Band discover joy of 6 with Strange Friend

THE Phantom Band admit having six members can be tough – but they must be doing something right.

After all, they’ve been together for 13 years, have released four albums and are nominated for the Scottish Album of the Year Award for Strange Friend.

Iain Stewart, who took over from original drummer Damien Tonner in 2010, said: “The Scottish Album of the Year Award really champions Scottish music and it’s a total honour to be longlisted.

“I’m really proud of Strange Friend, so it’s great to know that other people are noticing it.

“Working in a band of six, it can be tough to write an album that fits with all of our musical tastes – but I think we managed to create a really good balance with this album.”

Singer Rick Anthony, guitarists Duncan Marquiss and Greg Sinclair, bassist Gerry Hart and keyboard player Andy Wake formed the band in 2002 but only settled on their name in 2006 – after a number of daft ones, including Los Crayzee Boyz and Tower of Girls.

And for Strange Friend, which was released last year, they took a different approach to their first two albums.

Iain said: “We were really prepared with this albumbum and spent a lot more time writing the tracks before ore taking it to the studio than we have before.

“This gave us the opportunity to experiment more, which I think really shows.

“The final track on the album, Galápagos,s, was totally improvised,d whichhi h was something new for us.”

The band also tried their hand at producing tracks for the first time.

Iain said: “We worked with Paul Savage for two weeks and then with our friend Derek O’Neil for the remainder of it. We also self-produced a lot this time around, which helped to change up the style.

“I really enjoyed this aspect of creating an album. Working alongside a producer is really comforting, as they’re in charge, but it’s a lot more satisfying to take this on yourself.

“It means that when people compliment tthe album, you know they aare talking about youryou work entirely, whichwh is amazing.”

The Phantom Band releasedr their fourth album, Fears Trending, in January and have been promotingpr it this year. TheyTh will be playing Glasgow’sGlasgo Oran Mor on JJune 21 and the Electric Field Festival in August.

Iain added: “We’ve got a number of shows lined up and are playing at a few festivals over the summer. We’re also going on a European tour in October.”

But first they have the awards – and Strange Friend is today’s album of the day on the official website and can be streamed in full until midnight tonight.

The longlist was announced last month and fans have been able to stream one of the 20 albums for free each day at sayaward.com.

This week’s other albums were Belle and Sebastian’s Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance, Honeyblood’s self-titled debut, King Creosote’s From Scotland with Love, and Errors with Lease of Life.

If you missed any of this week’s albums of the day, you can listen to them all in full, for free, at sayaward.com this weekend.

From Monday until midnight on Wednesday, the public can vote for their favourite album, which will take one of the coveted shortlist spots.

The other nine albums will be selected by the judging panel and all will be revealed at Glasgow’s CCA on Thursday. ● For more information, visit www.sayaward.com or follow @SAYAward on Twitter and Facebook.