Five-piece Scottish band Mark Sharp & The Bicycle Thieves are excited to share their anthemic new single, Moonshine, out now!

Hailing from the burgeoning scene of Scotland’s West Lothian, Mark Sharp & The Bicycle Thieves have been making a name fro themselves due to their raucous live performances, leading to burgeoning shows at King Tuts and G2 in Glasgow as well as selling out The Garage (Attic) in less than five hours.

Combining indie rock melodies and pounding dance beats with upbeat melodies and stirring choruses, Mark Sharp & The Bicycle Thieves have created an eclectic brand of indie dance music favourably recalling artists such as Friendly Fires, Foals and Klaxons.

Moonshine is their latest offering with the band yet again producing synth soundscapes, tropical-like beats, buoyant harmonised vocals and swaggering baselines. The track is another example of a band on the rise, illustrating why they’ve already supported Kyle Falconer and performed with Lewis Capaldi at Edinburgh’s Summer Sessions.

In this interview spotlight, I chat with the band about the latest music, technology, challenges and more.

Full Q&A along with links and music below.

Let’s dive a little deeper into You, the artist and your music. What attracted you to this genre(s) or style(s)?

Just the sheers love for music and the passion to be creative. For anyone that’s heard our music they’ll know we like to mix it up and try out new styles and sounds, it keeps things interesting.

What led you into this journey with music? And further, what drives you to push it out to the public?

I was the singer in a couple bands when I was in my teens but as soon as I started writing and performing my own music a realised it was something that I could actually do for a living rather than just a hobby and it was finally something that I was good at and just loved doing so I made the decision just go for it and try peruse a career in music and its been some journey already so I’m grateful to be doing it.

Who or what influences your creativity? Have your tastes in music changed over time?

I wouldn’t say my music taste have changed over time, it just expanded really because as well as new music, I still listen to the same music as I listened to as a kid wether it be, The Beatles, The Faces, Rod Stewart, Elvis, Bowie etc because these people are legends to me and their music is timeless. I was lucky enough that my mum and dad had a good music taste and I took to that straight away growing up.

Were you trying to accomplish anything specific on this new project? Creatively or otherwise?

I suppose with the new single ‘Moonshine’ we were trying to capture that feel good groove that any music lover with an open mind would enjoy and feel the urge to dance along with it and I feel we certainly managed to create that.

What was the last song you listened to?

‘Moonshine’ by Mark Sharp & The Bicycle Thieves, absolute tune! Go check it out.

Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s?

I’ve got huge collection of both vinyls and CDs but I’d have to say Vinyls because they’re just a cool thing to have and it’s just became a collectors addiction now really.

How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify? Apple Music? Bandcamp? Or something else? Why?

I’d probably say Spotify just because all the band use that and there’s a cool feature on it to sync other devices into the one playlist and that’s nice and hand for us on the tour bus. Especially if someone puts on something awful as I can just change it from my phone.

Other than the digital era overwhelming us with access to an abundance of music, what is the biggest challenge you face when trying to connect with or find new fans?

I suppose it can be a bit challenging at times for bands to get people along to their gigs because they can hear your music at the click of a button so they might think why bother but that can also be a good thing as it lets random people from all over the world discover your music but there’s that much music out there its not that easy to be discovered… I mean our biggest fan probably hasn’t heard our music yet…

Where is the best place to connect with you online? Discover more music?

We’re on all major social networking sites, all the usual suspects, Facebook, Twitter, instagram and of course you’ll get our music on almost everything, Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube etc etc. Just type in Mark Sharp & The Bicycle Thieves and we’ll be there waiting for you.

Anything else you’d like to add before signing off?

Thanks for taking the time to interview us and thanks to the readers for making it to the end. Hopefully catch you at a gig some time. Much love, cheers.