Gary McClure’s American Wrestlers was once an anonymous project. Making music, he says, “is truly about becoming good enough to write the album you wanted to listen to when you were 15.” He adds, “Every time I make a new record, I feel like I’m getting closer.”

The songwriter released Goodbye Terrible Youth this month by disavowing his Tascam mixer (the home recording device apparently broke down from overuse) and creating a bigger sound. “I wanted to write songs that bridged the gap better between audience and stage,” he says. “Faster, louder more distortion. Something you can do handstands and backflips and start small fires to.”

McClure, who moved to Missouri from Scotland for love, has said that the midwest has been a key influence, with a bigger music scene than the one he came of age in Europe. It was while he was working a warehouse job for UPS that McClure began working on his American Wrestlers album. “I’m always surprised by how each record brings me closer to writing simpler, heavier, catchier songs like those bands who gave me my musical epiphany: Nirvana, the Smashing Pumpkins, Hole and that first Foo Fighters record,” he says. “I first learned how to write by copying them and got lost for a decade in intricacy and experimentation. Now, it feels like I’m heading back.”

Hometown: I was born in East Kilbride near Glasgow, Scotland

Homebase: Just by the Mississippi river, Saint Louis, MO

Why are you called American Wrestlers? Aren't you from Scotland?

You know, Paul McCartney isn't actually a beetle.

Did you grow up in a musical household?

Music was my own kept secret after I caught myself addicted to the fighting cartoon show theme tunes rolling on the gogglebox in the afternoons. Then a man screamed and I cried until someone gave me a guitar.

What most influenced Goodbye Terrible Youth? And why that title?

The title is a joke. Pure phonetics actually. The vowels fit the tune. So, personally it means nothing. I saw a gap in the market for just writing actual songs without fucking around like a gimp.

Does living in St. Louis vs. Scotland influence your sound a lot?

I don't know. Not to a degree that I'm aware of. I never bought into the idea that a place is responsible for quality or quantity of art. I would think it's more to do with age. I seem to give less of a shit the older I get.

How did you meet your bandmates and get them to join your musical journey?

I recorded some dumb song to a stupid cassette and left it in the cafe of the local art museum, or it might have been a public toilet. Josh and Ian found it and put a gun to my head 'til I signed a contract to dance to the music therein for exactly four years.

Who would you love to collaborate with?

I really wish I coulda jammed with Derek Bailey.

What do you do for fun?

I watch the injustice network.

Were you in other bands before? What were they like?

Working for a Nuclear Free City. They were better than pretty much every band that's around right now.

How would you describe your music to someone who's never heard of you?

A sad old man whose nostalgia trip coincidentally turned out to be exactly what was hip for a couple of years.

What is your day job? Does it help you make music for the band?

No they just get in the way and depress me every minute I spend working them. I move things around for some fat white guy so his self-absorbed wife can pamper her inconsequential kids.

Who are your biggest songwriting influences?

Manic Street Preachers, Therapy?, Mansun.

What’s your big rest-of-2016 goal?

Tour. Try to avoid work.

For more profiles on up-and-coming artists, visit our Artist of the Day page.