Interview: Hot Chip

This is a feature I wrote back in February for The Skinny, the week before Hot Chip released their third album. It all came together too late to tie in with the album release, so here it is on the eve of their T in the Park set…
Interviews with Hot Chip often begin with the [...]

Interview: Ratatat

Ratatat may still be a lesser-known name on this side of the Atlantic, but it’s a name you’re unlikely to forget after a first introduction. That introduction may have arrived via a whimsical purchase of their 2004 self-titled debut, or 2006’s superior follow-up Classics, or their warm-up show for CSS at last year’s Triptych. Perhaps [...]

Interview: The Futureheads

When it emerged, some 18 months ago, that The Futureheads had been dumped by their record label, the news was met with disappointment by fans, but also by a wider realisation that this is the new reality for an increasingly cash-starved record industry. If your first album hits number 11, you’d better make damned sure [...]

Interview: Errors

Anyone who has trawled MySpace in search of good music and been met by band after mundane indie band will know that it is acts that offer something a bit different (like Errors) that make it all at least semi-worthwhile. A year ago, maybe more, it was the track Mr Milk that made me sit [...]

Interview: Frightened Rabbit

OK, so The Midnight Organ Fight has been out for a few days now, and if you’ve managed to buy, steal or borrow a copy you’ll know what a fucking superb album Frightened Rabbit have made: undoubtedly an early contender for album of the year. I wrote a review of it a few weeks ago, [...]

Interview: Damn Shames

This is a feature on up and coming Edinburgh band Damn Shames which I recently penned for The Skinny. It was cut down slightly for print, as there’s fierce competition for space in the magazine’s bursting musical pages don’t-cha-know, so here’s the definitive version…
Music journalism can be a strange, haphazard, frustrating affair, governed by tight deadlines [...]

Sons & Daughters are mental and edgy (honest)

[Image by Pete Dunlop]
Set deep in the West End of Glasgow, the Rio Café feels like the ideal place to interview Sons and Daughters. It has that classic feel of 1950s Americana with its four-seater booths and solid, oversize bar; yet the noisy chatter of the mid-afternoon clientèle confirms to the ear that this is [...]

The Twilight Sad reflect on rave reviews, sell-out shows and egotistical Pumpkins

Back in spring, one album took Scotland entirely by surprise. It began with a resonant guitar, timed to a staccato piano rhythm under a haze of feedback that forebode of things to come. Then a raw west coast voice glides in: “Another hotel, with woollen plans / Romantic gesture, with woollen plans” - lyrics like [...]

Malcolm Middleton gets into the Christmas spirit

Last week I had a quick chat with Malcolm Middleton for The Skinny magazine. The former Arab Strap man lamented the demise of the Christmas single, and explained why he has chosen to revitalise the tradition with the strangely upbeat We’re All Going to Die. Here’s what he had to say…
“We’re All Going to Die is my [...]

The Hives (Vigilante Carlstrom) Interview

A member of The Hives should need no encouragement to exercise his vocal chords in interview. Recall if you will: they are the band from Sweden who swept in on the garage rock revival of the early noughties with their kinetic, monochrome punk; the band who sold t-shirts with slogans like [...]