Reporter David McKay is set to swap his notepad and pen for rock stardom after clinching a dream record deal with his band Driveblind.

The Press and Journal man will re-locate to Los Angeles later this month after impressing record company executives on two previous visits to the US.

He has been working as a reporter and on the newsdesk at the Press and Journal’s Aberdeen headquarters, but along with the other five members of the band (pictured below) will quit his job, his home and his life in the north-east of Scotland for the move.

Waiting on them in the west coast of the States will be manager Dayle Gloria, who discovered Jane’s Addiction and Stone Temple Pilots and got Guns’n’Roses and Pearl Jam their first LA gigs.

The development is a far cry from 18 months ago – when the band played behind a bizarre chorus of dancers dressed in furry bear and tiger suits at the switching on of the Christmas lights in Aberdeen’s Castlegate.

David McKay

But, after gigs like this, David (right) feels the band have more than paid their dues in recent years.

He said: “Our bassist Jack’s been playing in bands for 13 years. I’ve been playing since I was 12 or 13 with mates from school – the same goes for all the boys.

“If we’re getting somewhere now with Driveblind, it’s only because of the work we’ve put in over all those years.

“This has all just been a dream come true for all of us.”

Things began to take off for the band earlier this year when they secured two gigs in New York and two more at Johnny Depp’s nightclub, the Viper Room, in LA.

The LA dates were so well received that Capitol Records paid for them to fly back out just a few weeks later for a closed door gig in front of record company executives.

It was during this trip that the group supported former Smith’s guitarist Johnny Marr and his new band the Healers, again at the Viper Room, before the band made the decision to move across the Atlantic.

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