Today's guest is Calum Doris - the legendary guitar player for post-hardcore band Flood of Red, and brains behind Bad Luck, who split their time between making awesome pop-rock songs and providing the musical chops for Pop Punk Karaoke nights in Glasgow. Calum was born in California and found himself in Airdrie at the age of 8 - in the first part of our conversation, we discover how he got over that culture shock and ended up involved in campaigning for a skatepark to be built in the area. We delve into his musical background, finding out his early influences and what made him want to pick up a guitar. We talk about his supportive parents, including his mum Joan who encouraged him and guided him down the right path to get things done properly.
Calum was one of the first people I thought of for this podcast, and we've been trying to find the time to chat for a few months now, but boy was it worth the wait. We've been friends for a long time before the label existed, I worked on designs for Flood of Red, we hung out on nights out and ended up working together in a well-known coffee chain. Calum has done illustrations for various zines and Struggletown merch in his signature cartoon style, so he's well connected to the Struggletown story. Flood of Red has played amazing sets for us at Struggle nights in Bloc and Bad Luck has tore it up at Strugglefest on more than one occasion.
If you've had the pleasure of meeting Calum, you'll know he likes to chat - so I knew this would be a story that would take place over at least two episodes - by the time we wrap up part 1, Calum and a group of high school friends under the name The Psychotic Pandas have been playing local shows in community rooms to 400 kids most weekends, sharing the bill with up and coming UK bands like Enter Shikari and Azriel. We'll catch up with Calum again soon for part 2.
Closing track - Hold On (feat. Jordan Spiers) taken from Old Songs by Bad Luck - http://badluck1987.bandcamp.com
","author_name":"Steven Hill"}