Tanzana: "I've never been in a crowd that’s as squished as it was for Madra Salach – everyone was going crazy"

It’s been almost two months, but Glaswegian hotshots Tanzana are still on an adrenaline high after opening for Madra Salach at their New Year’s Eve gig in Whelan’s.

“It was so much fun!” drummer Karolina Skinderskyte enthuses. “I’ve never been in a crowd that’s as squished as it was for Madra – everyone was going crazy, including the band! It’s a small venue but it felt like half of Dublin was there!

“We’d met the boys, who are lovely, before at the Tenement Trail in Glasgow and got to hang out with them again at Left Of The Dial in Rotterdam. I don’t know if all Irish folk bands are like that but they’ve so much energy.”

Madra Salach aren’t the only Irish group who Tanzana have got to play – and party – with.

“We did seven shows with Cliffords, which was our first tour and the longest we’ve been out on the road so far,” singer Freya Talbot explains. “There was the odd day when you’d feel a bit out of place and homesick – ‘Where are our parents? They’ve always been at our gigs before!’ – but then you’d go on stage and think, ‘This is great, I don’t want the tour to end!’

“Cliffords were really welcoming and we learned a lot from them. Iona taught me all her warm-up routines, one of which is singing through a straw into a bottle of water. I used to get really embarrassed doing my warm-ups in front of other people, but this muffles the sound whilst doing the same job. There’s a YouTube tutorial that this American guy (Roger Hale, Editor) did that’s worth watching.”

Like Oasis long before them, it was a gig in Glasgow’s answer to the aforementioned Whelan’s, King Tut’s Wah Wah Club, which has altered the course of their young lives.

“King Tut’s has been massive for us,” guitarist Lily Findlay notes. “We were one of the supports at their New Year’s Revolution gig in 2023, and in 2024 headlined, which is where a lot of people in the Glasgow scene discovered us. Everything went bigger from there – London heard about us and we started getting industry interest.”

“King Tut’s is also where we met Arran Black, who we did our ‘Covet’ single with, and ran our own club night,” her fellow guitarist, Sarah Dunne adds.

Premiered in November by Steve Lamacq on his BBC 6Music show, ‘Covet’ is described by the band as “representing feelings of obsession and longing for something that’s out of reach; we were inspired by nature and the destruction of it” – and more than lives up to the billing.

Among those contacting Tanzana after that New Year’s Revolution headliner was Tara Richardson, their now manager who before setting up her own T-Time stable, worked with the likes of Snow Patrol, Declan McKenna, Nell Mescal, Foals, The Murder Capital and The Last Dinner Party at Q Prime.

A Dubliner whose father Damien is an Irish footballing legend, she’s considered one of the best in the business.

“We’d had other people interested in us before but didn’t feel ready to take on management,” Freya notes. “We thought, ‘Let’s hone our craft; get the songwriting and the live performances right and then worry about what comes next.’

“At the point where we were ready to take it the next level, Tara sent us an email. We met and pretty quickly realised she was the one for us. She also manages  Madra Salach and Cliffords, so it’s like being part of an extended musical family.”

Like all the best bands, Freya, Lily, Sarah, Katie and Karolina met at high school and quickly became their own tight-knit gang.

“Tanzana didn’t exist until one of our art/music teachers suggested that we enter a school Battle of the Bands,” Sarah resumes. “So we formed for that in 2023, rehearsed furiously for three weeks and to everybody’s amazement – including our own – won the competition.”

What was the music they originally bonded over?

“There are loads of bands we love,” Karolina reveals, “but the big two are Radiohead and Massive Attack. What I love about them both is that musically they’re so hard to pin down. From one album to the next, you don’t know what to expect from them.”

In a previous interview, Freya described playing live as “almost ceremonial.” Can she tease that out?

“We like to be theatrical – music is one thing, but with all the outfits and make-up we put on, it becomes an event,” the singer explains. “I’ve always loved the way gigs bring people together. Who you meet and started talking to at the bar is as important as who’s on stage. That bonding and making friends is ceremonial, definitely.”

Tanzana. Credit: Victoria Sykes @vix.visual

With the exception of Karolina who’s from Lithuania and moved over when she was four, all of the band are Glasgow born and bred and love that the city’s bands are so supportive of each other.

Asked who else we should be looking/listening out for, bassist Katie Hare shoots back: “Lacuna, Lucia & The Best Boys, Junodream and San Jose, who’ve both played King Tut’s recently, and Milange who supported Man/Woman/Chainsaw and were great. Glasgow’s absolutely buzzing at the moment!”

Along with Tut’s, no wild Glasgow rock ‘n’ roll night out is complete without taking in NiceNSleazy, where Freya is currently working when not on Tanzana duties, and The Variety Bar.

“The Variety’s definitely a hotspot for people on the scene,” Findlay says. “It’s on Sauchiehall Street, which you can’t walk down without meeting somebody from a band.”

Personally, I think the ‘industry plant’ charge that has been levelled at the likes of Wet Leg and The Last Dinner Party is a load of misogynistic baloney, but you can tell talking to Tanzana that they’re in control of their own destiny.

“I would think so!” Freya nods.

“I like that – we’re in control of our own destiny!” Karolina adds gleefully. “We’re jointly signed to SO Recordings/Hideous Mink, two independent labels who’ve previously signed bands like Enter Shikari, Big Special and Alien Chicks. All they want you to be is yourselves, which we’re good at doing.”

That they are! Whilst a new EP is imminent, the only music Tanzana have commercially available at the moment is that ‘Covet’ single they recorded with Arran Black. How representative is it of their other songs?

“We’ve ones that like ‘Covet’ have a dark, eerie vibe; some that are lighter in energy; and others which are really rocky,” Karolina concludes. “We’ve a mix of different things and, even now, we’re still experimenting and seeing where it takes us. Somebody asked, ‘What do you think your debut album’s going to sound like?’ and I was like, ‘I dunno yet.’”

• Tanzana play as part of the Borderline festival which takes place in Dublin from February 19-21. ‘Covet’ is out now on SO Recordings/Hideous Mink.