About us

Carnivores are a three-piece rock band based in Paisley, Scotland.

Described by the NME as sounding like "Weezer being beaten up by The Dillinger Escape Plan", Carnivores draw influence from Fugazi, At The Drive-In, Idlewild, Helmet, Elvis Costello and Nirvana. 

Carnivores are a three-piece rock band based in Paisley, Scotland. Formed by college friends Kenny Leckie, and Grant MacCall - Carnivores got to work the old fashioned way, touring every venue imaginable in Scotland in their battered estate car, building a fans show by show. They quickly have gained a reputation as one of the hardest working and incendiary live bands in Scotland - taking on guerilla gigs in abandoned buildings, countless house parties and most impressively 450ft up in the Glasgow Science Centre Tower, the tallest fully rotating structure in the world. It has been broken ever since. 

“Our live shows are a release for us. We rehearse in a tiny room and we work boring day jobs so when we do a show, we always go crazy and unleash our frustrations. Nothing is planned in advance, it's all in the moment type stuff. Anything could happen”, says lead singer and guitarist Kenny. 

After hitting their stride with a series of self-released EP's and singles, Carnivores went on to play T in the Park , headline Glasgow's King Tut's Wah Wah Hut and playing the legendary Glasgow Barrowland at a sell out show supporting Twin Atlantic. In 2013, the band replaced David with new drummer Martin Johnston and got down to making their debut album 'Let's Get Metaphysical'. Recorded live in just six days with producer Bruce Rintoul (Twin Atlantic/Fatherson), the album captures the raw intensity of the band's live show matched with a more melodic, introspective aspect to Carnivores sound. 

A strong theme on 'Let's Get Metaphysical' is about looking at the world that we've inherited from previous generations and seeing how irresponsible those generations have been with it - Kenny explains "We've all been brought up in working classing households and the people that our parents and gradparents put trust in have sold out the working classes in a big way. In a song like 'Lion Tamer' we're singing about our home towns but it could be anywhere in the UK, the same with 'The Second Wave of Yuppie Scum', it's about someone specific to us turning out to be a class traitor - I think that's a feeling that everyone can relate to."

Leckie continues, “Most rock music you hear these days is very polished and homogenised. We wanted to go the opposite way and make something that was musically and emotionally very raw and real. It's just three guys in a room playing loud rock music. Lyrically, it's like an open wound, for better or worse it's practically a diary of the last six months of my life”.

Undertaking an album recording so quickly is often a simple matter of economics - recording studios cost money. With the Carnivores approach however, all limitations are turned into a virtue, "We set up in a big room and played the songs like we would live, no click tracks or guide tracks and very little editing afterwards. The sessions were very high pressure with not much room for error but that lends to the sound in my opinion. It did stress us out a whole lot knowing how much work we had to do. Most songs were done in 4 or 5 takes but the title track took us about 23. When we do the next one, I think we'll allow ourselves a bit of breathing space and do it in eight days."

Scotland is a nation in a state of flux, with many important decisions for it's inhabitants ahead. 'Let's Get Metaphyscial' provides a state of the nation address from young men in touch with their history and a strong sense of what lies ahead. But just how 'metaphysical' is this record? "I'm an armchair metaphysicist" admits Kenny, "I'm not ashamed to admit that all my knowledge on philosophy comes from Wikipedia. We had a Soren Kiekergaard quote on our first EP, I only know him because he was mentioned in Wayne's World. Where's my honorary doctorate at?"

'Let's Get Metaphysical' is available on limited edition coloured vinyl and digital formats now!