Low Tide on gigging in Edinburgh, long-distance music making and songwriting styles

Low Tide are a young, female-led indie band hailing from Edinburgh, where they write and record. Their Sunburn Season EP released in 2024, but more recently the band have scattered across Europe for educational purposes. The band, however, still work on music together, releasing two singles in 2025. We sat down with drummer Danny, to chat about how they manage distance, the songwriting process, incorporating feminine themes in their music, and their social media presence.

ML: Who am I here with?

Danny: My name's Danny. I'm the drummer in a band called Low Tide.

ML:  I was lucky enough to see you guys play and I really enjoyed the show. We heard some new songs - what's the deal with that - were you just testing them out?

Danny: Yeah, so we've had some new songs written recently, mostly by our guitarist Isaac and our singer Beau. And it's been great—we don't get to rehearse very often because we're a bit kind of spread out at the moment. So it's really nice when we meet up to be able to play some of them. So, yeah, we've got two new ones on the way. Hopefully one round about the middle of January, which we're just getting finished off now, and then another one a bit later on. But yeah, it's really good fun getting new stuff recorded, and we're really excited to put it out there.

ML: I felt that stylistically they were kind of outliers in the set. How do you guys view them - is it sort of more of the same, or is it a bit of a branch off?

Danny: Yeah, it's taken us a little while to kind of find our sound, I guess we've just been doing what we like. I think I would agree with you, the new stuff is maybe, in some parts, a little bit mellower than the first things we put out there. But we're really happy with the direction it's going in, and it's been a lot of fun. So we just want to keep doing that.

ML: You touched on it briefly there, but as four people who clearly love what they're doing together, how do you find it that [guitarist] Isaac is an hour away in Glasgow and [vocalist] Beau is a plane away in France?

Danny: It's tough. It's a shame both from a band perspective and, you know, they're my best mates. It's annoying that Paris is about 700 miles away. It is tricky. Since they've moved away, we've only been able to do one headline show, which is the Leith Arches gig that you came to. But, you know, we're in touch every day, whether about band stuff or just chatting about our lives. And yeah, we're just doing what we can. The distance is an issue. It's definitely annoying, but it's by no means, it's not a band ruiner.

ML: On your process: Isaac writes most of the songs, but Beau sings them. Does Isaac go out of his way to write lyrics that can be sung so compellingly from a feminine perspective?

Danny: That's a great question. I don't think he does, no. I think he's a really good lyricist. I love some of the stuff he's come up with; I think is really special. But no, just his writing style, I think, really suits Beau's voice and her writing style as well. So it means a lot of our songs, whether they're written by Beau or Isaac, they suit Beau really well, which is really nice.

ML:  I think Isaac's really good at managing cliché. If anything he does is cliché, it tends to be on purpose. Would you agree with that?

Danny: No, I think you're right. I like that idea. He can definitely manage that well.

ML: There's a lot of female-led bands nowadays - a lot of them are amazing at conveying what's been called "feminine rage." However, Beau's performances and her bassy vocals, it feels more like "feminine wisdom." Can you speak to that at all?

Danny: I would definitely say so, yeah. Beau is definitely a very intelligent person. And I think that comes across in the songs that she writes. Obviously, there are definitely elements of feminine rage in "Between Knuckles" specifically is definitely an angry song. But yeah, it's also an important song to sing, you know. And I think the message that she puts through is really well thought out. And yeah, as well as angry, you're right, it's also intelligent.

ML: I agree, I agree. On social media I saw some of your TikToks. I feel like Beau definitely comes off as the mature voice in those as well. It's obviously not as mature as she could be, but I feel like you all are almost more silly. Does that translate in your actual social relationships, or is that just for the social media?

Danny: No, I think that's a pretty accurate description. Beau can be silly when she wants to be, but she's definitely good at kind of toning down the rest of us sometimes and being, as you said, the voice of wisdom in the band sometimes. Yeah, that's not an act for social media! [Laughs]

ML:  On you, Danny, from the clips you have online, it's easy to tell that you could probably drum over any genre. With rock known as being the "easiest," do you find that you have to make the songs a little more interesting to feel fulfilled in playing them?

Danny: Obviously Low Tide is my only band so far. But I think I've definitely tried to grow into that recently. Sometimes it is tricky to not just play the same stuff all the time, but I don't like to make something interesting just because I can. I always try and go for what will suit the song the best. So sometimes I will come up with something that I think is really cool from a drumming perspective, and the band will go, "It's cool, but you're not playing that." Which is completely fair. Serving the song is the most important thing. But I do like to branch out a little bit when it calls for it.

ML:  "Greek Islands" springs to mind as a song. What comes first when you wrote that breakdown bit - But who drives that? Is it the drums or is it Isaac with the new riff that he puts in?

Danny:  I think if I remember correctly, Isaac had that song pretty much finished when he showed it to us. He had the whole arrangement and the structure laid out, and he had a pretty good idea of what he wanted me to play. So I think Isaac definitely drove that. But more recently, if we've been kind of workshopping stuff together, it is nice to kind of just play through and see what happens and kind of write collectively. But yeah, on that one, it was definitely a case of Isaac had all the ideas planned out and we thought they were good ideas and we just went with it.

ML: Most recently came "Kiss Like Friends." It has an Oasis-reminiscent breakdown in it. Who drove that? Was that one Beau?

Danny: Isaac wrote that one as well. And he is a big Oasis fan, so I'm sure he'd be happy to hear that you think that. But yeah, that one was so much fun to record. Honestly when we play that bridge—or second verse—live, it's one of my favorite parts of the show. Even though what I'm playing isn't super difficult, but it's just the energy of it is a lot of fun for me. We played that for the first time just in a rehearsal studio together, and Isaac had all the parts written out. It was a lot of fun to play.

ML: One thing that I really like about you guys is the personalized "What We Were Listening To" playlists. How important do you think it is to address your influences like that?

Danny:  I'll be honest, I think we stole that idea from another band. I love knowing what the bands I like have listened to because it helps me find new stuff. So we just thought if there's people who like our music we can put them onto new stuff that hopefully they will enjoy. I think it's good to know where music comes from.

ML: If I was already familiar with a song on there that I previously wouldn't have associated with you guys, it restructures how you view both your song and the song that you were being influenced by.

Danny: Yeah, totally. And I think influences can come from a lot of different places. There's plenty of artists that we love that don't necessarily come out in what we put on Spotify. But the inspiration can still be there. There's a band I love called Keo, I remember they've got a playlist of their influences, and I remember listening to it and a lot of it thinking, "This sounds nothing like Keo." I still loved it even though it was a different style. So I think I like the way things can come together without you even realizing it.