Sound Of Scotland
The new album from Glasgow-based singer-songwriter Carla J. Easton is in celebration of all self-confessed weirdos...
Glasgow-based Carla J. Easton is reclaiming the word “weird”
CARLA J. EASTON has always written straight from the heart. So when someone close to her said she was a “weirdo” who “dresses like a child and collects toys”, there was no doubt that her response would turn up on her next album.
The follow-up to 2018’s Impossible Stuff, shortlisted for Scottish Album of the Year 2019, WEIRDO is a raucous, defiant pop album which stretches Carla’s songwriting skills in new directions.
The album was co-written and recorded with new collaborator Scott Paterson of Sons and Daughters, who Carla met as a member of The Vaselines’ touring band, and bonded with on a Belle and Sebastianheadlined cruise ship festival in 2019.
“I still cannae believe that actually happened,” Carla says. “There was one point where my bandmate Paul Kelly and I were on the pool deck and I texted The Vaselines’ Whatsapp group saying ‘top deck, G&T’ with a picture of me with a gin and tonic like a pure wide-o, and Scott replied with ‘that’s a great lyric’.
“One day we were talking about how funny it was that the word ‘weirdo’ is so derogatory, when actually you’re talking about the idiosyncrasies of who they are. So of course I researched the origins of the word ‘wyrd’ – how it was linked to destiny and empowerment, and we’ve twisted it into this derogatory thing.”
In keeping with the theme, the song Weirdo stands out on the album – a second-take late night recording on the living room floor, with a Paul Kelly guitar solo and additional vocals from Stina Tweeddale of Honeyblood – “a weirdo in the best way”, says Carla. Elsewhere, Carla embraces giddy, sensual electropop – Get Lost – menacing bass and euphoric beats – Over You – channels her experiences of anxiety and CBT treatment into skippy bubblegum – Never Knew You – and even teams up with
Stanley Odd rapper Dave Hook – Waves That Fall.
“It’s co-written with Scott who was in Sons and Daughters, and even based on my stuff with my old band Teen Canteen – I don’t think either of us was expecting it to sound the way it has,” Carla says.
“Scott had been playing synths with The Killers, and was wanting to do more pop stuff, so we’d listen to pop music together, and really debate Taylor Swift and Sigrid.
“Performance and writing is my social life, I’m not a big social butterfly. And it’s nice working with people you really respect anyway. With Teen Canteen, I wrote all the songs on my own, so doing it with pals is really great
– you just talk about music and write and have a cup of
“Oh, you sing in a Scottish accent?”
tea and then you’re like, ‘oh that’s kind of a day’s work.’”
As for her foray into rap, Carla says she reached out to Dave Hook as a fan of Stanley Odd, and because of something else they had in common.
“There’s a big debate within Scottish rap about performing in your own accent,” she says. “And it’s something I’ve always had too: ‘oh, you sing in a Scottish accent? Your music would go further if you didn’t do that’.”
Carla is determined to stay true to who she is – both with her accent and her fashion choices.
“I am a weirdo. And I’ll continue collecting Jem and the Holograms dolls, and embracing the fact that I have the same jacket as my nine-year-old niece and that makes her happy, which in turn makes me happy, and I don’t really care what anyone else thinks about it beyond that.”
WEIRDO is out now on Olive Grove Records.