WITH every sip of his coffee, Chris Greig becomes more and more animated about the future of his band. The last year or two has been the reset they all needed – a time to reassess their direction and build back as a more authentic version of themselves.

It is clear this battle has been prominent among Chris Greig and the Merchants for a while now. Do they incorporate more of a radio-friendly tone or not? At heart, they feel like a rock band that borrows from pop, and not the other way around.

As he finishes his drink, Greig opens his palms and gestures decisively: “We’re definitely not a pop band and I think we’ve spent too long pretending that we are.”

The Bathgate native is brimming with excitement as tells The Weekender all about his plans for a massive 2022 – new music, new shows and a return to themselves as artists.

For a spell, the band feels they had eased up with their sound in the hopes of capturing a little more attention from mainstream outlets. They have garnered enough of a fanbase that dig their live sound – something which is a little more raw and emphatic than their releases suggest – to encourage them to stay in that lane.

And if the lockdown period has given them any insight, it is that their music has to be real to them at all times.

Greig continues: “For a long time, we were leaning into the pop sound. Although the songs we were writing were personal to us and meaningful, it felt a little disingenuous because we felt had been making tunes that we felt other people wanted to hear. Whereas now we are just writing songs that we want to hear and, more or less, hoping other people like them.

“Silent Disco and Wish You Were Here are probably two of our most genuine songs for a wee while. We feel that we’ve gone back into rock music, which is what we are more comfortable with. The music just feels a lot better now, we are enjoying it a lot more and I think that comes across when we play the songs live.

“And that’s important to us – we want our live shows to be exciting. We want people to get into it, moving and jumping around. We’re the same, we like to expel a wee bit of energy playing. It’s pretty rare that I don’t end up in the crowd or something at some point in a gig.”

As the conversation continues, Greig becomes ever more enthused about the band’s next steps. They are aiming to perform in towns around Scotland they haven’t before – as well as a few dates down south – but it is when speaking about the upcoming releases that the frontman’s exultation reaches a crescendo.

He beams: “We have some cracking new tunes that we are about to record. And, ok, we’re biased, but we feel they deserve a lot of attention. We see them being strong festival songs – that’s where we see ourselves, to be fair, playing festivals with these bangers.

“We’re also going to look at playing in different places, not just Glasgow, etc. We want to come back out here, to West Lothian, as soon as we can, and we’ll be playing around Ayrshire as well.

“The band is looking forward. We do think we have an edge about us… we feel we can get somewhere with our music. For the time being it’s about finding out feet again and getting these new songs out there. But we are ready to do it - we’re all raring to go and ready to get people excited for us again.”

The chance to get back playing before a crowd and just truly be themselves again is a prospect to savour for Greig.

He reiterates: “We’re definitely not a pop band and I think we’ve spent too long pretending that we are. This band is ready to show everybody who we really are and what we’re really about. Right now is the perfect opportunity to reintroduce everyone to Chris Greig and the Merchants.”

Catch Chris Greig and the Merchants at King Tut's on Sunday, December 5, supporting Sara 'n' Junbug.