SWELL To Great, the debut album by Lancashire/Scotland supergroup Modern Studies, was one of the most solid efforts of last year.
Nominated for the Scottish Album of the Year, it matched instant appeal with a depth that rewarded repeated listens. Having moved from Edinburgh label Song, By Toad to the resurgent Fire Records, multi-instrumentalists Emily Scott, Rob St John, Pete Harvey and Joe Smillie return in May with Welcome Strangers, 10 sumptuous, impeccable tracks straight on the sweet spot between modern classical and pop experimentation.
A sure-fire contender for the upper reaches of end-of-year polls, Welcome Strangers was partly birthed at the band’s three SOUNDING shows at the Fringe last year, when The Pumpkinseeds, a 10-piece string section corralled by Harvey, joined the band onstage at Stockbridge Parish Church.
Recorded at Harvey’s studio in Perthshire, the album sees principal song-writer Scott dispense with the wheezing Victorian harmonium on which she wrote Swell To Great.
“Performing was quite difficult with that,” says Scott, currently in-between the music sessions for young people she helps run with Big Noise Govanhill in Glasgow. “I was basically rooted to the spot as all my limbs were occupied at the same time – you have to pump it with your feet as well as obviously playing it with your hands. I’ve since bought a few synths that are much more portable, and it means you can dance around, which is far more fun.”
With Harvey in Perthshire, St John in Lancashire and Scott and Smillie based in Glasgow – where the latter runs bustling restaurant and cultural centre The Glad Cafe – the crystalline-voiced Scott says the band have developed their own way of working long distance.
“I write a little bit of manuscript, just a fragment of lyrics and maybe a melodic line and a chord progression,” she says. “That forms the basis of the process, where we share things online and everybody will add something that they’re an expert in. So Rob will add guitars and some synth manipulations, Pete will add bass and cello and Joe will add the drums. There’s always space to push and pull and it seems that everyone is able to find a place for what they want, which works really well.”
Welcome Strangers features three songs by St John, a field recording artist, visual artist, writer and musician, whose baritone vocals coil around those of Scott to captivating effect.
“Rob writes in a completely different way to me,” Scott explains, before noting forthcoming single Mud and Flame. “That track starts with a manipulation of me singing. He recorded it on to tape and then sent us the tape to bury in the ground so it would degrade and send it back to him. That’s very much the kind of work he does. I actually put mine in a jar of gin and tonic.”
May 25 Happiness Hotel, Edinburgh, 8pm, £8.97. Tickets: bit.ly/MSHappinessHotel
May 29 Mediterranea, Stirling, 8pm, £8. Tickets: bit.ly/MSStirling
May 30 The Blue Lamp, Aberdeen, 7.30pm, £10. Tickets: bit.ly/MSAberdeen
May 31 The Glad Cafe, Glasgow, 7.30pm, £8. Tickets: bit.ly/MSGlad
June 1 with The Pastels and Andrew Wasylyk, Mackintosh Church, Glasgow, 7.30pm, £22. Tickets: bit.ly/MSPastels
June 23 Rip It Up Festival, Summerhall, Edinburgh, 3pm, £25. Tickets: bit.ly/MSSummerhall
Welcome Strangers is released on May 18 via Fire Records
Website: www.modernstudiestheband.com
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