By Jessi Aitken

Lewis McGowan, lead guitarist from the up-and-coming indie/rock band ‘In Vertigo’ is in Glasgow. The band have released two singles and have headlined a handful of gigs with their captivating stage presence drawing a lively crowd.

The band was formed when McGowan was in high school and has been developed and matured into the new indie/rock sound that makes them so popular. The band has been switched and swapped with names and members, giving the band time to find their image and perfect it. McGowan said: “We made our way through like changing names and that and changed who was in it and stuff and eventually we landed on Coast, Jenkins and then me, Richard and Scott were the ones from school.”

In Vertigo explores an indie/alternative rock sound and there are clearly strong early rock/ pop-punk influences that come out in their music. The song writing process in bands is always difficult as there’s so many people with so many different ideas and preferences on how they should sound, or what the best decision for a song is. There is a long, lengthy process into writing, recording, producing and promoting a song or EP and all bands handle this process in different ways. McGowan said: “It’s probably just the five of us shouting at each other in the studio over and over then we record it…we definitely have a lot of creative differences and we kind of solve them by just going over and over it until we can agree”

The passion for music is clear when you listen to their singles or see them live. The band having disputes and disagreements when writing and recording shows that the band truly care and have a deep passion for what they do and want to make sure that they truly love and are proud of the music they’re making. Their music is well produced and written, and you can tell there is a lot of time and effort put into making their sound consistent and engaging.

Glasgow has an incredible music scene for musicians starting out and there are so many amazing venues and chances for these up-and-coming artists to get recognition. Discussing about finding venues and if it was hard, McGowan said: “If you can get a crowd, you can kind of play wherever you want and even if you can’t there’s always hundreds of people in the Scottish scene willing to give you a chance.”

The Glasgow music scene is one of the most supporting and understanding, giving everyone an equal chance to preform and do the thing they love. There’s a huge community factor and bands look out for other bands and support them, when possible. McGowan said: “Every time we play a gig we try make as much of an effort as we can to speak to all the other bands and supports like whoever’s running the show and stuff, so we speak to a few different people. It’s good to try socialising and network a wee bit because it can always get you places a bit easier.”

In Vertigo have played a handful of gigs, openers and headlines, they are gaining popularity everyday and have an active social media presence to promote music, gigs, features in articles and radio shows, they’ve also released a music video for their single ‘Last Nights Makeup’. Looking at In Vertigo’s upcoming projects or gigs, McGowan said: “We’re going to the studio soon though so we’re gonna have some stuff out that I can’t speak about but only because we don’t know what we’re gonna do with it.”

Whether you’ve heard of In Vertigo and love them or have no idea who they are, they all have a clear passion and determination that is evident in their music. This is what makes them so popular and why they are gaining it so fast as you can hear and see they love making and preforming music, they are a band to watch out for as it’s clear they are going far. If you ever have a free night and want a change in your usual alt rock gigs, go and check out the next In Vertigo gig and draw your own conclusions but there is no denying the talent and effort they put in.

A band on the rise...