There has been a lot of chatter about a resurgent Scottish scene of sorts over the past year. Three of the bands in question coincidentally share the same record label, Brighton-based FatCat Records.

Yet, those three bands, Frightened Rabbit, The Twilight Sad and We Were Promised Jetpacks, share very few similarities with each other. Tack on The XCerts, Broken Records and Dupec to this alleged ‘scene’, and the argument gets even more muddled. Just because bands share a similar base, it does not mean they are part of a consciously conceived scene bent on promoting the collective about the individual. In truth, it’s been a result of happy coincidence allied with better public policy that has developed more marketable bands from Scotland. The government is more involved in supporting music, and as such bands have more support from the ground-up. Yet, for a small country, Scotland has had a hot streak as of late.

Traditional Scottish brogues abound indie rock, with music ranging from the pathetic fallacy to the straight-edged, skinny-jeaned guitar rock. And it’s all good [‘All’? You sure? - Ed]. Maybe that’s the glue that holds this sparsely organised scene together, in fact. The music simply kicks ass.

Take We Were Promised Jetpacks, from example. The band has ridden a strong wave of hype as of late, one seeing them through a strong performance earlier this year at SXSW to their now current headlining tour, circling the UK. Their album, These Four Walls, took about four years in total to conceive while the band was all at Uni in Glasgow together.

Finally, after signing to FatCat on a loose tip off from Frightened Rabbit, the music transformed from demo to record and the band has joined the ranks of the aforementioned as one of Scotland’s best musical exports. Yet, when chatting with them, it’s easier to understand the band by peering more into how they originally formed, rather than where they came from. Scotland, in this sense, is not important at all.

“We were not a proper band for a very long time,” explains guitarist Michael Palmer. “Sure, we’ve been playing music together for years but it took some time to realise that we were a real band who could actually record an album. To me, can you really count the years that we were 16, 17, or 18? I can’t.  We were a band, yes, but not one that was ready for what we have now. Therefore, everything happened awful fast actually. One day we kind of realised that we could actually be a band and the next we had to think about which songs to record and the fact that we had to write at least three more.”

The result was a record that taught a young band a lifetime of studio techniques. The album was mostly recorded live off the floor, a trait the band adopted that they found comfort in. Very little was added in the studio and the mix sent off to Peter Katis (Frightened Rabbit, Fanfarlo) mirrors the final product. It’s raw, in your face, rowdy and energetic. Yet, as Palmer reveals, next time the band will take a different approach, building on the lessons from the debut.

“We would definitely go back and re-record the record not-live and try and get every little thing sounding just as we want it, I think,” muses Palmer. “We would also try and avoid getting starry-eyed by the big bright studio and try and figure out what we want beforehand.” Still, These Four Walls is a hell of a debut, one that asserts itself immediately from the get go with ‘Thunder and Lightning’ straight through first single ‘Quiet Little Voices’ and more acoustic, sombre closer, ‘An Almighty Thud’. Throughout, the band stick to what they know; playing aggressive, contemporary alternative rock, and doing it well. “It wasn’t so bad that it was live,” adds Palmer. “It was all together in one room, overspill and all. It gave the record a really cool live raw feeling, but it made mixing it a nightmare, one of those nightmares where you wake up panting and sweating. Next time we’re going to do it properly, just like Girls Aloud do.”

Still, an album as impressive recorded virtually live, makes it possible to imagine how good the band is in the flesh. Live the band have made their mark, from debuting in London to a sold-out crowed supporting Frightened Rabbit to their now first London headline gig, this month at The Borderline. Led by vocalist and Scottish brogue enthusiast Adam Thompson alongside Palmer, drummer Darren Lackie and bassist Sean Smith, We Were Promised Jetpacks are a force live - loud, brash and, well, loud again. “I love playing live,” concludes Palmer.  “Yes, it is loud as fuck, I admit, but there’s a definite point to that. We want you to come back attached to the songs, or have something to cling too; well, that and some bruised knees, of course.”