Tell us about yourselves and what you do?
Two Wings are a band from Glasgow. We write songs and play music which draws upon a whole range of traditional/popular musical forms from traditional folk to rock to psychedelia to soul. We love strong melodies, guitar solos and vocal harmonies! We sometimes like to improvise too.
How did you get together?
Hanna Tuulikki and I (Ben Reynolds) began to write and perform songs together in 2009. We always wanted to take the songs beyond the somewhat folky context of our duo and develop them in a classic rock n roll band format, so we asked a couple of friends, Kenny Wilson and David Hayward, to accompany us on bass and drums respectively. Thus was Two Wings born! Since then Lucy Duncombe has joined us to add an extra voice and an extra layer to the harmonies, and we've had a change of drummer - Owen Curtis Williams is now rhythm man. We've been very lucky to have these folks in the band, the songs benefit enormously from their talents.
What is your current release?
Our debut single EIKON is out on 12th March for download and our album LOVE'S SPRING on 30th April, courtesy of Tin Angel Records.
What is the best part of being in a band?
Taking these songs, which usually start life in a bedroom, through all the various stages of composition and arrangement and eventually playing them live in front of an (hopefully receptive) audience.
What is your most significant moment yet?
I imagine that it will be when the album comes out in April. It'll be great to have the recordings out there to go alongside the live show- the full experience will be available finally!
What are your biggest musical influences?
Not sure I can speak for the whole band, but I learnt to play guitar (at least in the way I do in Two Wings) by listening to people like Richard Thompson, Grady Martin, Scotty Moore, Steve Van Zandt, Tom Verlaine, Elliott Easton, George Harrison, Peter Green, Lindsey Buckingham, Prince and many more... Hanna probably has too many favourite vocalists to list all, but here are a few – Kate Bush, Stevie Nicks, Billie Holiday, Linda Thompson, Karen Dalton, The Everly Brothers, Elvis, Etta James, Buffy Sainte Marie, Emmylou Harris, Shirley Collins, Wanda Jackson, Grace Slick... you can probably extract our song-writing influences from these two lists as well...
What venue/gig do you most want to play?
I like good old fashioned rock venues with lots of speakers stacked up to a low ceiling.
What is your best/favourite song you have written?
I'd probably choose one of our new songs which we haven't played out much yet... but if I had to choose from Love's Spring I would maybe go with Eikon. It's from the first batch of songs that Hanna and I wrote together and it still feels great to play live, we quite often open our shows with it.
What’s your favourite album of this year?
I don't think I've heard any new albums this year!
What does the next six months have in store for you?
We'll be playing some gigs in April, June and beyond to coincide with the single and album release and working on songs for the second album.
Where do you see yourself in ten years?
Very, very famous but bankrupt from years of heavy drug addiction and eccentric/massive spending habits (but seriously, I have no idea... still playing music I hope)
What’s the best thing about Americana-UK?
That you were kind enough to take an interest in our music!
