Elba Sessions

Loch Awe have surprised me. It isn’t that I doubted I would like a band that includes a ukulele in it’s ranks, it’s the fact that their debut album ‘Artificial Life From A Digital Sea‘ was written and recorded in a matter of weeks. If this wasn’t enough to impress me, they’ve only been together since the end of July. The Edinburgh outfit haven’t even played their first gig, yet the album sounds like it’s been a labour of love which has developed over time. I asked Matthew, Jack and Joy how it all came about…

Would you care to introduce yourself for readers who may not be familiar with Loch Awe

Hi, we’re Jack, Joy and Matthew. We met at Edinburgh University last year. We’ve all been making music for a few years – Matthew under the name ‘We, the Plural’ and Joy and Jack as solo artists – and thought we might make slightly better music together.

How would you describe Loch Awe?

Like root negative one being divided by zero. Or proto-post folk. Or just folky…

You released your first record Artificial Life From A Digital Sea on August 30th (that’s today!!). It only took a month to write and record. Did you set out to write and record it in such a tight time frame?

Yeah, we did. We got together at the end of July, and decided we wanted something to show for it by the end of August. That and we just enjoy working to deadlines. We actually had to cut a few songs from it, because they didn’t fit in well. We’re hoping to put them out within about six months.

Who are the band’s main influences?

We’re all influenced by different things. To be honest, there aren’t actually that many shared between all three of us, so we’ll answer separately:

Joy: I’m keen on Hot Chip and Neon Neon at the moment, but Arcade Fire and Royksopp tend to be on constant rotation.

What comes next for Loch Awe?

As we said earlier, we’re hoping to have something else out within the next half-year featuring some of the tracks we cut from the album. We’re also looking to get a few live shows under our belt, hopefully with synchronised dance routines!

Finally, we always ask our guests at Elba if there is any band in your locale, apart from yourselves of course, that we should look out for?

Matthew’s been recording some lead guitar for Andrew Lindsay’s new EP, which is sounding absolutely great. It’s definitely worth checking out when it’s released.

‘Artificial Life From A Digital Sea’ is out now and you can get it from their bandcamp page here for free! What’s not to like????

So, we’ve made it to double figures in gigs, the tenth Elba Sessions Presents… is upon us. We’ve got another nice wee line up and this time it’s soloists galore!

Heading up our bill is Finn Lemarinel. We’ve been hoping to get Finn to play for the last couple of months so we’re really pleased to have him. If you haven’t already heard Finn then we’d really recommend checking him out. In the same way that Elba favourite RM Hubbert does, Finn uses all parts of the guitar to help the songs get a bit of a percussive element and has a great voice to go along with it. You may indeed be familiar with Finn’s band Trapped in Kansas but there is a definite difference between his solo stuff and band stuff. He was also recently named the Glasgow PodcART Artist of The Week, but don’t let that put you off (ho ho ho ).

Joining Finn on the bill is Shauna Joy. Shauna was recommended to us by Dochan at The Liquid Ship, her show is well worth catching and she has such a great bluesy voice, we’ll all be wishing we were in the deep south of America.

Finally, completing our bill, is Lynne Louden. She’s been holed up demo-ing some tracks recently and we feel very privileged to put her on stage as a solo artist for the first time. In her wild days she toured the UK with her band Kirby but she has since hung up the fishnets in favour of some more comfortable shoes. Looking to promote her brand of ‘Scots-Americana’, she plays songs of warm heartbreak tinged with a chunk of wry humour and a western-isles tinged vocal (i’m assured this is all Glasgow though).

We’d love to see you at The Liquid Ship on Thurs 2nd of September, Free entry as per usual and doors open at 9pm.

Oh, and it’s our birthday next month, so expect us to wheel out some old favourites for that one!!

The Scottish Enlightenment are about as close as we get to regulars on the Elba Blog and we know what we like here at Elba and we know we like The Scottish Enlightenment. They have featured previously on the blog as part of our Elba Annual last December and they joined us at The Liquid Ship earlier this year for Elba Sessions Presents…(Five).

After releasing the Pascal EP in May to critical acclaim, there is a lot of excitement surrounding the long awaited St Thomas album which is scheduled to be unleashed on Armellodie Records in October/November. Prior to that we are getting another wee teaser with the Little Sleep EP which is released on September 27th. After being sent a copy of the new EP a couple of weeks ago, we thought the time was right to catch up with main man David Moyes to see what they had been up to since we heard from them last. Also, the EP was that good that we’ve decided to break the Elba mould and stream a track at the bottom of the interview. Enjoy!!

When we spoke to you last on the blog, you told us that you were looking to release some records this year and play some more gigs? How has that panned out?!

The records thing is working out well, thanks to Al Nero of Armellodie Records. Pascal EP came out in May and Little Sleep EP is coming out in September. Then our album is coming out in October. So lots of records. Gigs wise its altogether more difficult, but we’ve had some good times at Kid Canaveral’s album launch and Kays Lavelle’s album launch. We’re pretty much just doing album launches now. Its our niche. Our guitarist became a Dad at the end of July, so he’s had some downtime, but now the year from September onwards is going to be more gigful, so i suppose that is going to be panning out ok. Pure dead panning it out.

Obviously you are now signed to Armellodie, a label we know plenty about here at Elba. How did that come about and what’s it like being included on their roster?

That came about when Al Nero emailed and asked what we were doing with the album. The label we were with at the time was running out of steam, so after much beard pulling and wisdom seeking, we gave our heart to Armellodie. It was a completely bonza decision. Al is brilliant at what he does, partly i think because he decided himself what he would do – I’m not sure anyone does the label thing quite like Armellodie. But its exactly right for us and Al has given loads to us and our records. But hes a friend now and that makes everything fun to do which is the whole point i think. If not the whole point, it makes the whole point, whatever that is, much more achievable.

We were really pleased to have you playing at our Elba Sessions night earlier this year as we knew that you hadn’t been playing many gigs, have you got any other gigs for Glasgow, or anywhere else in the pipeline? Maybe a tour?

Not a tour. We’d need a big Winnebago for all the wives and children. No no, not a tour. But we’ve got a few gigs. 17th September at Classic Grand in Glasgow, 24th September at Sneaky Petes in Edinburgh, then 2nd of October we’re playing a wee festival in Aberfeldy. We’ll have a few in November and December, after the album is out. But Phillip, i will let you know about those. I will.

You have the second EP, Little Sleep, due for release in the next couple of months. I’ve had a wee listen to it and it flows nicely from the Pascal EP. Do the songs all come from the same sessions or have the collection of songs on each EP come from separate times?

Let me think. We basically recorded all the songs off the EPs and the album in three sessions at the Green Door Studio in Glasgow. But three other tracks got themselves recorded here and there. One of those three is on each EP and another is on the album. But we started recording these tracks over two years and i think we have changed over that time. Pascal EP was mostly more recent stuff, but Little Sleep has tracks from the first session on it. I think that’s why its a bit louder as a record. We got quieter over the two years. I confidently predict that at some point in the future we’ll get louder again.

On ‘Get My Limousine’ you mention Steven Malkmus? Who are your’s or the bands main influences?

Well that song is like Pavement by numbers, so that line is sort of admitting its a rip off. I love Pavement and the Malkmus albums. Having been a teenage radiohead fan, they taught me that simple is a virtue when there’s real substance in the song. And Malkmus manages to combine cynicism and tenderness, and here and there we’ve tried to do that. Low are a big influence in lots of similar ways. Other folk in the band listen to different stuff. But we’ve been playing together for such a long time that the main influence on us is everything we’ve done before. They way we play is more a product of that than anything else. Although i think our influences are pretty much worn on our sleeves. I’m quite partial to a rip off now and again.

And for any reader who hasn’t heard The Scottish Enlightenment before and is wary of taking our word for it that they should buy the new EP. What should they expect??

They should expect to pay £4, mook.

The Scottish Enlightenment – San Germain is Thick Tonight by elbasessions

*The Scottish Enlightenment will play a stripped back set at Henry’s cellar Bar in Edinburgh this Thursday (19th Aug) along with Martin John Henry (ex De Rosa), Debutant and Dan Lyth. Not to be missed as it’s a beezer of a line-up!

I can be a judgemental old so and so from time to time, especially when it comes to music. I seem to have that grumpy git/musical snobbery type thing going which amuses my nearest and dearest immensely. That said, I am pretty open to most types of music and whilst I’ll maybe sometimes turn my nose up at something, I can be brought round to it fairly easily.

This post is a little tardy, it’s been in the pipeline a couple of months now but unlike many blog posts I plan to write and then never get round to it, I always knew that this one would get written…eventually. The thing is, I went to see Flynn play at the Oran Mor in June, the album was out the same week, timing says that would have been the obvious time to publish a blog. However, for the reasons I listed above, I wanted to give myself a little more ‘Johnny-time’.

Johnny Flynn is an artist who completely passed me by for some bizarre reason. I say bizarre because it’s probably something that couldn’t be anymore up my street. His first album ‘A Larum’ was released in 2008 and until this year, I’d not given it a second look. Then the second album was due for release this year and it appeared on my radar. The background on Mr Flynn is that he was one of the founding members of a gig night in London which has since spawned such musical luminaries as Mumford and Sons and Laura Marling. And for reasons which I can only explain from paragraph one of this blog, the Mumford thing kinda put me off a little. It’s stupid as I’ve not given Mumford and Sons enough time for me to let them put me of another musician, but music just does that to you sometimes. You get an idea about a band in your head and then boom, you get cynical. Incidentally, I just find Mumford and Sons baffling. They burst into song with their big gruff voices and then they are such well spoken chaps, I’m a little disappointed they don’t have gruff west country accents to match their songs.

Anyway, I digress. Luckily as I said, I give music a chance in the end and realising that I had nothing against Johnny Flynn and going on recommendations from a friend with exceptional taste for a good song, I decided to start from the beginning. I did the things I like to do when ‘discovering’ a new band. I went to his gig having listened to virtually nothing of his and not knowing what any of the songs were called, and it worked for me. I went straight home and bought the first album ‘A Larum’. The song that stuck in my head from the gig was called ‘The Box’, I was assured by my friend, this was the song the crowd would ‘go nuts for’. He was right, and fair enough as well, it’s a belter of a track and one which has had excessive plays on my ipod since.

The album has several stand out tracks and it’s completely listenable from beginning to end. Lively tracks like ‘The Box’ and ‘Tickle Me Pink’ are countered by meandering folky numbers like ‘Shore to Shore’ and personal favourite ‘Eyeless In Holloway’. It’s fair to say at this point I am completely smitten with Johnny Flynn and I’m a little surprised.

After I’d given A Larum a good listen and going over, I’ve got myself a copy of his recent album ‘Been Listening’. I find it a little different, not in a bad way I don’t think. I personally find it a little more produced and polished yet at times a little subdued. The achingly beautiful track ‘The Water’ is a real stand out here where Flynn duets with nu-folk darling Laura Marling. I think I’m still giving this album the chance to explode like the first album did but it’s not quite so immediate.

I guess it shows me I shouldn’t be so judgemental, however in reality I know it’s not going to stop me. It’s just one of the parts which makes me the person I am and I wouldn’t change it for the world. It can be rather fun sometimes!