The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
St Martiins
Slessor Gardens, Dundee, September 15
“There are a lot of talented people who want to see each other do well in Dundee,” says Katie Lynch, of the city’s dreamy young soul-pop duo St Martiins. “We moved away from the city for a bit (to Glasgow), but found it far easier to concentrate on ourselves in Dundee. We have a far better and less distracted work ethic here, and living in Dundee in 2018 has been extremely positive.”
Lynch was raised in Blairgowrie until the age of eight, when her family moved into Dundee, while her musical partner Mark Johnston grew up in the suburbs of the city. The pair met at the age of 12 at high school, and have been inseparable ever since, first collaborating on music together when they were 13. While Lynch was in Glasgow she studied philosophy and performed with a band called Seems; it wasn’t until she finished her degree that the pair chose to collaborate on a project together in earnest.
St Martiins (often stylised as ST.MARTiiNS) released the single Bad Art and the Other Humans EP in 2017, with tracks released this year including the recent single u r so pretty. There’s a completeness to the sound which the latter release demonstrates, a slick and contemporary soul song with big washes of guitar and the currently fashionable sound of gated reverb drums.
Yet Lynch’s vocal is also integral to the mix, and it sounds different to anything else out there; a light, soulful sound which works both with frosty, austere electronics and in a more upbeat pop context. To listen to their releases over the past 18 months or so is to hear a band settling comfortably into their sound.
This weekend at the V&A-opening 3D Festival will be the perfect chance for a wider audience to hear them. “We’ll be playing some new material in our sets over the next few months,” says Lynch, “and the 3D Festival will be a great opportunity to show it off.
“The city has drastically changed,” she says on Dundee. “The art scene will thrive with the V&A’s presence, we’ve seen the gradual building process so it’ll be great to get inside.”