Elba Sessions

Now, it has taken us a little longer than anticipated to gather our thoughts about Hinterland here at Elba. It is possible that there is a causal link between the amount of enjoyment (beer) and our slight delay (burnout). Do not fret though! We have returned to the land of the lively in order to bring you tales of Hinter and of land.

We set off on our quest with the aid of some excellent scran and a lot of caffeine on the part of one of the Elba team following excess the previous evening; we shall let you decide who was so irresponsible the night before the big event. We opened our evening at Ivory Blacks with Make Sparks; a band who command your attention. Now I’m struggling to come up with an analogy that is not so hugely inappropriate that you’ll close your browser window in disgust… I think it is the lingering effects of the holiday weekend. So, I will just say: this band are tight. They even made an Eminem cover work. They closed with their single Rewind, which is the most sensitive, beautiful guitar driven pop song. This band surely have big things ahead.

We scooted off promptly to enjoy something that would please all in our little collective at The Admiral. Kitty The Lion brought (and clearly stole – read on) a lot of the sunshine of the day. Their little stage was just right for them and they charmed the pants off of everyone in the room. A hiccup in song announcement was endearing and handled gracefully and hilariously. Bird Flu was the song that had me singing their praises for the day with some beautiful harmonies to the ‘grovel song.’ Of the whole festival, these guys were definitely my favourite band.

We bounced out of the Admiral into the rain, which was rather ironic as we had spent the afternoon commenting on how nice a day it was proving to be, and dashed to Macsorley’s. Our hope was to catch Spectrals before heading to The Arches. Unfortunately this was not to be as we were informed along with a crowd of other soggy gig goers that the venue was full. We dashed back to catch ten minutes of The Darien Venture at Ivory Blacks who blasted us back out the door with their pounding tracks in the direction of The Arches.

Here we remained for the rest of the evening and this was where things got a little weird. The combination of the sound sucking venue and our high hopes took a little of the enjoyment out of the next couple of hours. Ambulances suffered worst in terms of sound. Their particular brand of melancholy music would have to be sonically spot on to work live. Mixed in with the nerves of their first big Glasgow show they came off shaky but they held tough and delivered some great moments. What I Thought of worked really well despite the interferences.

French Wives got the majority vote Elba posse when it came to picking their band of the day. Live this band are just going from strength to strength. They have picked up the reigns of the masters of twee in Glasgow. Its all violins, guitars, little quirks and dancing. French Wives even managed to make you look past the terrible sound.  Though there is a chance we were just distracted by Stuart, the tallest man alive, showing his dancing skills.

Jeffrey Lewis drew a huge crowd and told stories then sang stories then put his foot in it big time with a geographical mistake that confounds international acts more than our nation would hope but won most over in the end. As a particularly small person I missed out on being able to see a thing for the duration and was subject to some ranting by a merry fellow to my left. Plus the beginning of set was plagued by a strange high pitched tone. These factors left me confused and distracted. I believe the hard core of NY anti-folk fans were in heaven for the duration, alas I could not quite reach that elysium.

The last stop for us was Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs. Now, as the only one out of our few who enjoys, nay, cannot resist a little boogie, I was itching to get a dance in as soon as he took to the stage. Decked in lizardish-head-wear the set that was delivered even managed to put a smile on the face of Phil ‘I don’t do dancing’ Smith.

So our day was most delightful musically, not to mention catching up with some rather sound blogging peers. The new setting for the festival definitely worked as we managed to catch a lot of music even though we were running from venue to venue. The atmosphere was great in every gig. The two day recovery period tends to point towards the success of the one day extravaganza. Here’s hoping this has set the bar for years to come.

Photo by Alan Roney

At the moment we keep going back and forth here at Elba trying to decide who we want to go and see at Hinterland next week. When we sent our initial lists to each other I wasn’t particularly surprised that some of the same names were on each others list. I mean, I’d like to think we have pretty discerning tastes here at Elba (ahem, if you knew about one of our collective’s cheesy pop collection, you’d surely disagree). Several of those names also seem to have animal names in them – nearly every band I seem to like these days has an animal in the title! Anyway, today’s feature is no exception to that rule and someone we’ll definitely be going to see next weekend. I present to you Anna from Kitty the Lion…

You used to perform as ‘Anna Meldrum’. Why the change, and do you enjoy having a full band behind you?

When I was gigging as Anna someone asked me what my real name was because they thought it was a stage name. I thought that was a bit bizarre because my name is really ordinary, but maybe that’s only because I read it on envelopes a lot. Anyway, we decided to change because when I started playing gigs with a band behind me it felt really awkward when we’d get introduced as ‘Anna Meldrum’…and there were three of us. I absolutely love having a full band together now, I get all grumpy when I have to do acoustic things nowadays. The songs sound the way they always did inside my head, but everyone else gets to hear it too!

You released your single ‘Lion in the Bed’ in November. Any plans for more releases? Or maybe an album?

We’re definitely going to have another release at some point this year, not sure what it’ll be yet but most likely an EP sort of idea. A single and an album’s baby.

Glasgow has a reputation for having a lot of good venues to play in, what’s your favourite?

I like the Captain’s Rest and Nice n Sleazy. The sweaty dank ones where you get no phone signal. There are good memories hanging about in those places.

Stornoway is listed in your recent gigography, if you could play a gig anywhere, where would it be?

I’d really like to go to Iceland and imagine I was Björk.

Hinterland 2010 is fast approaching and we are looking forward to seeing your set. Is there anybody else playing the festival who you’re hoping to catch?

As many as I can! It will be cool to see the bigger names but will also be nice to see some local people I’ve listened to but not seen live, like Panda Su and The Boy Who Trapped the Sun.

We always ask anyone who does a podcast or interview on for Elba Sessions if there are any bands we should be checking out? Any recommendations?

Findlay Napier, Kristina Cox, Julia and the Doogans, Matt Norris and the Moon, Sparrow and the Workshop…

What can we expect to see from Kitty the Lion in the next year?

More commitment because I’ll have graduated from Uni!

————————————————————-

Kitty’s aforementioned single is out now and available for download at i-tunes, get yer mitts on a copy. For all the latest news on the band be friends over on myspace.

You can catch Kitty the Lion as part of this year’s Hinterland Festival, next Saturday (3/4/10) at various Glasgow venues (tickets here).

*The lovely photo above was brought to you by the lens of Alan Roney

In the lead up to this year’s Hinterland Festival, we’ll be taking a closer look at some of the artists that we’re looking forward to seeing. We’ll keep our ‘Top 5′s’ under wraps for the moment but to kick us off please welcome The Boy Who Trapped The Sun aka Colin McLeod.

Colin was originally from the Isle of Lewis, but is now based in London. He has come via Aberdeen where he was discovered hanging off the roof, playing Deep Purple covers, and as he puts it ‘generally acting like an arse’. A long way from the Deep Purple covers, his latest EP ‘Home’ is a highly accomplished piece of songwriting which has rootsy blues undertones and is a great listen.

For those of us not in the know, please introduce yourself.

Hello, my name is Colin and I play under the name of the boy who trapped the sun

Where did the name ‘The Boy Who Trapped The Sun’ come from?

The name is a secret. If I told you I’d have to kill you.

Do you take any musical influence from growing up in the Western Isles or are your influences more broad?

Musically I take influence from everywhere, almost anything I listen to seems to influence me, I’m a bit of a musical sponge. I guess the traditional gaelic music and singing from home had more of an influence on my singing style than I thought because I can hear alot of it in the stuff I’ve recorded, but I guess that’s only natural. My dad has it on the radio night and day, you can’t escape it.

There is obviously a huge music scene in London, but do you like coming back up and playing gigs in Scotland? Where is your favourite venue in Scotland?

Scotland is def my home, I’ve always felt more connected to Glasgow than London. I suppose it’s because when I was younger at home, Glasgow was the music capital of the world to me, and London felt like a different planet!! Just because it was so far away. So the draw was always to Glasgow and that scene. I love London, it’s such a great city for music it really feels like you’re at the centre of the world but I never felt a part of the scene there, just a spectator! I think my fav venue though is a toss up between King Tuts and The Taphouse Bar in St.Agnes, Cornwall.

We’re excited about seeing you play the Hinterland Festival, are there any other bands on the Hinterland bill that you are hoping to catch?

I love Jeffrey Lewis, I’m quite excited he’s playing cos I missed him at All Tomorrows Parties last year and I love British Sea Power, they’re always entertaining. I’m really looking forward to seeing Kitty the Lion as well, that’s a band full of talented people if ever there was one!

We always try to ask anyone who does a podcast or interview for Elba Sessions if there are any bands we should be checking out? Any recommendations?

DotJR, The Moth And The Mirror, Brother Louis Collective, Strike the Colours, Amber Wilson, Cant Swim. I should stop now.

Finally, what can we expect from you in the coming months?

I’ve got an album coming out in the summer hopefully, and I’ve got a couple of shows coming up supporting the John Butler Trio that im really excited about. I’m really looking forward to festival time, I’m going to be busy, which is nice.

The Boy Who Trapped The Sun plays the Hinterland Festival in Glasgow on April 3rd (tickets here). His latest EP ‘Home’ is out now and can be purchased here. For the most up to date news check out the links below.

http://www.myspace.com/theboywhotrappedthesun

http://www.facebook.com/theboywhotrappedthesun

http://twitter.com/trappedthesun