Kassidy happy to be back playing in paradise

Scottish quartet return to Caribana after a successful year.

Scottish quartet Kassidy were the surprise package of last year's festival as they wowed the Scène de la Plage with their unique acoustic sound. One year later, they are back for more and have graduated to the Scène du Lac.

The foursome - Barrie-James O'Neill, Hamish Fingland, Lewis Andrew and Chris Potter - sat down to speak to the Caribana official website as soon as they arrived at Crans-Sur-Celigny and spoke about their success - including the release of debut album Hope Street in March - in the year since their last visit.

Caribana: You were last of course playing on the Scène de la Plage. What has happened to Kassidy over the past year?

Kassidy: We've released our album and we've been touring as well. And we've been just trying to get back here, back to Caribana! It was such a nice venue last year and it seems to be the pick of the crop. Otherwise, we've been promoting the album and gigging a lot and trying to get better as a band, trying to get better live and trying to be the loudest acoustic band ever.

How and why did you decide to reject the traditional rock template of guitar, drums and bass and opt for four acoustic guitars?

We started with that same template; we thought there was one incarnation of a rock band and we thought that was it. But then we wanted to strip everything back as we're a vocal band really and then we plugged in the acoustics and thought that this isn't bad at all. We played 3 or 4 months without a stop box before we added that  - because we wanted to take things live we needed a backbone and to add some tempo.

How does that work now you are moving from small intimate venues to huge festival stages?

It is great wherever we play, whether its really small and intimate or on a big stage the band seems to be fine wherever we go. There's been tiny stages where we've been all packed together in the heat and stages where we are 20 metros away from each other which is so different to when we started. We just want to entertain people with our music, simple as that. Music is all collectively our passion.

Were you in the studio a long time for Hope Street?

It was a long. drawn out process in that we did it a few times because we weren't going to settle for second best. Some of the tracks were old that we came back to year down the line and whatever tracks meant most to are on the album and the album is the story of how we got here - a nice wee intimate story.

You had released a number of EPs and created a buzz long before the album - was there a lot of pressure on you?

We're pretty fortunate in that we don't really feel pressure. We're not trying to deliver on time, we're out to entertain and to just be the loudest acoustic band out there.

You use Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr to keep in touch with fans and have also posted video diaries - including one of your first day here - how important is it for you to interact with fans?

With current technology the social media aspect of it is just so important. I think it is just something that people really appreciate, it is easy to find us. It also about making friends really. People make the effort to contact us. And the video thing is that we just like making diaries for ourselves as much as for the fans. I love looking back at what we were doing last year. And music is about sharing and having fun and if we can share that around the world with as many people as we can then that's great. The way people Lewis edits the videos together, it lets people get to know the four of us together and lets them see progression and a band's growth. People like watching videos. I always try to get hold of Doors footage that i haven't come across and I'm sure a lot of people do that.

So what is it like to be back at Caribana?

It is phenomenal. It is a great pleasure to be invited back. It is like playing in paradise. We're going out on the lake later and that is not something you expect  - to going to a festival and someone to say I've got a boat and lets go on Lake Geneva. That is like a utopia, a utopian fantasy..

Last year Scène de la Plage, this year Scène du lac, next year the main stage?

If they want us back we'll be coming back - we'll play anywhere here!