Kirkcaldy Music Scene: Permacrisis talk Bonfest and being judged for their music

“It was a great experience - although it nearly didn't happen as the organisers generator packed in during set up but luckily they sourced another one,” says Alex Harrower as he describes how technical issues almost cost them their chance to perform at Bonfest, the Bon Scott tribute event held in the rock legend’s Angus birth place each year.

However, after a delay, the band, consisting of Alex (16), Jason Simms (17), Rowan Docherty (17) and Ashton-Lee Mcindoe (16), were able to bring their heavy metal to the Kirriemuir staged festival. You can find Permacrisis at: https://linktr.ee/permacrisis

And whilst their youth may have initially left some questioning their credentials, Alex said that the band won over the crowd by the end of their set, including fans from further afield.

He said: “I think we surprised a few of the music fans in the audience just how tight we are as a band and the skill levels we have but honestly we practise so hard on our live performance. Everyone seemed to dig it and we've got a new group of fans from Northern Ireland who wanted to chat to us for ages after our set.”

A lot has been made of the band and its members' ages however, the band now want to focus on pushing themselves further up the bill.

“I think initially being so young definitely helped and after we won the Fife Schools Battle of the Bands, people were keen to put us on gigs in and around Fife which then had the knock on effect of getting us into more rock and metal venues like Legends in Edinburgh.

“We only ask that folk come and see us and judge us for our music and not our age. I think now we have to work harder to get further up bills at gigs.

“It is easy to look at our age and have us opening gigs which is great but we'll definitely keep working to get further up bills and hopefully headline our own metal gig at some point.”

Despite now branching out beyond Fife, Kirkcaldy and the Kingdom have continued to play a massive part in the band and how they have progressed in a relatively short period of time.

Alex explained: “We rehearse at Kirkcaldy YMCA and have played gigs all across Fife. There is a great community of bands and musicians in Fife that we're happy to be a part of. All these bands and musicians support each other. It's great and we've met some cool people.”

The band have already begun working on recordings but, according to Alex, they won’t release anything until they give it the seal of approval.

He said: “We can't put a date on anything in terms of releasing music but we have been working with Bill Thaw up at Fife College. We definitely want to release our own music in the future but we want it to sound as good as it can and not release music just for the sake of releasing music.”