MrdB: The Sound of Renfrewshire

Following a relentless schedule of gigs in 2023, MrdB have no intention of taking their foot off the gas this year either 

How did MrdB come about? 

Billy Kinnear: My daughters always try to guess how many bands I’ve been in over the years and I’ve played everything over the years (laughs). After I left the last group I was in that’d just kind of fizzled out, I realised that there was still something to do. 

I always had an album in me, so I wrote this one myself and initially played everything. But, I didn’t want to be by myself as I’ve played in bands all my days.

So, it’s good being a more mature musician as I could call in so many people and I basically handpicked the band including Craig on guitar, Kenny on bass and finally, after some trial and error, Roberto on drums. So, I gave them songs and they said ‘yep, 100%, let’s do it’. 

Who are the primary influences behind the songwriting? 

It comes from a whole variety of places. I never set out to be a particular genre because I’d done that. Because I’ve played in everything from funk to trad, I said that I wouldn’t be sticking to any rules and that’s why there’s a wee bit of everything in there.

The brilliant thing is whenever we play, everyone loves our songs and we’ve got a nice wee following going. We want songs that are instantly catchy, so that by the time the second chorus comes around, you can sing it. 

The latest song that we’re putting out, “My Denim Jacket”, even features me spittin’ some rhymes on the second verse. It just came out of nowhere! We just get positive comments all the time with people saying the tunes are all bangers, so that’s great. 

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Can we expect a lot of new music and live shows from MrdB this year? 

We re-recorded everything at the mastering stage and now the tracks are so much better. We’ve been working with Chris Gordon [Baby Chaos, Union Of Knives], so now we’re getting that next single and the album follows! We did something like 37 shows last year and we’ve got 25 in the diary already including festivals! 

Keep up with Billy and co now at Instagram, catch them playing live at the Paisley Food and Drink Festival Saturday 27th April.