The Battle Of The Bands is a time-honoured rite of passage for many groups. Rock’n’roll as an imprecise competitive sport. Happy Mondays infamously received the lowest votes when they debuted at Manchester’s Haçienda club in 1985, but were mysteriously elevated to winners by a savvy Tony Wilson. No such shenanigans were required when Glasgow quintet Tanzana played a first-ever gig at their local Lanarkshire contest in 2023 and romped off with the top prize.

Singer Freya Talbot, drummer Karolina Skinderskyte, bassist Katie Hare, and guitarists Lily Findlay and Sarah Dunn were still pupils at Stonelaw High School at the time, entering for kicks with only a few weeks of rehearsals under their belt. Hare wasn’t even sure if she wanted to take part in the competition but was strongly encouraged to do so by a teacher. ‘They just looked at me and said: “You’re doing it”,’ she recalls. The win was a sign that the school friends had something worth cultivating, though they had to ditch their previous name of Lazuli as a French prog-rock band got there first. Keeping the median ‘z’, they renamed themselves Tanzana and have since turned heads with a brace of gig and festival appearances across the central belt, including Eden and ButeFest as well as their own club, Covet, at King Tut’s.

The first rule of Covet club is to book quality bands and create a sense of identity and community; the event is named after their debut and only track release to date with the group consciously wanting to build up a live audience and library of songs before releasing a single. ‘Covet’ is an impressive calling card, a prowling gothic catharsis which purrs then howls en route to a heroic metal coda which nods to their roots playing Rage Against The Machine covers. Now the band are more likely to cite Radiohead, Massive Attack, PJ Harvey, Cocteau Twins, Air and Zero 7 as influences with a contemporary nod to Big Thief.

‘Covet’ may not be typical of their current setlist but it is an intoxicating gateway song. ‘It started the way I write lyrics now, a bit more whimsical,’ says Talbot. It has also inspired a band look influenced by ‘quite creepy’ pagan folklore and a stage presence they describe as ‘a bit weird and freaky’. Covet will live on as a quarterly gathering where Tanzana can lean into their developing sonics and visuals. In the meantime, they have appearances at Glasgow’s Tenement Trail and Rotterdam’s Left Of The Dial lined up for October.

All the band agree that their teenage bonds make Tanzana something of a sisterhood. But as well as healthy dynamics within the group, they also report nothing but positive vibes from their peers in bands and audiences. ‘Everyone wants to build each other up which is so important,’ says Skinderskyte. ‘It’s not a competition.’ Tell that to the battling Lanarkshire bands left in Tanzana’s wake.

Tanzana play Tenement Trail, Glasgow, Saturday 11 October.