The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
SOUNDS OF OUR TIMES
It’s been a difficult time for the music industry everywhere, but that doesn’t mean musicians in Tayside and Fife haven’t been busy on new projects for 2021. Andrew Welsh reports
It’s been four years in preparation, but alt-country rebels The Countess Of Fife (Cof) are set to record their debut album. Formed in 2016 by Rezillos frontwoman Fay Fife and guitarist Allan Mcdowall, the band had been touring regularly pre-pandemic and released a four-track live EP in May. The four-piece have played a few online gigs during lockdown – including a full-length set for Scottish live music streaming channel Limbic TV that’s viewable on Youtube – and have also been honing the songs that’ll make up the LP.
Provisionally titled Star Of The Sea, the album will feature production from Jim Sutherland, whose credits include the hit movies Brave and Outlaw King, and is being part-funded by a Kickstarter campaign that’s raised £5,000 in fan pledges.
Two songs written in recent months, Trapped and Hard Woman To Love, have already been pencilled in by Cof alongside live favourites such as Wandering Star and Goodbye Motorbike Guy, which has been given a lockdown makeover inspired by legendary producer Phil Spector’s former house band, The Wrecking Crew.
Another inclusion is the infectious insurgent folk stomper Second Fiddle, which also appears on a new triple CD compilation Solidarity With Displaced Humans, released in support of the work of refugee charities in Scotland.
The Countess track nestles alongside offerings from the likes of their regular collaborator Martin Metcalfe and his band The Fornicators, as well as Callum Easter, The Trama Dolls and actor Tam Dean Burn.
Looking ahead to Cof ’s impending recording plans, Dunfermline-born Fay said the band are due to start studio work on January 10 but, with physical distancing a prime concern, it’s unlikely that the finished LP will appear before summer.
“Needless to say we’re doing it our own way,” she added.
“In order to keep everyone as safe as possible, and for many artistic reasons, we’re recording the meat and bones of the album in an empty theatre with fab acoustics – Macarts in Galashiels – and moving to one or two more traditional recording studios thereafter for some days of more detailed work, including vox.
“One reason we chose Macarts is that
the team there have given us a helluva lot of support – we recorded our live EP there at a show last November – and their sound engineer Dave Coyle will be engineering the album.
“It’s very important to me to have the right team around us.”
The post-punk icon led Cof to Aberdour’s Woodside Hotel just before gigs stopped in March as part of the venue’s inaugural Cash Back In Fife festival, and she hopes it won’t be too long before they can perform in her home kingdom once again.
Fay said: “That was the last show prelockdown and, as such, has unique historic significance. It was also a very fine show for us. The audience seemed a very good fit for The Countess Of Fife – it was a great response, and Fife has a unique corner in my heart.
“You can take the girl out of Fife but you can’t take Fife out of the girl.”
n Hotly-tipped Kirkcaldy power-posters The Shambolics (see also interview on page 31) on are set to unleash new material in the spring.
The indie four-piece have consolidated their ever-growing fanbase by securing download success with recent offering Love Collides, and the band have been hard at work penning further jagged gems during live music’s recent enforced absence.
Heavily influenced by early Oasis and The View, Shambolics were snapped up by Alan Mcgee’s Creation 23 label in 2019 and saw their popularity explode in the months before lockdown.
Comprising Darren Forbes and Lewis Mcdonald on vocals and guitar, bassist
Jordan Mchatton and drummer Jake Bain, the twenty-something outfit was only kept off the top of the UK vinyl charts last November by synth veterans A-ha, with their hit Chasing A Disaster earning them their break on American earlier this month.
All four members recently decided to up sticks and move to Glasgow, but frontman Darren said fans won’t have long to wait for the next addition to an increasingly impressive body of work.
“The good thing now is everybody is starting to write, everybody is starting to chip in their own parts, so it’s getting like The Eagles now,” he quipped.
“I think we’ll have something else out by March-april time. As we’re setting up in Glasgow we’re focusing on the writing a lot right now so we’ve got a lot of stuff to release.”
Opening a new recording studio is a key element in their relocation and Darren reckons the flit west is starting to pay off.
He said: “As it’s the whole band that’s moving to Glasgow I think that move has created a bit of excitement with us, because it’s a bit like an adventure.
“Usually, when we’d go out on tour that would be our adventure, but now because nothing’s happening we’ve kind of created a bit of an adventure. We’re going to be writing a lot more and we’re getting a bit of the buzz back again. It’s been quite a crap year but it’s going to start getting good soon, I think.”
n Also coming out of Fife’s Lang Toun, Mike Clerk’s debut solo album is tantalisingly close to release – and his latest single hints at what to expect.
The second track to be released from his forthcoming opus The Space Between My Ears, new track Keep Movin’ is a gritty alt-rock banger. Having studied martial arts for more than 20 years, the song’s punchy video sees Mike channelling his inner Bruce Lee in a series of taut combat sequences.
Nowadays based in Edinburgh, the songsmith says the track is “about getting over yourself and moving forward”, and that’s a message he’s clearly followed as far as his music career goes.
While fronting his previous band The Lost Generation, guitarist Mike performed at such London venues as Death Disco and Club NME, and at one stage was even sounded out by indie royalty Primal Scream before opting to take a break from music.
He returned to the fold this year and released his comeback single Thoughts Of Fools in August after supporters pledged more than £2,000 online in less than 12 hours. The track proved such a success that Mike went on to ink a publishing deal with Wardlaw Music, whose stable includes such luminaries as Massive Attack and U2.
Reflecting on a dizzying few months, he said: “After I put the first single out it all went a bit wild. I never expected it to be honest, as I’ve not even been able to gig yet – and especially during a time like this where most of the industry is really struggling.
“I have mates that do sound engineering and tour managing for some huge bands that are having to get jobs at Amazon to keep themselves afloat. It’s beyond brutal, so I never expected to end up in a position to be signing anything apart from mail deliveries.
“It’s the main reason why I’ve still never bothered approaching any record labels to work with on putting out the album. It’d just be bad manners to go knocking on anyone’s door while they’ve got their own problems to deal with.”
n The voice of KT Tunstall features on a brand new cover of a U2 classic.
The St Andrews-raised singer-songwriter is providing lead vocals on American alt-popsters Pomplamoose’s spacey reworking of I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.
Known for giving all manner of standards their own unique slant, the Californian duo comprises multi-instrumentalist Jack Conte and bassist Nataly Dawn.
They’ve previously worked with American troubadours Tessa Violet, David Choi and Kina Grannis and have completed six albums since 2009.
The new homage to Bono and Co is a standalone single and the first new material from Suddenly I See and Hold On hitmaker KT since her summer lockdown anthem Wash Ya Hands, which boosted coronavirus response campaigns run by charities War Child UK and Water Aid.
EVERYBODY IS STARTING TO WRITE, EVERYBODY IS STARTING TO CHIP IN THEIR OWN PARTS, SO IT’S GETTING LIKE THE EAGLES NOW
n Other recent output from Courier Country artists includes the latest offerings from two artists at opposite ends of the age spectrum. Marking 50 years since her solo debut, Barbara Dickson’s new LP Time Is Going Faster is a best album nominee in this year’s Celtic Music Awards.
It includes new takes on Tell Me It’s Not True from the musical Blood Brothers and Gerry Rafferty’s Look Over The Hill, as well as three new songs written by Dunfermlineborn Barbara.
Meanwhile, Dundee pop talent Be Charlotte’s download single Back To Life is a hit in Sweden and it’s just been treated to a funky Indian-style remix by DJ Luke Jay.