exciting things happening in Glasgow at the moment, plenty of venues and loads of great bands to play with. Promoters like Unthank, This Is Our Battlefield, Predestination and Wolf Among Wolves are helping to attract bands from all over the world to Glasgow, and support the local acts as well. Local bands I would recommend checking out include United Fruit, Jackie Onassis, Hey Vampires, Bronto Skylift, Jousting With Dracula and Arca Felix.

What are your plans for the coming months?
Right now we're booking a UK tour with Hey Vampires for the end of May/ start of June - we're just getting the last couple of dates finalised. We're also getting ready to record an EP 'Try Smiling' to be released at the end of May, by Wolf Among Wolves - a label I co-run with Phil Differ.

What would you hope, if anything, that people would take away from seeing you play live?
Just the same way I feel when a live band impresses me, that they would want to see us again.

http://www.myspace.com/citizensuk

Citizens play 17 Apr at Cassette, Glasgow with Wooderson and Akira; 30 May at venue tbc, Edinburgh with Hey Vampires; 31 May at Cassette, Glasgow with Hey Vampires and What Price Wonderland