We chat to CHVRCHES ahead of the release of their fourth

As Seen On Screen

From LA to Scotland, we chat to CHVRCHES ahead of the release of their fourth studio album, Screen Violence

Interview: Sam Moore

It’s been over three years since the third album by CHVRCHES, Love is Dead, hit the shelves. In the time since, the world has undergone a seismic shift. Boris Johnson is prime minister, across the pond Joe Biden has replaced Donald Trump as president, and the world has been ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic, hitting the creative arts industries particularly hard. As a result of social distancing and travel restrictions, the vast majority of CHVRCHES’ new album, Screen Violence, was recorded with the three members completely separate from each other. It was only at the end of the production that Lauren Mayberry, Iain Cook and Martin Doherty came together for a “couple of weeks” to put the finishing touches to the album. Talking over Zoom, they’re split geographically between sunny Los Angeles and not-quite-as-sunny Scotland. The genesis for Screen Violence was established before the pandemic hit, in February 2020. Mayberry explains: “We got a lot of the initial ideas and concepts going. So we kind of had a blueprint to work off and some demos there.” There were “technical hurdles” to start with but Mayberry found the pandemic recording experience “interesting”, going on to say the creation of Screen Violence was like “making the record in a vacuum again, because the outside world ceased to exist, for the most part, in terms of what you could and couldn’t do.” The circumstances that dictated the recording of the album made it feel “more akin to the first record,” she continues, “because you make your first record in a vacuum because nobody knows who your band is.” On whether she’d want to repeat the experience of making an album in this way, she affirms: “I wouldn’t want to do it again.” For Doherty, having that extra time on his own in the studio gave room to be more experimental with sounds and instruments. “In the past, if I was making an album, I would have one eye on the clock or one eye on the tour schedule,” he says. “And I’d be like, ‘Well, this is great. Sounds great. Next. Move on.’ Whereas on this album, I was like, ‘Oh, what’s inside the guitar pedal?’ Let me open that up.’ It was a very immersive experience for me, from my perspective of things.” Doherty continues: “You’re not going to a studio every day, you’re not going to the pub afterwards, you’re not, like... you don’t go anywhere, you don’t really leave your house. So I feel like most of my day was spent doing something to do with the record.” And the record is a big one. Dark and twisted, full of gothic delights and fatalistic agony, CHVRCHES have pushed their aesthetic further than ever before, openly embracing guitars and thumping, harsh drum beats. A notable guest also joins the band on the anxiety-inspired anthem, How Not to Drown. The legendary Robert Smith of The Cure shares his unmistakable vocals with Mayberry as they sing about battling for survival on what will surely become a staple of the festival circuit once touring resumes. Mayberry, who describes working with Smith as “insane”, details how the collaboration came about: “Our manager knew someone in common with Robert Smith and passed on our email because he only has email, no manager. And then we got this message, saying ‘Aloha’.” She continues: “We sent him a bunch of demos we’d been working on not knowing what to expect. It was all worked on remotely, just through email, no Zoom or anything.” That the song was created with such distance between the artists is not at all noticeable, in fact it’s a sublimely cohesive song. How Not to Drown perfectly encapsulates the best of the band and what they do. It’s a song you can dance to and cry to, its extreme emotion familiar to anybody that has felt wronged, slighted or kicked down. What is remarkable is how such a singular artist like Smith can effortlessly fit into the CHVRCHES ouevre; they don’t alter their sound to accommodate his mournful voice that, to many, was the voice of a generation. The trio are deeply in awe of Smith and forever indebted to the music of The Cure with Mayberry commenting on the collaboration: “If everything ended tomorrow, we’d be beyond happy.” Though put together during the perils of lockdown, the band are insistent they did not want to make a “pandemic record”. As Doherty bluntly puts it, “I can’t be any less interested in this, in the sound of people’s boredom.” Lyrically and sonically this shines through. Screen Violence isn’t a rumination on the purgatory of pandemic life, it’s not like Taylor Swift’s Folklore or Charli XCX’s How I’m Feeling Now which are born out of and obsessed with the introspection that comes with being cut off from the rest of the world. Instead, Screen Violence is thrillingly visceral, shamelessly big, and features ten cohesively arranged gothic fairy tales which their idol Smith would be proud of penning. Despite the last year-and-a-half being a complete mess in terms of politics, health and the fight for equality, Mayberry says that many of the lyrics and ideas that ended up on the album had their origin at an earlier stage, though she admits that the nature of 2020 “enhanced” the violent imagery somewhat. Mayberry concludes: “I can’t imagine trying to make a fucking upbeat dance pop record in summer 2020.” Even though the album is scored with twisted lyrics, there are moments of triumphant euphoria and stadium pop. The Prodigy-inspired Violent Delights is going to have Mayberry air drumming its explosive breakdown when they eventually get to perform the songs live; Final Girl is about finding hope and getting through tough times, which are themes that certainly resonate in contemporary society; He Said She Said is a rally of female empowerment without ever falling into the trap of being didactic. Through it all, Mayberry’s thorny, unmistakably Glaswegian twang is the star. Her accent hasn’t wilted since moving to LA, and her bandmates even insist that it’s gotten stronger – Mayberry jokes: “I don’t talk to any Americans anyway.” Sounding as powerful as ever, it’s easily one of the most interesting voices in modern pop music. Although that voice may, on the surface, sound sweet – it’s often been lazily described as ‘angelic’ – dig a little deeper and you’ll find it’s remarkably powerful, particularly on tracks like Violent Delights where it’s pushed to its raw limits. CHVRCHES couldn’t be returning at a better time with Screen Violence, its cinematic influences like Brian De Palma and David Cronenberg making for cathartic music you can have a sob to, dance to and play loud while you’re pounding a punch bag. It perfectly captures the duality of rage and relief. How Not to Drown and Violent Delights, while not being overtly political, are the anthems of a defiant generation, for those who protest racism, misogyny and corruption. Latest single Good Girls “could be viewed as political, because of what it’s talking about,” Mayberry says, “but it’s being talked about from a personal standpoint, you know? We’re not trying to write big message songs.” She concludes: “This album is more political than the last one, the songs weren’t intended to be, but the personal is the political.”

“This album is more political than the last one, the songs weren’t intended to be, but the personal is the political”

“I can’t imagine trying to make a fucking upbeat dance pop record in summer 2020”

Lauren Mayberry, CHVRCHES

Screen Violence is released on 27 Aug via Virgin EMI

Start Making Sense

Edinburgh four-piece swim school talk new beginnings, mental health and finding the lyrical sweet spot between cryptic and candid

Interview: Lewis Wade

Edinburgh band swim school are ready for the future to begin. Resolute in the face of adversity, there’s a sense of exuberance in speaking to them via Zoom on a foggy Monday morning. At the time of our call they haven’t played a live show in almost 18 months, frequently unable to even play in the same room and have been waiting patiently to release new music. But despite their decidedly dark lyrical bent (of which more, later), they’re practically giddy in their excitement to get out and make good on the initial waves of promise they rode upon their arrival on the scene. “This does feel like the start of swim school – we had an amazing first year, but so much has changed over lockdown that it does feel like the start of a new band,” frontperson Alice Johnson beams, laser-focused. One of the most prominent changes is the introduction of Billy McMahon on drums, adding a more bombastic edge to their sound. His first show with the band is just over a week after our chat, at Latitude Festival no less: “first English festival, first show with Billy, first time playing a lot of songs live... to go from no live music for 18 months, to seeing so much live music; it’s gonna be incredible.” The band first gained prominence with Sway; a track full of Cure-esque vocal tics, often described as “floaty”, earning likenesses to dream and indie-pop, and bands like Pale Waves, Foals and Wolf Alice. The latter is the real clue to what you’re likely to find with swim school – the band are big fans, with Johnson admitting to poring over new lyrics, looking for meaning like an amateur sleuth – especially in the heavier sound of their new EP, making sense of it all. Everything You Wanted is the only one that’s survived from the band’s early period, the EP’s other four all being recorded post-lockdown. Each song is gleaned from a particular event and its resultant fallout on the mental health of those involved, states Johnson. Though these supposedly include “sad, happy and angry” songs, the middle quality is most often lacking. Outside, a peak on an EP that’s exclusively constructed of them, “is definitely the happiest of the lot...but there’s an angry aspect to it, especially the guitar parts,” admits Johnson when pushed to find a happy song. It deals with toxic people and how they can wear down your mental resilience, but also the catharsis that comes when you can shake free of them and focus on yourself. As the final track on the EP, it brings things to a neat moment of closure – “it’s actually the last song we play live, so the closure aspect totally makes sense (I just realised that)”. McMahon laughs, while Johnson gives a good-natured eye roll. Elsewhere, lyrical pick-me-ups are less abundant; Let Me Inside Your Head basks in moody, reverby guitars, with a touch of Karen O about the vocals, but there’s more desperation than detachment amid this 80s-imbued sonic palette. Not being able to understand or take away

Photo: Rory Barnes

“We never got educated on mental health in high school, for me it was always music and lyrics that helped”

Alice Johnson, swim school

another’s pain is the theme here, with all the associated helplessness. Everything You Wanted is one of the darkest songs, trapped in the mire of blaming yourself after a loss, and the cyclical self-flagellation that comes with your own unwitting self-importance in such a situation. Needless to say, this isn’t a surface-level exploration, but a deep dive into the psyche, a call to tell you that you aren’t alone, which Johnson views as the shining beacon it can be: “We never got educated on mental health in high school, for me it was always music and lyrics that helped. Not to sound totally cringey, but music’s always been there for me.” Anyway is the most well-formed distillation of the band’s musical and lyrical interests, hence its special place in the band’s heart, as Johnson explains. “Even though it’s a sad song, lyrically, it’s quite upbeat, sonically – which describes mental health really nicely as it’s showing how the exterior can show one thing, while something totally different is happening inside.” With a driving guitar line and commanding drums, the song presents a confident front – something for more passive fans – but there’s a vulnerability underneath in the lyrical intrigue; something for the obsessives. McMahon remembers “thinking that this’ll be a song for people chanting at a festival, hugging each other. I’ve never thought about it being dark. I’m thinking it’s gonna be a great time and poor Alice is onstage breaking her heart.” The confidence to be playing to chanting festival crowds is certainly not misplaced, and if you weren’t lucky enough to see them at Latitude, there will, fingers crossed, be ample opportunities in the coming months.

making sense of it all is self-released on 13 Aug

swim school play Fringe by the Sea, North Berwick, 8 Aug; King Tut’s, Glasgow, 21 Aug; Hidden Door, Granton Gasworks, Edinburgh, 16 Sep

Music Now

With live gigs firmly in our sights, this month brings new music from Andrew Wasylyk, Post Coal Prom Queen, wor_kspace, Nun Habit and more

Words: Tallah Brash

It’s August! The Edinburgh festivals are here, and music festivals across the country are underway. It’s a hard thing to get our heads around, but it’s exciting nonetheless. In the world of Scottish new music releases, well, they are still coming in thick and fast, the possibility to play new music in a live context drawing ever-nearer for most. At two ends of the spectrum you’ll find CHVRCHES and swim school, the former releasing Screen Violence (27 Aug), their excellent fourth album, ten years into their career, while the latter release their exceptional debut EP, making sense of it all (13 Aug), hoping for a long and fruitful future in the industry. Read our full reviews on the next page. Andrew Mitchell, who performs as Andrew Wasylyk, is also releasing a brand new record this month (20 Aug). Balgay Hill: Morning in Magnolia will be the fifth solo record from the Idlewild bassist, and second since his 2019 SAY Award-nominated record, The Paralian. Taking inspiration from early morning walks around Dundee’s 19th-century Balgay Park, listening to the album makes you feel as if you’re almost floating through beautiful leafy greenery on low-lit mornings, not quite awake, birds twittering as you go, the shuffling of other early risers. For Mitchell, Balgay Park acted as a safe space when the world was in disarray, somewhere to escape. While hopeful and leaning on the optimism found at the start of a new day, there’s still an element of unease to be found in sombre instrumentation and subtle chord changes on tracks like Through the Rose Window, Sun Caught Cloud Like the Belly of a Cat and Western Necropolis Twilight. Such is the dreamlike quality of Balgay Hill: Morning in Magnolia, you’ll have to pinch yourself when listening to make sure you’re not asleep. Pinching yourself when listening to Music for Hypercapitalists (12 Aug), the brand new concept album from Post Coal Photo: Armadillo Media Prom Queen is a must, too, just to make 100 percent certain you’re not in an episode of Black Mirror. The opening skit, What Brought You Here Today?, invites you to interview for a job at PCPQ Industries for the unpaid position of Junior Intern Assistant Hypercapitalist, the preliminary stage of a seven-stage process that side-eyes the Nun Habit outrageous expectaPhoto: Fraser Simpson tions employers have in this day and age; Blade Runner’s Voight-Kampff test also gets a nod so replicants beware! Concept aside, connected by a series of automated questions, responses come in the form of collaborative songs featuring a slew of talented rappers (Conscious Route, Empress, Jackal Trades, Somnia, Miles Better, Texture), taking PCPQ down a path they’ve not – not knowingly to us anyway – explored before, and it works exceptionally well. Still steeped in the world of sci-fi and humour that Post Coal Prom Queen love, Music for Hypercapitalists sees the pair manage to stay musically true to themselves, albeit with a hip-hop twist, on this exciting new record, which you can access via a QR code on a packet of noodles, with all proceeds going to Glasgow’s Refuweegee charity. Previously a member of both Teenage Fanclub and BMX Bandits, Finlay MacDonald’s new ext_ended play EP (6 Aug) under his wor_kspace moniker has a touch of science fiction about it too, not only in its glitchy compositions and bending synths but also in the fact it samples voices and electromagnetic noise from archive recordings of people who are no longer with us: “musique concrète collaborations with the dead”, as the press release so perfectly sums it up. Despite mining its samples from a multitude of places, and working across both analogue and digital technologies, there’s a lightness of touch and comforting familiarity across ext_ended play’s five tracks that effortlessly binds it all together. And imbolc’s upbeat Dan Deacon-esque throb makes us want to run around in a frenzy hugging people (we obviously won’t, not yet anyway), perhaps as MacDonald had intended: “I felt this track had that cautiously optimistic feel [...] It is also relevant that it comes out at this point in history when we are hopefully seeing the beginning of the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.” With one member firmly based in Glasgow while the others are in London – “I’m working on them!” bandmember Greg tells us via email – we’re also excited about queer five-piece Nun Habit’s debut album, hedge fun, this month (2 Aug). Produced by Ric James (Yassassin, Foals), the band list everyone from Chastity Belt and Fleetwood Mac to Dry Cleaning and Art Brut as influences, but listen closely and you’ll hear snatches of Franz Ferdinand, Moloko, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Teleman and Interpol in their delightful brand of fuzzy garage rock. The mundane storytelling found over the jangly instrumental plod of album midpoint, Jeremy’s Horses, is an unexpected and hilarious left-turn, while the ‘Shall we go for a drink’ refrain on TinderHingeHer, and indiedisco bop Soap and Cigarettes both have us longing for the dancefloor. Elsewhere, the first Hen Hoose release proper arrives on 11 August in the form of Monochrome, a collaborative single between Emma Pollock and Pippa Murphy; Berta Kennedy releases FreeSwimming (13 Aug), and SHEARS releases her brand new pop banger Afterthought (4 Aug), mixed by Matty Green (Dua Lipa, Lady Gaga).

CHVRCHES Screen Violence Virgin EMI Records, 27 Aug rrrrr

Listen to: Asking for a Friend, Good Girls, How Not To Drown Born in lockdown where one third of the band was 5000 miles away for the writing and recording, Screen Violence’s creation existed largely through screens. For vocalist Lauren Mayberry, that digital world has become a burden, a place of fan over-adulation and toxic trolls, and contrastingly, the only means of connection to those important. As such, Screen Violence explores how we live on screens, by screens, and through screens in their signature sparkling synth-pop style. Mayberry’s performance is fierce, snapping at online hyper-criticism of the female existence and the double-standards that exist for male artists. The cathartic, big fuck you to misogny lives in defiance, but it’s twinned with a sad realism that the online world we all inhabit often feels like living in a futuristic horror film.

Screen Violence is arguably CHVRCHES’ most analog album yet, with The Cure-inspired How Not To Drown (ft. Robert Smith), Final Girl’s snappy 00s goth-pop, and the crunchy, grungy guitar on closer Better If You Don’t feeling like new territory. Despite the daring newness, Screen Violence still feels unmistakably CHVRCHES, and one of their strongest records at that. [Dylan Tuck] Angel Olsen Aisles EP somethingscosmic, 20 Aug rrrrr

Listen to: Gloria, If You Leave In August 2020, amid the struggles of lockdown and getting to grips with live-streamed performance, Angel Olsen decided to record covers of songs from the 80s. Made alongside engineer and producer Adam McDaniel, the resulting EP was part of an effort for Olsen to bring joy back to making music – a need, she says, to “laugh and have fun and be a little less serious about the recording process in general.” The first release on Olsen’s new Jagjaguwar imprint, somethingscosmic, Aisles is a simple concept, executed spectacularly. The carefully selected tracks are a mix of the familiar and unfamiliar; songs she’s overheard at family gatherings or while wandering in a supermarket. In addition to Laura Branigan’s Gloria, Olsen takes on hits like Billy Idol’s Eyes Without a Face, OMD’s If You Leave and Alphaville’s Forever Young. Some are close renditions while others have been entirely reimagined, but all are imbued with Olsen’s unique brand of heartbreak. Gloria is slowed down and dressed in ambient synths, augmenting Branigan’s lyrics to take on a sombre new significance. Without grand purpose or intent, Olsen has taken the opportunity to create something spontaneous – if only to prove that she can. [Katie Cutforth]

swim school making sense of it all self-release, 13 Aug rrrrr

Listen to: Let Me Inside Your Head, Anyway Edinburgh four-piece swim school make their broad range of influences known on their new EP, making sense of it all, flitting from abrasive grunge to wistful shoegaze and plenty more in between. Across the EP’s five tracks, the band – made up of vocalist and guitarist Alice Johnson, guitarist Lewis Bunting, bassist Matt Mitchell and drummer Billy McMahon – demonstrate their ability to craft catchy pop hooks and big singalong choruses fit for festival crowds. And it’s come at the right time, just ahead of the return of the much-anticipated festival season we’ve been longing for. Thundering opener Let Me Inside Your Head is three-and-a-halfminutes of thrashing drums and bellowing vocals, while recent single Anyway showcases a more delicate side to the band. The softest moment, though, comes on Everything You Wanted, where Johnson recalls a particularly difficult loss. Closing track, Outside, is about as 90s as a track can come; a glamrock-meets-Britpop banger with a riff that Suede would be proud of. It finds Johnson in a place of strength and clarity lyrically, too, singing ‘Now there’s nothing left to prove / You see I’m doing better without you’. [Nadia Younes] Deafheaven Infinite Granite Sargent House, 20 Aug rrrrr

Listen to: Great Mass of Color, Lament For Wasps, Mombasa Deafheaven have always been an odd paradox. On paper, they’re too shoegaze for the metalheads, too heavy for indie kids, and yet they’ve managed to carve quite a respectable niche for themselves over the past decade. On the San Franciscans’ fifth album Infinite Granite, however, Deafheaven have leaned more into their atmospheric side, favouring softer tones and catchier melodies. Lead vocalist George Clarke has largely jettisoned his trademark scream, savouring it only for the album’s most dramatic moments, along with drummer Daniel Tracy’s thrashy blast-beats, bar closing track Mombasa. Infinite Granite sees the band’s metallic edges rounded off, but it still twists and turns in trademark Deafheaven fashion, exercising restraint and leading to some gorgeous moments. It’s fascinating to witness a metal band take on indiepop, but on lead single Great Mass of Color, they display their ear for captivating melody with aplomb. While Deafheaven’s change in direction isn’t an unwelcome one, there isn’t quite the same rush as their previous best efforts, as they adapt to their new surroundings. Minor gripes aside, Infinite Granite proves Deafheaven’s mettle and shows you don’t always have to shout loud to hit hard. [Adam Turner-Heffer]

Indigo De Souza Any Shape You Take Saddle Creek, 27 Aug rrrrr

Listen to: Real Pain, Bad Dream, Hold U In American artist Sharon Hayes’ work May 1st, comprised of the text of a letter to an unnamed lover, she writes: ‘My favorite color is your favorite color. My favorite meal, yours. Why does this make you so angry? I have my own mind but my desire is not a thinking; it’s an echo, a reverberating shock. I am so much yours, I am no longer myself. Is that so wrong?’ These are the same unfilter-ed emotions, the complete giving over of oneself to a feeling, that Indigo De Souza deals in, especially when it comes to someone she loves. I Love My Mom, Die/Cry, Kill Me – De Souza goes hard or goes home when it comes to living and loving. And so, 17, the opening track of Any Shape You Take seems like a bit of a fake out – an Auto-Tuned veil, totally indirect. But this is just another signifier of that total commitment. The album spans TikTok pop to grunge and lots in between. De Souza commits to them all. On Real Pain, an extended interlude of horror movie wailing and screaming is bookended by hooky guitars. What pain could be real-er than a gory Friday the 13th bloodbath? [Tony Inglis] Villagers Fever Dreams Domino, 20 Aug rrrrr

Listen to: So Simpatico, Full Faith In Providence Vulnerability has always been Conor O’Brien’s strength. Villagers exist in the space that measures the distance between the Ivor Novello Award-winning songwriter’s confidence and his uncertainty. The moments of pleasure born in the gaps between this unknowing knowing are the times when Villagers’ best music kisses the sky. From the edgy acoustic delivery of Becoming a Jackal on Later... with Jools Holland ten years ago, to the Marvin Gaye-fronts-The-FlamingLips vibe of So Simpatico from new record, Fever Dreams. That’s what great artists do: get better. Like recent collaborator Paul Weller, O’Brien is like a shark swimming among a shoal of songs: he’ll bite at whatever he sees first, take a chunk and move onto the next thing. In truth, that’s led Villagers’ records away from the mainstream and into the reflections of some deep, dark and truthful mirrors. But, when said shadows bring forth songs as strong as Song In Seven or Full Faith In Providence, the rewards are clear to hear. ‘May the road rise to meet you’, he sings in the latter and it’s a touching moment that brings together a record imbued with full faith in the minor masterpieces that dominate Villagers’ fifth studio album. [Alan O’Hare]

Jungle Loving In Stereo Caiola Records, 13 Aug rrrrr

Listen to: Keep Moving, Bonnie Hill, What D’You Know About Me? Few artists have arrived so fully formed as Jungle did with their 2014 debut. Their breezy, featherlight production was elevated by their infatuation with hardcore pop melodies, producing multiple tracks that now serve as perfect time capsules of their period. Seven summers on, this third album finds Jungle still exploring the same soul-mining, vocal-sampling, post-Avalanches dreamspace. Doors seem to fling themselves open and beams of sunlight sprout from nowhere at the outset of tracks like All of the Time and What D’You Know About Me?, but the indelible earworms that established Jungle’s reputation prove a little harder to replicate. Keep Moving is the closest that Loving in Stereo gets to its own calling card, but too often the album gets mired in mid-tempo fare that allows the adrenaline to wane. Lifting You and Romeo drift in and out of focus and the listening gets a little too easy. Bonnie Hill rescues the momentum, finding enough depth of sentiment in its smoky saxophone and steel drum-like synths to justify the ambling pace, but subsequent tracks struggle. The Jungle signature is still just as distinctive, but the enthusiasm may be in danger of starting to seep away. [Max Pilley] Liars The Apple Drop Mute, 6 Aug rrrrr

Listen to: Sekwar, Slow and Turn Inward When your whole shtick is exploring the boundaries of electronica and post-punk with a bevy of outré conceptual ideas, it’s inevitably going to get a bit hit-and-miss after 20 years. To that end, Liars’ tenth album is a spotty affair with showy highs (Sekwar, The Start), pulpy mediocrity (From What the Never Was, My Pulse to Ponder) and enigmatic experiments (Acid Crop, Leisure War). The Start is slightly cracked and phasered, sounding like Beck circa Sea Change trapped in a wormhole, while Sekwar is King Krule by way of Alex Cameron. Angus Andrew’s low droning vocals have taken on a doomy Michael Gira-esque lilt, adding to the solemnity of songs like Slow and Turn Inward, and the touchingly sentimental Star Search. Andrew has spoken of an “embrace of collaboration” when it comes to the arrangements, and also embracing psilocybin recently. Both of these factors fit with the album’s ‘no bad ideas’ feel, as well as its otherworldliness. Most fittingly, Andrews also admits “I’m realising my trajectory is more akin to a spiral” – a perfect summation of his ability to simultaneously progress and go round in circles. [Lewis Wade]

Censor Director: Prano Bailey-Bond Starring: Niamh Algar, Nicholas Burns rrrrr

Here’s an idea for a horror film so brilliant in its simplicity that you wonder why nobody’s done it before. If the video nasties of the 1980s had such potential to corrupt, why didn’t those professional arbiters of what was and wasn’t appropriate for the British public to view become murderous lunatics themselves? This conundrum provides the axis around which Prano Bailey-Bond’s riveting debut feature revolves. The Welsh director has adapted it from her own short, Nasty. Niamh Algar plays Enid, the only film classifier who takes her job to heart among a clutch of supine men. Eventually, the steady stream of cheaply-shot exploitation flicks, awash with brutal violence that disproportionately targets women, both aggravates past traumas for Enid and unmoors her from reality. The film follows suit; perhaps Bailey-Bond’s greatest achievement is how gradually she controls Enid’s psychological unspooling and still cleaves to a taut 84-minute run time. Bailey-Bond’s influences are palpable, both classic and contemporary. A scholarly understanding of under-the-counter 80s fare is self-evident, and there are also nods to more recent material – everything from Ringu to the more avowedly horrific entries in Ben Wheatley’s catalogue. More important, though, is how powerfully Censor announces another young British woman as a scintillating new voice in horror. Bailey-Bond converts her intellectual mastery of the genre into a viscerally thrilling nightmare. [Joe Goggins]

Released 20 Aug by Vertigo; certificate 15

I’m Your Man Director: Maria Schrader Starring: Maren Eggert, Dan Stevens, Sandra Hüller rrrrr

Maria Schrader’s funny and touching I’m Your Man is a German romantic dramedy with light sci-fi touches that purposefully draws attention to its own artificiality and the (arguable) artificiality of many romantic customs. The reason? It concerns the growing bond between a sceptical woman and an artificial intelligence, as hosted in the body of a prospective humanoid partner. In order to score research funds for her studies, scientist Alma (Maren Eggert, winner of the lead acting award at the 2021 Berlinale) takes part in an experiment whereby she must live with a robot, Tom, for three weeks and report back her findings. Through all sorts of surveys and data mining, Tom has been designed and created to meet her ideal romantic specifications and make her happy. The researchers’ main correspondent we see is a liaison known only as ‘Employee’, played by Sandra Hüller (Toni Erdmann) like a combination of an ultra-rehearsed restaurant waiter and an ineffectual couples’ therapist. The designers even determined that Alma would like a vaguely foreign man, though not too exotic, so Tom speaks German with an English accent. Character-wise, Tom brings to mind Steven Spielberg’s A.I., in that he is essentially a combination of that film’s two lead machines: Gigolo Joe, made primarily for pleasure and desire, and David, a robot innocent assigned to love a specific person, and subsequently undergoing an existential crisis. Joe is played by Dan Stevens, giving a quite remarkable performance that’s both frequently hilarious and genuinely moving in equal measure. [Josh Slater-Williams]

Released 13 Aug by Curzon; certificate TBC

Censor Our Ladies I'm Your Man Wildland

Our Ladies Director: Michael Caton-Jones Starring: Tallulah Greive, Abigail Lawrie, Sally Messham, Rona Morison, Marli Siu, Kate Dickie rrrrr

Our Ladies’ opening image evokes the legend of The Five Sisters of Kintail, the rather misogynistic Scottish folk yarn about five virtuous young women who were transformed into mountains so they could wait for eternity on their betrothed. It’s fair to say the catholic school girls at the heart of Michael Caton-Jones’ film – set in Fort William in 1996 and adapted from Alan Warner’s cult novel The Sopranos – aren’t so patient. One of them, Orla, has recently recovered from leukaemia after a spell at Lourdes, but there’s one more miracle she’d like her Lord and Saviour to perform: get her laid, preferably while tied to a tree. Orla’s pals are similarly headstrong and boy-daft (a couple are girl-daft too), and the film’s chief selling point is the rambunctious chemistry between the ensemble and their authentically crude banter. These young women have a particularly exciting day ahead of them: they’re travelling down to Edinburgh for the day for a choir competition. Caton-Jones fairly moves the film along and has some inventive tactics for filling us in on the girls’ rich inner lives. The narrative only goes slack when boys are introduced. It makes sense that these potential suitors (sleazebags, ne’er-do-wells and weirdoes all) are a drag but it’s a shame they suck some of the energy from our protagonists too, who become split up once they hit the cobbles of Edinburgh (these are the days before mobile phones, of course). When they’re together, though, Our Ladies is a raunchy riot. [Jamie Dunn] Wildland Director: Jeanette Nordahl Starring: Sandra Guldberg Kampp rrrrr

Wildland tells a familiar mobster story, yet it makes up for its lack of originality thanks to its gripping character study navigating a disheartened, doomed coming-of-age. Following her mother’s death, 17-year-old Ida (Kampp) moves in with her aunt Bodil, a matriarchal, almost religious figure who would do anything for her three grown sons. As the grief-stricken teen is welcomed into this seemingly warm family environment, she realises there is something sinister lurking beneath the surface. Ambivalent about the family’s criminal affairs, Ida finds a kindred spirit in Anna, her cousin’s girlfriend. Just like the protagonist, Anna is an outsider tiptoeing around the family’s secrets and who rarely follows their problematic etiquette. There is a price to pay for this sin, as Bodil reminds them both. In Wildland, familial roles have a performative element to them. This ritualistic component raises some necessary questions about toxic masculinity and women trapped in the mother/wife or whore dichotomy. Kampp carries this uneven movie with a beautifully restrained performance that gives Ida’s struggle room to shine. Torn between being part of the pack and wanting to become her own person, she learns there’s no escape when the familial ties wrapped around you turn into a chokehold. In such a female-fronted crime drama, however, it is a shame that the cautious bond between Ida and Anna isn’t explored further. Their brief, silly, intimate exchanges are a beacon of hope in the face of the ineluctability of fate and it would have been nice to see more of those. [Stefania Sarrubba]

Released 13 Aug by Picturehouse Entertainment; certificate 15

Daytrippers! Part 2

The latest Local Heroes project and a collaboration with V&A Dundee continues to bring contemporary design to the museum’s outdoor space during a very sunny Scottish summer

Words: Stacey Hunter

Daytrippers! is an ongoing project developed to support designers by commissioning high quality, collectable, limited editions. The first product range includes three distinctive beach towels and three bespoke wildflower seed mixes illustrated by emerging designers based in Dundee, Edinburgh, Fife, and Glasgow. This range of vibrant beach towels and wildflower seed mixes are available to buy from two carefully crafted cargo bikes situated near the V&A Dundee, with the bikes acting as mobile design displays, cruising through the museum’s plaza. Visitors to Dundee’s waterfront have wholeheartedly demonstrated their enthusiasm for the project by snapping up these specially commissioned Daytrippers! souvenirs. Fiona Moon – a designer based in Edinburgh who blends simplicity with bold colour palettes across stationery, prints and homeware at Fiuts Printed Goods – illustrated the Moonlight Garden, a selection of Scottish seaside wildflowers including night-scented flowers that attract moths and other pollinators that visit after dark. Klara Sormark’s illustration for Big Bee Seaside mix includes tall Scottish seaside wildflowers that attract bumblebees and other pollinators – something that resonated with her fond memories of gardening with her late grandmother. “I’ve really enjoyed sketching, researching and drawing the seed packaging. The selection of four seeds are all wildflowers that my late grandmother used to grow and care for in her seaside garden, in the south of Sweden. I’ve spent every summer there since the day I was born so that made me feel even more connected to this project. It’s also been really lovely working with Local Heroes and V&A Dundee and I can’t wait to see the museum in person again this summer.” Shweta Mistry employed her expertise in rare heritage art techniques and pigments to depict the flowers in the Little Butterflies mix which includes low growing Scottish seaside wildflowers loved by two of Scotland’s tiniest butterfly species, bees, and other wildlife. These bespoke seed mixes have been specially created for Daytrippers! by Scotia Seeds who grow native wildflowers at their farm in nearby Angus. So as well as supporting designers, purchases also support local wildlife. Each of the colourful beach towel designs has been a hit with the creative community – Kate Scarlet Harvey, Lauren Morsley and Katie Smith have all been tagged in photos of their towels at picnics, wild swimming locations and beaches all over Scotland. Whizzing About, Daydreamers and The Swimmers are all extra-large, soft cotton terry

Photo: Gabriela Silveira

Big Bee Seaside design by Klara Sormark

towels and each design has been produced as a limited edition of 500, making them a special souvenir from a great day out. Together with the two bikes co-designed by furniture designer Aymeric Renoud of Draff Studio and Martin Baillie, the project has benefited from the combination of a summer heatwave and the complementary presence of Heather Street Food. We know how much audiences in Scotland love to

Katie Smith, Lauren Morsley and Kate Scarlet Harvey with their towel designs

Moonlight Garden design by Fiona Moon

support contemporary design and the response to this special series has demonstrated that. To see Daytrippers! for yourself, visit V&A Dundee’s plaza Thursday to Sunday between 12pm and 5pm (weather permitting). You can find out more about the designers and purchase your own collectable souvenir online at vam.ac.uk/dundee

Photo: Peter Simpson

KING OF FEASTS @ POLWARTH TAVERN

The new residency from King of Feasts brings outlandish levels of flavour to a neighbourhood pub in Polwarth Words: Peter Simpson

Polwarth Tavern, 35 Polwarth Cres, Edinburgh, EH11 1HR

i: @king.of.feasts

kitchen open Wed-Sat, 3-9pm After 18 months of stop-start lockdowns and constant rule changes, it seems like the Edinburgh dining public have got their sea legs back. It’s ten to seven on a Thursday evening, in the middle of a punishing heatwave. Yet the Polwarth Tavern is chock-full of folk waiting for some decadent and wild Instagram-famous food from Rob Casson, aka King of Feasts. But first, a word for the Polwarth, which this writer lived about 100 yards away from for several years, yet never once stuck his head in the door. As we’re coming out of lockdown and looking for places to go, the temptation is to head for the shiny, fancy venues or the hot new places on the scene. Those are good, and you should check them out, but here’s a challenge: next time you have a free evening, or want a takeaway, or a quick pint, try somewhere within ten minutes of your house that you’ve never been before. Who knows, you might surprise yourself. For my part, I was clearly An Idiot, as the Polwarth is a great little neighbourhood pub – light and breezy space, helpful and chatty staff and extremely reasonable pints of Tennents (£3.80). And what goes better with a pint than a Scotch Egg (£5)? This is a delightful example – a jammy yolk; fatty, chunky and lightly spiced sausage; a crunchy exoskeleton that stays shatteringly crisp to the very end. There’s a really subtle mayo on top, and a side of piccalilli that will blow your head clean off. Seriously, this stuff is immense; it’s sharp, fruity, tangy, spicy, and you’ll be wishing it was in your fridge every time you go to make a sandwich from now on. Those two condiments are instructive of the general King of Feasts vibe, where really high quality cooking runs straight at you, screaming, throwing big flavours around with abandon. Imagine the lad with the flaming guitar from Mad Max, if he were playing the clarinet or bassoon, and you’re most of the way there. It’s a similar story with the Galley Boy cheeseburger (£5), which is really more of a sauce sandwich featuring a special guest appearance from ‘burger’. It’s enormously savoury and punchy, and impossible to eat with any dignity. Tartare and barbecue sauce everywhere, spice and acidity all over the shop. It’s a lot to pack into a small sandwich, both in terms of flavour and physically getting it to hold together, and it’s just on the right side of overkill. It also feels like a truly absurd amount of flavour to get for a fiver, and its mix of umami and sharpness is ideal with those extremely reasonable pints on hand. There’s more than a touch of Willy Wonka about King of Feasts. The inventive takes on classics, the slightly excessive but well-honed flavours, and the legion of loyal fans waiting for the King’s next move. There have been plenty of changes in food in recent times – in fact, the King of Feasts menu has been rewritten completely at least twice between us planning this review and writing it – but if our trip is anything to go by, this King will live on for a while yet.

Monument Maker

By David Keenan rrrrr

Girl One

By Sara Flannery Murphy rrrrr

The Roles We Play

By Sabba Khan rrrrr

The Turnout

By Megan Abbott rrrrr

Many acclaimed novels challenge the format itself, but few tear up the rulebook in the manner of David Keenan’s latest, Monument Maker. It is a book of many books. Book One begins with a romance defined by desire, lust and obsession – summer loving detailed like never before. Book Two whisks us off to Khartoum where each day brings new experiences and life-threatening situations. From there we move to Africa, to Edinburgh… and this is only the beginning.

Monument Maker is an artistic testament to writing but also to the writer himself. Stories, themes, styles, and characters are interwoven, and there are nods to other artists and their works. There are also references to, and characters from, Keenan’s previous novels, with call-backs and literary Easter eggs to delight regular readers. Despite initial impressions Monument Maker is not an exercise in world building, but one of exploration – of the past, present and future, of the internal and the external, and of art and writing itself. The prose often reads like a stream of consciousness with a dreamlike quality that can be deceptive, and Keenan’s uncommon way with grammar and punctuation are an important part of the process. Great care has clearly been taken with every single comma and clause as it takes great skill to make writing seem this effortless. David Keenan is pushing boundaries and pushing readers, but no more than he pushes himself. A towering achievement. [Alistair Braidwood]

White Rabbit Books, 5 Aug, £25 What if women didn’t need men to reproduce? That’s exactly the question Sara Flannery Murphy’s Girl One asks. Josephine Morrow is Girl One, the first of nine human babies successfully born via parthenogenesis on the commune-like Homestead. When her mother goes missing one day, she undertakes a cross-country road trip to find her, visiting the other mother-daughter pairs who scattered after the destruction of the Homestead 17 years prior and uncovering the hidden details of their murky past along the way. Combining mystery, sci-fi and social commentary, the book tries to do a lot in a short space and proves mostly successful – the questions over scientific ethics, reproductive rights, and female independence that it raises give its supernatural elements a much-needed feminist edge that make it difficult to put down. It could have benefited, however, from more space to flesh out all of its characters and plot points more fully, with the ending leaving some loose ends for the reader. Yet the novel’s main strength lies in the attention it pays to relationships and their effects on the individuals involved. As the story moves on there’s a clear shift within Josephine from defining herself by her relationships to the men in her life and past, to the women she finds herself around and the one she’s searching for – her mother. Girl One is a testament to the emotional and empowering importance of these defining female relationships. [Emily Hay]

Raven Books, 5 Aug, £14.99 There is an almost therapeutic quality to The Roles We Play, Sabba Khan’s tenderly sketched memoir of personal and collective displacement. Spanning the history of Partition to her own coming-of-age in the diverse boroughs of East London, Khan’s autobiographical graphic novel is a startlingly vulnerable exercise in introspection, an investigation into how self-identity can be cultivated amid encompassing metanarratives of diaspora and intergenerational trauma. The prose occasionally forays into didacticism but is at its strongest when lingering in questions rather than answers. Khan brings a cultural specificity that is sadly still missing from much of the British canon, honing in on the nuances of the Kashmiri immigrant experience and the legacy of liminality inherited by the second generation: the tension between collectivity and individualism, the experience of religion as both anchor and weight. Khan’s creative approach is markedly loose, abandoning the rigid bounds of traditional comic panels for hand-drawn storyboards and striking whole page illustrations that stress her constant, determined quest for self-expression. Khan’s background lies in architecture and perhaps unsurprisingly, her art achieves a depth that her writing doesn’t quite match: figures fragment across the page and surreal dreamscapes sit alongside intimate portraits of a complex family life. The beautiful production doesn’t stop at the pages either: with poignant endpapers and a curated playlist to accompany each chapter, The Roles We Play is an unequivocal labour of love. [Anahit Behrooz]

Myriad Editions, out now, £18.99 Every girl wants to be a ballerina. That’s the notion that underpins the Durant family’s dance school, now run by Dara and Marie, dancers home schooled and trained by their mother in a very claustrophobic upbringing. It’s also a notion that at one glance sets up a soft and simple idea – one of aspiration and dance, of craft, of the annual crown jewel of The Nutcracker. At another, it’s one of competition, strenuous work, anxiety and routine, of a facade hiding the reality behind a shiny veneer. The sisters, together with Charlie – Dara’s husband – run the company; all was well, until one day it wasn’t. A fire not only shakes the studio, but the foundations of their repetitive lives as contractor Derek enters and throws everything off-balance for the trio. But it’s not as cut and dry – as with the motto itself, what appears true on the surface is often hiding ugliness beneath. What begins as a question of motive and how Derek will disrupt the core trio becomes an unravelling of what secrets already lurk where they stand.

The Turnout is a dance that begins slowly and lures the reader in – Abbott’s writing is razor sharp, offering a precise dissection of complex relationships, sheltered family, sexuality and secrets. Within the beauty of these dancers’ lives is a darkness left to be peeled, layer by layer, until the dying pages. Ominous and unsettling, The Turnout drives the reader to seek answers. [Heather McDaid]

Virago, 3 Aug, £14.99

ICYMI

We catch up with Joshua Garrett, Director of long-running Edinburghbased improvised comedy group The Improverts, as he encounters Kristen Wiig’s semi-improvised Bridesmaids for the first time

Illustration: Chiara Celini

Though the Fringe director of a long-running improvised comedy group (whose previous members include the incredible Maria Bamford, Miles Jupp and Keith from The Office), I shamefully engage with very little comedy myself. I don’t watch any stand-up comedians, I rarely watch films or series that fall under the category of ‘comedy’, and I certainly do not watch any improvised comedy other than that which I see when participating in it. Whether that’s a case of me avoiding ‘too much of a good thing’, or simply not enjoying comedy unless I am part of it – I do not know. What I do know is that I often tend to avoid comedy. The classics at least. I’ve not seen Airplane, Groundhog Day or Some Like It Hot. I’ve not enjoyed the stand-up comedy of George Carlin, Victoria Wood or Richard Pryor. And I’ve never sat down to watch The Simpsons, The Office or Friends at any point in my life. The classics, those notorious pieces of comedy which have shaped our culture as we know it today, have on the whole gone unwatched and unnoticed by me. So naturally, when I was asked to engage in a piece of comedy which I had not yet seen but always meant to, I chose to watch Bridesmaids. My presumptions were that the comedy would be fast-paced, farcical and rather crude. I was not at all disappointed. It pains me to admit, but this is exactly the kind of comedy that I am drawn to – quick, easy comedy which in all honesty requires rather little intellectual engagement. I can just sit back, relax, and enjoy. It is no surprise then, that perhaps my favourite comedy films are Nacho Libre, You Don’t Mess with the Zohan or, when I was very young, Just Go With It. I do not suggest that these are cinematic masterpieces, or one-of-a-kind films (in fact they are all very similar to one another to some degree). But they do make me laugh. And Bridesmaids did the same. Even in the moments in which it did attempt to offer some type of poignance or seriousness, I could not help but fall for the vulgar respite which inevitably followed. There’s two moments which I’m sure made the film for many, or alternatively, convinced them to switch off the TV and participate in a more respectable activity. First, the scene in which the bridesmaids attend a dress fitting at a hoity-toity bridal shop, only to have their venture explosively interrupted by the Brazilian food which they so willingly enjoyed for lunch; “It’s coming out of me like lava” is not something I want to have to quote in context. The second is Annie’s airplane freak-out. The interaction between air-scared Annie (the wonderful Kristen Wiig) and her just-as-nervous counterpart (played by the film’s co-writer Annie Mumolo), as well as the interaction between Megan (Melissa McCarthy) and air marshal Jon (Ben Falcone, McCarthy’s reallife partner) were beautifully sculpted, and utterly hilarious. Wiig’s improv talent (showcased with LA troupe The Groundlings and the 135 episodes of SNL to her name) proves that anything can be made funnier by improvising, and that’s definitely the case with Bridesmaids. As an improviser too, I often find myself analysing comedy, even everyday life, as if it were an improv scene. How would it fair on stage? What aspects of that interaction can be heightened? Made more humorous? It’s a good thing too – knowing that my brain is still astutely wired when we, the Improverts, have a 22-day Edinburgh Fringe run coming up is quite encouraging. In fact, if you wish to pop along and watch myself and many far far more talented, engaging and just downright hilarious individuals on stage during the month of August, then you are more than welcome. I can’t promise there won’t have been any Brazillian food near our mouths though.

Listings

Looking for something to do? Well you’re in the right place! Here's a rundown of what's happening in music and art across Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee this month.

To find out how to submit listings, head to theskinny.co.uk/listings

Glasgow Music

Thu 05 Aug

GOD DAMN

BROADCAST, 19:00–22:00, £9.20 Compared to the likes of Nirvana and Pixies, God Damn are a fresh take on alternative rock, putting on a show that is equal parts exhilarating and cathartic.

Mon 09 Aug

BROOKE COMBE (LAMAYA + BERTA KENNEDY + JULIA)

KING TUT’S, 20:00–22:00, £8.80 With influences ranging from 90s R'n'B and Amy Winehouse to Motown and Fleetwood Mac, Brooke Combe’s sensitive lyrics and powerful voice are a mesmerising addition to Scotland’s music scene.

Tue 10 Aug

CLOUD HOUSE (THE RAIN EXPERIMENT + AMUR + BIRTHDAY CAKE)

KING TUT’S, 20:30–23:00, £8.80 Alternative indie rock band Cloud House spotlight songs from their new EP Day’s Changed. BIKINI BODY (HOUND + BUG + COUNT FLORIDA)

THE HUG AND PINT, 19:00–22:00, £7 Edinburgh-based postpunk group Bikini Body’s acerbic take on classism, the patriarchy, and our modern day crisis is the perfect show for our 2021 mood.

Wed 11 Aug

ANOTHER SKY (AILSA TULLY)

KING TUT’S, 20:30–23:30, £9.90 Frontlined by lead singer Catrin Vincent, known for their uniquely haunting, androgynous voice, Another Sky are fast becoming one of the UK music scene’s most hotly watched bands. IVYNITES

THE HUG AND PINT, 19:00–22:00, £7 Glasgow-based promoter Ivynites takes over The Hug and Pint for one night only, platforming rising star bands Nu Cros, Sexual Mortgage and Moskow Mule.

Thu 12 Aug

BILLY GOT WAVES (ROSS CARTER + WASHINGTON & GILLIESON + SAM BRODIE)

KING TUT’S, 20:30–23:30, £8.80 Scottish hip-hop artist Billy Got Waves’ blistering songwriting and performance speaks to issues of identity, youth culture, and the personal and political. DOCUMENT

BROADCAST, 19:00–22:00, £9.20 Manchester post-punk band Document celebrate the release of their debut EP last year with a live show.

MARANTA (SUPER INUIT)

THE HUG AND PINT, 19:00–22:00, £7 Featuring Callum Govan and Gloria Black on live synths and vocals, electronic duo Maranta combine atmospheric electronica with upbeat synth-pop to create eclectic danceable vibrations.

Fri 13 Aug

NOVA (PSWEATPANTS + JAYDA & HOUSEPLANTS + HANNYMOON)

KING TUT’S, 20:30–23:30, £8.80 An unmissable live show from 2020’s SAY Award winner NOVA, whose razor sharp rap has made her one of Scotland’s fastest rising stars. KENDAMA (AINAKO + TWIST HELIX)

THE HUG AND PINT, 19:00–22:00, £7 Ayrshire duo Kendama offer a vibrant synth-pop sound filled with the nostalgia of youth and summer with support from Ainako and Twist Helix.

Sat 14 Aug

TAAHLIAH (BOBBIE + KAVARI + SPIT)

KING TUT’S, 20:30–23:30, £8.80 Having made waves in the underground queer music scene in Berlin and Glasgow as a DJ, acclaimed artist TAAHLIAH is now at the centre of a new generation of electronic producers revitalising dance and pop music.

Sun 15 Aug

VANIVES (BECKY SIKASA + MORNING MIDNIGHT + SACUL)

KING TUT’S, 20:30–23:30, £8.80 Childhood friends Stuart Ramage and Roan Ballantine make up Vanives, whose ethereal, intimate sound offers a radical play with genre.

Mon 16 Aug

SCARLETT RANDLE (LVRA + TALKER + NANI)

KING TUT’S, 20:30–23:30, £8.80 Scarlett Randle’s dreamy pop sounds experiment with genre and songwriting, crafting a sweet, spiky set that is perfect for summer nights. FUZZY LOP (PEPLO + YELLOW HELLEN)

THE HUG AND PINT, 19:00–22:00, £7 Glasgow-based band Fuzzy Lop’s eclectic soundscapes draw from a range of influences, from classic British indie to post-punk and gentle folk for an always surprising, never boring show.

Tue 17 Aug

CIRCA WAVES (RED RUM CLUB)

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, 19:00–22:30, TBC Liverpudlian indie rock group Circa Waves make their way up to Glasgow-tickets are currently sold out but keep an eye out for returns.

CHECK MASSES (NOISE + DUSK AMADEUS + BIGHT)

KING TUT’S, 20:30–23:30, £8.80 This Leith-based trio effortlessly blend psych, soul, hip-hop and dub for an energetic-filled night.

Wed 18 Aug

LAVENDER LANE (DEV GREEN + INDOOR FOXES + RILEY)

KING TUT’S, 20:30–23:30, £8.80 This three-piece Scottish pop band take the stage at King Tut’s for the first time. CAOILFHIONN ROSE (RAE LENA + DJANA GABRIELLE + KIRSTEEN HARVEY)

THE HUG AND PINT, 19:00–22:00, £7 Emerging from a diverse music scene, Caoilfhionn Rose ties together Manchester’s musical past with its evolving present, effortlessly interweaving jazz, folk, and electronica for a vibrant musical tapestry.

Thu 19 Aug

SPYRES (MOONRUNNERS + PIZZA CRUNCH + BRONTES)

KING TUT’S, 20:30–23:30, £8.80 Spyres’ first two singles were quickly picked up by Radio One, placing them immediately on the one-towatch map. Blending addictive pop with relentless melodies, this is music at its most intoxicating. JESHUA

THE HUG AND PINT, 19:00–22:00, £7 Glasgow-based Jeshua comes together with Japan Review, Swiss Portrait and Infinite Cloud Turtle for an eclectic summer session.

Fri 20 Aug

ROY AYERS

ORAN MOR, 19:00–22:00, £27.50 One of the most foundational musicians of the 70s and 80s takes to Òran Mór’s stage to celebrate the 45th anniversary of seminal hip-hop album Mystic Voyage, considered an influence on the likes of Pharrell Williams and Erykah Badu. THE ROLY MO (SLIX + SCHOOL OF PARIS + BOOK KLUB)

KING TUT’S, 20:30–23:30, £8.80 Indie rock that is played fast and loud, The Roly Mo’s gigs are wonderfully cathartic, buoyed by complex lyrics and mesmerising stage presence. JANE BLANCHARD (FLINCH. + MOONSOUP + AORTAROTA)

THE HUG AND PINT, 19:00–22:00, £7 Edinburghian by way of New Brunswick, Jane Blanchard makes music full of unabashed feeling, grappling with the visceral and the difficult in every song.

Sat 21 Aug

SWIM SCHOOL (BONNIE KEMPLAY + HAPPY TEARS + SAINT CLEMENTS)

KING TUT’S, 20:30–23:30, £8.80 Fresh from Latitude Festival, Edinburgh-based band Swim School bring their authentic indie sound to King Tut’s. LIQUORICE

THE HUG AND PINT, 19:00–22:00, £7 Headlined by Liquorice and supported by Lo Rays, Brat Coven and Bight, this is local music at its best. Part of The Hug and Pint’s Endless Summer.

Sun 22 Aug

FAUNA (ST DUKES + JUPITER STRANGE + GNASHERS)

KING TUT’S, 20:30–23:30, £8.80 Four-piece ambient rock band Fauna are joined by support acts St Dukes, Jupiter Strange and Gnashers. JOSH O’KEEFE

THE HUG AND PINT, 19:30–22:30, £8.50 Josh O’Keefe’s tongue-incheek salutes to classic folk sit alongside unexpectedly poignant, complex songwriting that makes this Nashville-based Derby singer one to watch.

Mon 23 Aug

SEAMUS FOGARTY

THE HUG AND PINT, 19:30–22:30, £8 Irish singer-songwriter known for his propensity for disrupting his own meticulously crafted songs with synth and found sounds.

Tue 24 Aug

KAPIL SESHASAYEE (YANA + KARDO + NATHAN SOMEVI)

KING TUT’S, 20:30–23:30, £8.80 Bringing together Indian classical music, R'n'B and art rock, Kapil Seshasayee’s music is as groundbreaking as it gets. NEGATIVE HOPE (SULKA + TEOSE + DUTCH WINE + KILGOUR)

THE HUG AND PINT, 19:00–22:00, £7 Independent record label and collective Negative Hope bring together four of their best artists: Sulka, Teose, Dutch Wine and Kilgour.

Wed 25 Aug

THE DUNTS

ORAN MOR, 19:00–22:00, £12 Storming the Glaswegian scene and beyond, The Dunts are quickly becoming one of Scotland’s hottest exports. Forming in late 2016, the young quartet are demanding attention with their unique ‘council punk’branded sound.

TIDE LINES

KING TUT’S, 20:30–23:30, £8.80 Scottish Highlands folk rock band Tide Lines guarantee a whirling, irresistibly energetic show

Thu 26 Aug

TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, 19:00–22:00, £40.15£47.75 Widely acknowledged as one of the best indie rock performers out there, a Two Door Cinema Club show is all but guaranteed to be an intoxicating time. If you’ve been missing the energy of live gigs, this is the one for you. HYYTS (ALEX AMOR + RORY JAMES)

KING TUT’S, 20:30–23:30, £11 Weaving through soft synth soundscapes and highenergy pop beats, HYYTS are one of Glasgow’s most iconic up-and-coming bands. I DON’T KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME

SWG3, 19:00–22:00, £15 Salt Lake duo renowned for their glam retro riffs and unabashed emphasis on fun live performance stop off in Glasgow in between slots at Leeds and Reading. INTERNATIONAL TEACHERS OF POP

BROADCAST, 19:00–22:00, £14.20 Labelled “ones to watch” in the Guardian in 2019, this Sheffield trio have one foot in the past and the other firmly in the present, with a nostalgic synthpop sound belied by sharp, witty lyrics. HEIR OF THE CURSED (BEFORE BREAKFAST + AMIE HUCKSTEP)

THE HUG AND PINT, 19:00–22:00, £7 Acclaimed Glasgow-based musician Heir of the Cursed is appropriately named, crafting music that is equal parts haunted and fierce.

Fri 27 Aug

MEDICINE CABINET (HUMOUR + ISABELLA STRANGE + STOCK MANAGER)

KING TUT’S, 20:30–23:30, £8.80 New Wave, New Romanticism at its best, Medicine Cabinet’s music inhabits an intoxicating world filled with madcap characters and dreamy stories. THE FAMILY RAIN (THE TROPICANAS)

THE HUG AND PINT, 19:30–22:30, £10 After briefly disbanding five years ago, British blues band The Family Rain are back together and on tour this summer.

Sat 28 Aug

DEAD PONY (MEMES + UNINVITED + SHE)

KING TUT’S, 20:30–23:30, £8.80 Youthful post-punk band Dead Pony released their first single in the midst of the pandemic, a high-octane song perfect for live performance.

LEIF COFFIELD (KATHERINE ALY + DAHLIA + V.C.O)

THE HUG AND PINT, 19:00–22:00, £7 Glasgow-based electro-pop artist Leif Coffield has a distinctively subversive sound, blending discordant touches with darkly immersive melodies.

Sun 29 Aug

KITTI (LAZY MONEY + MILHOUSE COLLECTIVE + WHO’S OLIVIA?)

KING TUT’S, 20:30–23:30, £8.80 Compared to the likes of Jorja Smith and Alicia Keys, Glaswegian singersongwriter’s unique soaring vocals make her one to watch-both literally and figuratively. CHIZU NNAMDI (DAISY MILES + MANIATRIX)

THE HUG AND PINT, 19:00–22:00, £7 Igbo Nigerian-Scottish audiovisual artist Chizu Nnamdi produces work right at the cutting edge of music composition and moving image.

Mon 30 Aug

WATERPUNKS

KING TUT’S, 20:00–23:00, £8.80 Influenced by bands like blink-182, Fall Out Boy, and Saves the Day, this next-gen pop-punk Texan group are the perfect blend of cutting edge and nostalgic.

ELEANOR KANE (QUIET HOUSES + HECTOR SHAW)

THE HUG AND PINT, 19:00–22:00, £7 Fresh off a stint at the Old Vic’s Fun Home, Glasgow singer-songwriter Eleanor Kane is returning to her roots with an intimate show.

Tue 31 Aug

BLOSSOMS

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, 19:00–22:00, £36.50 Beloved indie band Blossoms bring their chart-topping recent album Foolish Loving Spaces to the stage for an unmissable live performance. CARA ROSE (HANNAH SLAVIN + BRODIE BARCLAY + LEWIS ROSS)

KING TUT’S, 20:30–23:30, £8.80 Soulful melodies and incisive lyrics come together to create a compelling musical portrait of being young in the world today. 432 PRESENTS: CRACK CLOUD

MONO, 20:00–23:00, £11 Vancouver-based multimedia collective Crack Cloud are known for their uniquely radical, subversive approach to music, blending the personal and the political with each new album.

DECLAN MCKENNA

SWG3,19:00–22:00,TBC Only 22 years old, pop prodigy Declan McKenna has been radically altering the face of British music for several years thanks to an ambitious play with genre and subversive, politically astute writing. BASIA BULAT

BROADCAST, 19:00–22:00, £12.10 Basia Bulat’s sweeping harmonies draw from influences as wide as contemporary folk and R&B songwriting. Glasgow is the first stop on the Canadian singer-songwriter’s long awaited European tour. PASSENGER

BARROWLANDS, 19:00–23:00, £29 Indie singer-songwriter darling Mike Rosenberg, aka Passenger, brings his gentle, soulful lyrics and sound to the stage in celebration of his latest melancholy album Songs For The Drunk And Broken Hearted. SARA ‘N’ JUNBUG (PSYCHADELICACY + DEAR CINDER)

THE HUG AND PINT, 19:00–22:00, £7 Lying at the intersection of folk and pop, Glasgow four piece Sara ‘N’ Junbug’s compelling sound is as fun as it is piercing.

Edinburgh Music

Fri 06 Aug

THE SORRIES

PLEASANCE @ EICC, 16:30–17:30, £11£12.50 A warm, energetic take on traditional Scottish music from The Sorries, whose last show saw a sold-out run. INTERSTELLAR DUO

PLEASANCE @ EICC, 18:30–19:30, £7 Drawing on music for film, tv and audiobooks, sisters Charlotte and Heather Sterland create a sound which is totally original. NEHH PRESENTS... BOGHA-FROIS: QUEER VOICES IN FOLK

SUMMERHALL, 19:00–22:00, £14 An evening of music by queer folk collective exploring the LGBTQ+ experience through folk and trad music.

Sat 07 Aug

THE SORRIES

PLEASANCE @ EICC, 16:30–17:30, £11£12.50 A warm, energetic take on traditional Scottish music from The Sorries, whose last show saw a sold-out run. INTERSTELLAR DUO

PLEASANCE @ EICC, 18:30–18:30, £13-£15 Drawing on music for film, tv and audiobooks, sisters Charlotte and Heather Sterland create a sound which is totally original.

NEHH PRESENTS... MEURSAULT

SUMMERHALL, 19:00–21:00, £16.50 Eclectic layering and haunting vocalisations make Meursault one of the most dynamic live bands out there. DUNCAN CHISHOLM

OLD COLLEGE QUAD, 20:00–22:00, £26 Fiddle player Duncan Chisholm brings the sound of the Highlands to Edinburgh, accompanied by a selection of Scottish artists.

Sun 08 Aug

THE SORRIES

PLEASANCE @ EICC, 16:30–17:30, £11£12.50 A warm, energetic take on traditional Scottish music from The Sorries, whose last show saw a sold-out run. INTERSTELLAR DUO

PLEASANCE @ EICC, 18:30–19:30, £13-£15 Drawing on music for film, tv and audiobooks, sisters Charlotte and Heather Sterland create a sound which is totally original. KATHRYN JOSEPH

EDINBURGH PARK, 20:30–22:30, £21-£26 Ethereal folk melodies abound in this unmissable performance.

Mon 09 Aug

INTERSTELLAR DUO

PLEASANCE @ EICC, 18:30–19:30, £11-£13 Drawing on music for film, tv and audiobooks, sisters Charlotte and Heather Sterland create a sound which is totally original. RURA

OLD COLLEGE QUAD, 20:00–22:00, £26 Instrumental group known for their raw yet polished sound. TIDE LINES

EDINBURGH PARK, 20:30–22:30, £21-£26 Scottish Highlands folk rock band Tide Lines guarantee a whirling, irresistibly energetic show

Tue 10 Aug

INTERSTELLAR DUO

PLEASANCE @ EICC, 18:30–19:30, £11-£13 Drawing on music for film, tv and audiobooks, sisters Charlotte and Heather Sterland create a sound which is totally original. TALISK

OLD COLLEGE QUAD, 20:00–22:00, £26 Contemporary ceilidhinspired music played at an almost impossibly fast, intoxicating pace.

EDINBURGH PARK, 20:30–22:30, £21-£26 Known for their haunting, heart wrenching harmonies, sisters The Staves return to Scotland’s stage with their most recent album.

Wed 11 Aug

THE SORRIES

PLEASANCE @ EICC, 16:30–17:30, £11£12.50 A warm, energetic take on traditional Scottish music from The Sorries, whose last show saw a sold-out run. PASHYANTI ON GUITAR

SUMMERHALL, 20:00–21:00, £14 Blending Punjabi folk songs, acoustic guitar, and flamenco-inspired music, Payshanti’s music is a joyful celebration of culture. DÀIMH

OLD COLLEGE QUAD, 20:00–22:00, £26 Gaelic supergroup put a contemporary spin on traditional Celtic bagpipes and Gaelic singing. THE SNUTS

EDINBURGH PARK, 20:30–22:30, £21-£26 Indie up-and-comers bring their much adored debut album to the live stage.

Thu 12 Aug

THE SORRIES

PLEASANCE @ EICC, 16:30–17:30, £11£12.50 A warm, energetic take on traditional Scottish music from The Sorries, whose last show saw a sold-out run. KINNARIS QUINTET

OLD COLLEGE QUAD, 20:00–22:00, £26 Celtic folk meets bluegrass and classical influences in this unique performance.

Fri 13 Aug

THE SORRIES

PLEASANCE @ EICC, 16:30–17:30, £11£12.50 A warm, energetic take on traditional Scottish music from The Sorries, whose last show saw a sold-out run. NEHH PRESENTS... SACRED PAWS

SUMMERHALL, 19:00–21:00, £16.50 Known for their tonguein-cheek music and jovial stage presence, Sacred Paws are the perfect palette cleanser after a year bereft of gigs. RICHARD DAWSON

EDINBURGH PARK, 20:30–22:30, £21-£26 Folk musician brings his signature brand of dark humour and storytelling.

Sat 14 Aug

DOUGIE MACLEAN IN CONCERT

THE BRUNTON, 19:30–22:30, £21-£23 Folk-inspired music by eminent Scottish singer-songwriter Doudie MacLean. THE SORRIES

PLEASANCE @ EICC, 16:30–17:30, £11£12.50 A warm, energetic take on traditional Scottish music from The Sorries, whose last show saw a sold-out run. NEHH PRESENTS... STANLEY ODD

SUMMERHALL, 19:00–21:00, £16.50 Creating music that is acutely contemporary, Stanley Odd fuses rap and instrumentalisation for a snapshot of Scotland’s counter-cultures today. FLOATING POINTS

EDINBURGH PARK, 20:30–22:30, £21-£26 Composer and electronic musician Floating Points creates immersive, largerthan-life live performances.

PLEASANCE @ EICC, 16:30–17:30, £11£12.50 A warm, energetic take on traditional Scottish music from The Sorries, whose last show saw a sold-out run. NEHH PRESENTS... KAPIL SESHASAYEE

SUMMERHALL, 19:00–21:00, £14 Blurring electronica with classical Indian music, Kapil Seshasayee’s genre-bending music is an exhilarating journey. PASHYANTI ON GUITAR

SUMMERHALL, 15:00–16:00, £14 Blending Punjabi folk songs, acoustic guitar, and flamenco-inspired music, Payshanti’s music is a joyful celebration of culture. ERLAND COOPER

EDINBURGH PARK, 20:30–22:30, £21-£26 Acclaimed Orkney musician draws from the Nordic roots of his homeland to create atmospheric soundscapes.

Mon 16 Aug

BREABACH

OLD COLLEGE QUAD, 20:00–22:00, £26 Breabach’s five multiinstrumentalist members combine tradition and innovation in their imaginative and highly skilled performances. CHINEKE! CHAMBER ENSEMBLE

OLD COLLEGE QUAD, 12:00–13:00; 14:30–15:30 £32 A classical ensemble platforming Black and ethnically diverse musicians, this concert sees the ensemble take on rarely heard pieces by Coleridge-Taylor and Vaughan Williams. SHONA THE MUSICAL CHOIR

EDINBURGH PARK, 20:30–22:30, £13-£18 Scottish-African choir present songs from Shona the Musical, a cross-cultural love story inspired by the socio-political turmoil of Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe’s rule.

Tue 17 Aug

NEHH PRESENTS... HAMISH HAWK

SUMMERHALL, 19:00–21:00, £14 Frontman of The New Outfit known for his heartfelt, gritty songwriting. BALLAKÉ SISSOKO + VINCENT SÉGAL

OLD COLLEGE QUAD, 20:00–22:00, £26 Kora player Ballaké Sissoko and cellist Vincent Ségal draw from West African troubadour songs and Baroque music for a truly unique sound. MOSES BOYD

EDINBURGH PARK, 20:30–22:30, £21-£26 Multi-award-winning jazz artist brings his genrecrossing fusion of jazz improvisation and dancefloor beats to Edinburgh.

Wed 18 Aug

THE SORRIES

PLEASANCE @ EICC, 16:30–17:30, £11£12.50 A warm, energetic take on traditional Scottish music from The Sorries, whose last show saw a sold-out run. NEHH PRESENTS... CARLA J EASTON

SUMMERHALL, 19:00–21:00, £14 SAY Award-shortlisted artist with an indie punk sensibility plays music from her four critically acclaimed albums.

OLD COLLEGE QUAD, 12:00–13:00; 14:3015:30 £32 Iconic Soviet pianist Elisabeth Leonskaja takes on beloved classical favourites. FARA

OLD COLLEGE QUAD, 20:00–22:00, £26 Four-piece Orkney folk group combine traditional Scottish tunes with original compositions. NADINE SHAH

EDINBURGH PARK, 20:30–22:30, £21-£26 Indie vibes with a hint of punk, Nadine Shah’s music is politically and emotionally charged.

Thu 19 Aug

DREVER, MCCUSKER, WOOMBLE

THE BRUNTON, 19:30–22:30, £18-£20 10th anniversary celebration of Before the Ruin, the collaborative album between John McCusker, Kris Drever and Idlewild frontman Roddy Woomble. THE SORRIES

PLEASANCE @ EICC, 16:30–17:30, £11£12.50 A warm, energetic take on traditional Scottish music from The Sorries, whose last show saw a sold-out run. EHFM AND NEHH PRESENT... EHFM’S 3RD BIRTHDAY

SUMMERHALL, 19:00–22:00, £12 Edinburgh community radio station EHFM put on a special live show featuring beloved local act Other Lands to commemorate three years on the airwaves. JENNA REID + HARRIS PLAYFAIR WITH MR MCFALL’S CHAMBER

OLD COLLEGE QUAD, 20:00–22:00, £26 Shetland fiddler and pianist put an entirely new spin on chamber music. BLACK MIDI

EDINBURGH PARK, 20:30–22:30, £21-£26 Post-punk, jazz and prog rock come together in a blistering performance from Mercury nominees black midi.

Fri 20 Aug

THE SORRIES

PLEASANCE @ EICC, 16:30–17:30, £11£12.50 A warm, energetic take on traditional Scottish music from The Sorries, whose last show saw a sold-out run. NEHH PRESENTS... JAMES YORKSTON

SUMMERHALL, 17:00–19:00; 20:00-22:00 £18.50 Beautiful lyrics and delicate melodies abound from Fifebased singer-songwriter James Yorkston. PASHYANTI ON GUITAR

SUMMERHALL, 15:00–16:00, £14 Blending Punjabi folk songs, acoustic guitar, and flamenco-inspired music, Payshanti’s music is a joyful celebration of culture. LONELY HOUSE

OLD COLLEGE QUAD, 21:30–22:30, £26 Barrie Kosky and Katharine Mehrling sing the biting social satires and sweeping musical scores of Kurt Weill. ANNA MEREDITH

EDINBURGH PARK, 20:00–22:00, £21-£26 International Festival favourite Anna Meredith returns to Edinburgh to perform her second album accompanied by her live band.

PLEASANCE @ EICC, 16:30–17:30, £11£12.50 A warm, energetic take on traditional Scottish music from The Sorries, whose last show saw a sold-out run. LONELY HOUSE

OLD COLLEGE QUAD, 21:30–22:30, £26 Barrie Kosky and Katharine Mehrling sing the biting social satires and sweeping musical scores of Kurt Weill.

Sun 22 Aug

CHRISSIE HYNDE

THE QUEEN’S HALL, 19:30–22:30, £34.50 Two icons meet in this stripped back show, as The Pretenders legend Chrissie Hynde takes on Bob Dylan through a series of haunting covers created in the depths of lockdown and featured on her most recent album. THE SORRIES

PLEASANCE @ EICC, 16:30–17:30, £11£12.50 A warm, energetic take on traditional Scottish music from The Sorries, whose last show saw a sold-out run. PASHYANTI ON GUITAR

SUMMERHALL, 15:00–16:00, £14 Blending Punjabi folk songs, acoustic guitar, and flamenco-inspired music, Payshanti’s music is a joyful celebration of culture. KARINE POLWART + DAVE MILLIGAN

OLD COLLEGE QUAD, 15:00–17:00, £26 Iconic singer song-writer is Karine Polwart is joined for a special one-off performance by jazz pianist David Milligan. SIOBHAN MILLER

OLD COLLEGE QUAD, 20:00–22:00, £26 Traditional, contemporary, and original songs performed in a uniquely soulful, folk style. THE UNTHANKS

EDINBURGH PARK, 20:30–22:30, £21-£26 Eclectic folk collective know for their stirring harmonies and genre-bending style.

Mon 23 Aug

CHRISSIE HYNDE

THE QUEEN’S HALL, 19:30–22:30, £34.50 Two icons meet in this stripped back show, as The Pretenders legend Chrissie Hynde takes on Bob Dylan through a series of haunting covers created in the depths of lockdown and featured on her most recent album. BLACK COUNTRY, NEW ROAD

EDINBURGH PARK, 20:30–22:00, £21-£26 One of Britain’s rising new bands put on a fiercely energetic show.

Tue 24 Aug

CHRISSIE HYNDE

THE QUEEN’S HALL, 19:30–22:30, £34.50 Two icons meet in this stripped back show, as The Pretenders legend Chrissie Hynde takes on Bob Dylan through a series of haunting covers created in the depths of lockdown and featured on her most recent album. DAMON ALBARN

EDINBURGH PARK, 17:00–18:30; 20:30–22:00 £21-£26 A new solo show from Blur and Gorillaz frontman Damon Albarn.

THE QUEEN’S HALL, 19:30–22:30, £34.50 Two icons meet in this stripped back show, as The Pretenders legend Chrissie Hynde takes on Bob Dylan through a series of haunting covers created in the depths of lockdown and featured on her most recent album. MAXÏMO PARK

THE LIQUID ROOM, 19:00–22:00, £16 Mercury Prize-nominated indie rock band Maxïmo Park head to The Liquid Room for a belated intimate launch for their acclaimed new album Nature Always Wins. THE SORRIES

PLEASANCE @ EICC, 16:30–17:30, £11£12.50 A warm, energetic take on traditional Scottish music from The Sorries, whose last show saw a sold-out run. PASHYANTI ON GUITAR

SUMMERHALL, 20:00–21:00, £14 Blending Punjabi folk songs, acoustic guitar, and flamenco-inspired music, Payshanti’s music is a joyful celebration of culture. THE COMET IS COMING

EDINBURGH PARK, 20:30–22:30, £21-£26 London-based jazz group incorporating rock and psychedelica for a euphoric show. SHOOGLENIFTY

MULTISTORY, 21:00–22:00, £17.50 One of Scotland’s best loved bands, Shooglenifty have been on the folk scene for over 30 years.

Thu 26 Aug

THE SORRIES

PLEASANCE @ EICC, 16:30–17:30, £11£12.50 A warm, energetic take on traditional Scottish music from The Sorries, whose last show saw a sold-out run. NEHH PRESENTS... SIOBHAN WILSON

SUMMERHALL, 19:00–21:00, £15 Siobhan Wilson’s ethereal, dreamy voice belies sharp, deeply perceptive songwriting that is as haunting as it is beautiful. KOKOROKO

EDINBURGH PARK, 20:30–22:30, £21-£26 Jazz improvisations and Afrobeats come together to create the perfect mellow summer sound. SHOOGLENIFTY

MULTISTORY, 21:00–22:00, £17.50 One of Scotland’s best loved bands, Shooglenifty have been on the folk scene for over 30 years.

Fri 27 Aug

THE SORRIES

PLEASANCE @ EICC, 16:30–17:30, £11£12.50 A warm, energetic take on traditional Scottish music from The Sorries, whose last show saw a sold-out run. NEHH PRESENTS... WITHERED HAND

SUMMERHALL, 19:00–21:00, £16.50 Songwriting from Edinburgh-based acclaimed musician Dan Wilson. FATMA SAID + MALCOLM MARTINEAU

OLD COLLEGE QUAD, 12:00–13:00; 14:3015:30 £32 Egyptian soprano Fatma Said and Egyptian-born pianist Malcolm Martineau present their own takes on Mozart and Lorca.

EDINBURGH PARK, 20:30–22:30, £21-£26 Malian actress, musician and activist Fatoumata Diawara blends ancient and modern African styles on her latest album FENFO.

Sat 28 Aug

THE SORRIES

PLEASANCE @ EICC, 16:30–17:30, £11£12.50 A warm, energetic take on traditional Scottish music from The Sorries, whose last show saw a sold-out run. NEHH PRESENTS... ANDREW WASYLYK

SUMMERHALL, 19:00–22:00, £15 Scottish composer and producer brings his experimental electronic sound to Summerhall’s Secret Courtyard. CARIBOU

EDINBURGH PARK, 20:30–22:00, £21-£26 Dreamy, trance-like pop tunes from Canadian musician Caribou.

Sun 29 Aug

THE SORRIES

PLEASANCE @ EICC, 16:30–17:30, £11£12.50 A warm, energetic take on traditional Scottish music from The Sorries, whose last show saw a sold-out run. PASHYANTI ON GUITAR

SUMMERHALL, 15:00–16:00, £14 Blending Punjabi folk songs, acoustic guitar, and flamenco-inspired music, Payshanti’s music is a joyful celebration of culture. LAURA MVULA

EDINBURGH PARK, 20:30–22:30, £21-£26 Jazz icon Laura Mvula celebrates the release of her new album with this soulful show.

Mon 30 Aug

PASSENGER

USHER HALL, 19:00–22:00, £28.60 Indie singer-songwriter darling Mike Rosenberg, AKA Passenger, brings his gentle, soulful lyrics and sound to the stage in celebration of his latest melancholy album Songs For The Drunk And Broken Hearted.

Art

Glasgow Art

CCA: Centre for Contemporary Art

GWENAN DAVIES: TÔN GRON

1-14 AUG, TIMES VARY, FREE An exhibition of new paintings by Glasgow-based artist Gwenan Davies that explores ideas of “in-between” time and the ways in which we perform and record leisure and unscheduled time. WINNIE HERBSTEIN: DAMPBUSTERS

6 AUG-4 SEP, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE The third in a triptych of films that explore the past, present and future of community organising in Glasgow, Dampbusters centres on the work of housing activist Cathy McCormack and the ways in which urban space can be claimed and reclaimed.

David Dale Gallery and Studios

DAN WALWIN: LIKE CLOCK

12:00PM – 5:00PM, TBC Amsterdam artist David Walwin explores embodiment, subjectivity and the relationship between the internal and external in this arresting new show.

GoMA

NEP SIDHU: AN IMMEASURABLE MELODY, MEDICINE FOR A NIGHTMARE

1 AUG-5 SEP, 11:00AM –4:00PM, FREE Canadian artist Nep Sidhu’s work is embedded in Sikh metaphysics and histories, exploring relationships between memory, memorial and the divine in his very first European show. DRINK IN THE BEAUTY

1 AUG-23 JAN 22, 11:00AM – 4:00PM,FREE Inspired by Rachel Carson’s groundbreaking environmental treatise Silent Spring, this exhibition features artists engaging with our connection to the nonhuman, and thinking through the ethics and aesthetics of how we record nature.

Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum

FRANCE-LISE MCGURN: ALOUD

1 AUG-1 JUN 22, 11:00AM–4:00PM, FREE France-Lise McGurn’s newly commissioned installation draws on her personal experiences of Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, creating bewitching, almost sculptural forms that fill the museum’s gallery.

RGI Kelly Gallery

JUNE CAREY: THE ROB ROY DRAWINGS

3-14 AUG, TIMES VARY, TBC An exhibition of original pastel drawings by artist June Carey to accompany the new Folio Society edition of Sir Walter Scott’s classic Rob Roy.

South Block

NICK DOMMINNEY: FUTURES ONE

NO UPCOMING DATES, 9:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE The inaugural solo show by Glasgow-based architect Nick Domminney, this exhibition is a study in the ever-shifting nature of the horizon and our creative impulse to capture it.

Street Level Photoworks

MANDY BARKER: OUR PLASTIC OCEAN

7 AUG-10 OCT, TIMES VARY, FREE A photography series that traces the legacy of plastic pollution in our oceans, Mandy Barker's images of found debris are eerily alive and suffocating.

Studio Pavilion at House for an Art Lover

IRENE MCCANN: EARLY MORNING SONG

1 AUG-31 OCT, 11:00AM –4:00PM, FREE An exhibition of Glasgowbased artist Irene McCann’s dreamy, collage-like still lifes.

1-16 AUG, TIMES VARY, TBC James Lumsden’s work is primarily concerned with the material process of creation, building translucent glazes of paint to evoke a mesmerising illusion of light and depth.

Tramway

PAUL PURGAS: WE FOUND OUR OWN REALITY

21 AUG-3 OCT, TIMES VARY, FREE An expansive mixedmedia installation spanning architecture, textiles, and soundscapes, We Found Our Own Reality explores the rich musical and technological history of India’s very first electronic music studio. FLO BROOKS: ANGLETWICH

7 AUG-3 OCT, TIMES VARY, FREE A narrative of queer and trans experience in the UK, this semi-autobiographical exhibition draws on the isolation and familiarity of rural environments to explore how marginalised communities can imagine themselves in public spaces.

Edinburgh Art

&Gallery

ELFYN LEWIS: MÔR A MYNYDD

3-4 AUG, TIMES VARY, TBC Translating to Sea and Mountains, Môr a Mynydd is an evocation of Elfyn Lewis’ native Welsh landscape. Made up of explosive layers and jagged shapes, her paintings bring a rare physicality to the traditional genre. JAMES LUMSDEN: SLOW LIGHT

7 AUG-1 SEP, TIMES VARY, FREE James Lumsden’s paintings are dense with colour, interrogating representations of landscape and the natural world through a play with abstraction and light.

Arusha Gallery

BATHING NERVOUS LIMBS

UNTIL 29 AUG, TIMES VARY, FREE This group show draws from the Balneum Book, a 15th-century Western manuscript illustrated with the folkloric healing legends of freshwater bodies. Presented as part of Edinburgh Art Festival 2021.

City Art Centre

CHARLES H. MACKIE: COLOUR AND LIGHT

UNTIL 10 OCT, TIMES VARY, FREE This major retrospective of Scottish painter and printmaker Charles H. Mackie explores his dynamic experimentation with French Symbolism, Japanese art, and the Celtic Revival movement. Presented as part of Edinburgh Art Festival 2021.

UNTIL 26 SEP, TIMES VARY, FREE Drawing on international artistic movements while remaining dedicated to Lewis’ local fishing communities, these intense, lyrical images celebrate the indomitable human spirit of Scottish island life. Presented as part of Edinburgh Art Festival 2021. IAN HAMILTON FINLAY: MARINE

UNTIL 3 OCT, TIMES VARY, FREE Exploring maritime themes in renowned Scottish artist Ian Hamilton Finlay’s oeuvre, this exhibition pulls work across decades and media, from stone, wood and neon sculptures to tapestry and postcards. Presented as part of Edinburgh Art Festival 2021.

Collective

CHRISTIAN NEWBY: BOREDOM> MISCHIEF>FANTASY> RADICALISM> FANTASY

UNTIL 29 AUG, 10:00AM – 4:00PM, TBC Featuring a tapestry commission responding to Collective’s unique astronomical history, this exhibition explores how textile making straddles art and craft, interrogating ideas of labour and materiality. Presented as part of Edinburgh Art Festival 2021. ALISON SCOTT: DITTO DITTO DITTO

UNTIL 19 SEP, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE These integrated sound and print works explore the space and possibilities of ‘meteor-ontology’: an exploration of how climate and weather are entangled in the nature of our being. Presented as part of Edinburgh Art Festival 2021.

Dovecot Studios

ARCHIE BRENNAN: TAPESTRY GOES POP!

UNTIL 30 AUG, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, £8.50-£9.50 Centring on pop artist, weaver, and former Mr Scotland Archie Brennan, this exhibition shines a light on one of Scotland’s most neglected artists, bringing decades of vibrant tapestry to the fore. Presented as part of Edinburgh Art Festival 2021. JOCK MCFADYEN: LOST BOAT PARTY

UNTIL 25 SEP, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, TBC These enigmatic, almost print-like works explore the magnificence of Scotland’s landscape, juxtaposed and complemented by the artists’s signature urban dystopia. Presented as part of Edinburgh Art Festival 2021. DAZZLE 2021

6-28 AUG, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE Dovecot’s annual major jewellery exhibition returns for its tenth year, showcasing over 50 established and up-and-coming jewellery makers, whose pieces range from the impossibly delicate to the unexpected and subversive.

DAVY MACDONALD: STORIES IN THE STONE

20-30 AUG, TIMES VARY, FREE Inspired by the ancient standing stones of Callanish on the Isle of Lewis, Edinburgh-based artist Davy Macdonald’s spectacular paintings are an ode to sites of ritual, exploring humanity’s capacity for the mythic and symbolic.

Edinburgh Printmakers

SONIA MEHRA CHAWLA: ENTANGLEMENTS OF TIME & TIDE

4 AUG-21 NOV, 11:00AM – 4:00PM, FREE A merging of visual arts and science, this exhibition explores the ecosystems of the North Sea, striving for an empathetic understanding of the oceans and the relationship between the human and nonhuman. Presented as part of Edinburgh Art Festival 2021. GOBSCURE: WRITING LIBERTÉ WITH LIPS

4-28 AUG, 11:00AM – 4:00PM, FREE A series of prints by artistin-residence gobscure explore ideas of playful dissent and creative resistance. Presented as part of Edinburgh Art Festival 2021.

Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop

SEAN LYNCH: TAK TENT O’ TIME ERE TIME BE TINT

UNTIL 28 AUG, 11:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE This timely project casts a spotlight on Edinburgh’s public monuments and sculptures, and the ways in which the legacies of their history can be reassessed. Presented as part of Edinburgh Art Festival 2021. ALAYA ANG + HUSSEIN MITHA: PLOTTING (AGAINST) THE GARDEN

UNTIL 24 AUG, 11:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE The work explores the politics of gardens as ambivalent spaces of work and leisure; private property and public shared space; cultivation and growth. Presented as part of Edinburgh Art Festival 2021. LUCY WAYMAN: CLOVEHITCH

UNTIL 28 AUG, 11:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE Lucy Wayman’s work, created from marine rope, follows her interest in the industrial and historic uses of rope, connecting ideas of system, control and release. Presented as part of Edinburgh Art Festival 2021. ANDREW GANNON: ECCENTRIC LIMBS

UNTIL 25 SEP, 11:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE Using plaster casts to create surreal, subversive prosthetics, this exhibition interrogates the ways in which disabilities are conceptualised in our society. Presented as part of Edinburgh Art Festival 2021.

WELCOME TO BABEWORLD

UNTIL 8 AUG, 12:00PM – 6:00PM, TBC An unabashedly pink, unabashedly garish exhibition, Welcome to Babeworld is a collaborative effort led by artist Ashleigh Williams that explores the precarity of sex work, and the dystopian realities that may already exist.

French Institute

PLATFORM: 2021

UNTIL 29 AUG, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE Platform, the festival’s annual showcase of early career artists, features Scotland-based artists Jessica Higgins, Danny Pagarani, Kirsty Russell and Isabella Widger. Presented as part of Edinburgh Art Festival 2021.

Fruitmarket

KARLA BLACK: SCULPTURES (20012021)

UNTIL 21 NOV, 10:00AM – 7:00PM, FREE Combining traditional sculptural material with found objects such as cleaning products and cosmetics, Karla Black’s embodied sculptures fill the walls, ceilings, and floors of Fruitmarket. The exhibition, subtitled details for a retrospective, reopens Fruitmarket after a major refurb and expansion into the former Electric Circus space next door. Presented as part of Edinburgh Art Festival 2021.

Ingleby Gallery

FRANK WALTER (19262009): MUSIC OF THE SPHERES

4 AUG-25 SEP, 11:00AM – 5:00PM, TBC Overlooked in his lifetime but now considered one of the most important Caribbean artists of the 20th century, Frank Walter’s striking circular paintings are assembled in this long-awaited exhibition. Presented as part of Edinburgh Art Festival 2021.

Jupiter Artland

ALBERTA WHITTLE: RESET

UNTIL 31 OCT, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, £0-£10 A powerful response to the pandemic, climate emergency, and Black Lives Matter movement, RESET is a mesmerising challenge to our society’s various hostile environments. Presented as part of Edinburgh Art Festival 2021. RESET (GROUP SHOW)

UNTIL 31 OCT, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, £0-£10 A group exhibition accompanying Alberta Whittle’s solo show, featuring Sekai Machache, Mele Broomes, Basharat Khan and more. Presented as part of Edinburgh Art Festival 2021.

National Museum of Scotland

THE GALLOWAY HOARD: VIKING-AGE TREASURE

UNTIL 12 SEP, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE This treasure-filled exhibition brings together the richest collection of rare and unique Viking-age objects ever found in Britain or Ireland. Presented as part of Edinburgh Art Festival 2021.

LEON MORROCCO RSA RGI: APRÉS-MIDI

3-28 AUG, TIMES VARY, FREE The exhibition features new paintings and works on paper as the artist goes on a journey from the cold harbours of the East Coast of Scotland to the warm beaches, terraces and streets of the Mediterranean. Presented as part of Edinburgh Art Festival 2021.

Royal Botanic Garden

CHRISTINE BORLAND: IN RELATION TO LINUM

UNTIL 2 OCT, 10:00AM – 4:30PM, FREE This multidisciplinary project, featuring watercolours, prints and sculptural pieces, explores the lifecycle of flax, evolving RBGE’s 350-year relationship with the plant. Presented as part of Edinburgh Art Festival 2021.

Royal Scottish Academy RSA

FRANCES WALKER: TRAVELLING ON

UNTIL 5 SEP, TIMES VARY, FREE A retrospective in honour of prolific Scottish artist Frances Walker’s 90th birthday last year, Travelling On showcases a significant body of the artist’s evocative landscapes captured over her travels. BILL SCOTT

UNTIL 5 SEP, TIMES VARY, FREE This major retrospective of the work of past RSA President Bill Scott reintroduces Scott’s work for contemporary audiences.

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art

RAY HARRYHAUSEN: TITAN OF CINEMA

UNTIL 20 FEB 22, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, £5-£14 This once-in-a-lifetime exhibition brings together the life work of a giant of cinematic history and the grandfather of modern special effects, showcasing some of his most iconic designs and achievements. Presented as part of Edinburgh Art Festival 2021. ISAAC JULIEN: LESSONS OF THE HOUR

UNTIL 10 OCT, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE This major ten-screen film installation from renowned British artist Isaac Julien offers a poetic mediation on the life and work of 19thcentury African-American writer and abolitionist Frederick Douglass. Presented as part of Edinburgh Art Festival. JOAN EARDLEY: CATTERLINE

UNTIL 9 JAN 22, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE Celebrating the life and work of the artist Joan Eardley, this exhibition focuses on her post-war works created in Catterline. Presented as part of Edinburgh Art Festival 2021.

Scottish National Portrait Gallery

RUINED: REINVENTING SCOTTISH HISTORY

5 AUG-13 NOV, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, TBC Four young Scots reinvent the bloody complexity of Scottish history, drawing on and subverting works from the National Portrait Gallery to pull visitors into an immersive, disorienting, and radical reimagination of our collective past. ALISON WATT: A PORTRAIT WITHOUT LIKENESS

5 AUG-8 JAN 22, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE A body of new work created in response to celebrated eighteenth-century portraitist Allan Ramsay, Alison Watt’s paintings play with detail and ideas of femininity, exploring the art of portraiture beyond the subject. THOMAS JOSHUA COOPER: THE WORLD’S EDGE

5 AUG-22 JAN 22, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE The only artist to have ever taken photographs of the two poles, Thomas Joshua Cooper is known for working in the extremes, pushing the boundaries of both creative practice and human endurance.

Scottish Storytelling Centre

DIANA SAVOVA: THISTLES, SUNFLOWERS AND DREAMSCAPES

3-30 AUG, 10:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE Diana Savova’s ink, oil and acrylic paintings offer a vibrant, surreal perspective that perfectly matches our equally surreal times, reflecting on themes of home, migration, and roots through symbolic, fantastic tableaux.

Shillinghill Studios

ALISON KINNAIRD: ART IN GLASS

UNTIL 30 AUG, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE This open studio exhibition features work by acclaimed glass artist and practitioner Alison Kinnaird, whose striking, delicately wrought pieces offer a deeply moving examination of the human condition.

Stills

SEKAI MACHACHE: PROJECTS 20

3 AUG-18 SEP, 12:00PM – 5:00PM, TBC Featuring work from Sekai Machache’s The Divine Sky, these porcelain-like photographs were created during the pandemic, exploring new ways of structuring artistic output. Presented as part of Edinburgh Art Festival 2021.

Summerhall

BEVERLEY HOOD: WE BEGAN AS PART OF THE BODY

UNTIL 12 SEP, 12:00PM – 5:30PM, FREE This immersive series of video projections, 3D prints, and virtual reality explores existential and ethical questions on the relationship between bodies and technology. Presented as part of this year’s Edinburgh Science Festival.

UNTIL 12 SEP, 12:00PM – 5:30PM, TBC Using soundscapes and sonification of data in a unique, haunting way, Victoria Evans’ work engages with the way invisible forces in the universe tangibly affect our lives. Presented as part of this year’s Edinburgh Science Festival.

Talbot Rice Gallery

THE NORMAL

UNTIL 28 AUG, TIMES VARY, FREE This group exhibition responds to the global event of the pandemic, exploring how we can rethink our relationship to community and the environment, and affirming the urgent need for whole scale change. Presented as part of Edinburgh Art Festival 2021.

The Fine Art Society in Edinburgh

WILL MACLEAN + SHAUN FRASER: OWNERS OF THE SOIL

UNTIL 28 AUG, TIMES VARY, FREE This exhibition examines ties between land, identity and ownership through the early Scottish diaspora’s dual identity of colonised and coloniser. Presented as part of Edinburgh Art Festival 2021.

The Queen’s Gallery

VICTORIA & ALBERT: OUR LIVES IN WATERCOLOUR

UNTIL 3 OCT, 9:30AM – 5:00PM, £0-£7.80 Featuring 80 watercolours collected by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, this exhibition celebrates Scottish watercolour painting in the post-Romantic, industrial age. Presented as part of Edinburgh Art Festival 2021.

The Scottish Gallery

JOAN EARDLEY: CENTENARY

3-28 AUG, TIMES VARY, FREE Centenary includes acclaimed artist Joan Eardley’s most celebrated subjects: the lost Glasgow, the streets and children of Townhead and her wild, spiritual home at Catterline on the Kincardineshire coast. Presented as part of Edinburgh Art Festival 2021. THE J.G. SCOTT COLLECTION

3-28 AUG, TIMES VARY, FREE J.G. Scott’s diverse and prodigious collection of paintings and prints offers a unique glimpse into the breadth of 20thcentury Scottish art, from responses to the New Wave Glasgow artists to contemporary takes on landscape paintings. MALCOLM APPLEBY & FRIENDS

3-28 AUG, TIMES VARY, FREE Marking the 75th birthday of world class engraver, jeweller and silversmith Malcolm Appleby, this exhibition brings together Appleby’s fellow collaborators and artists as a joyful celebration of craftsmanship.

FESTIVAL SHOW

3 AUG-11 SEP, 11:00AM – 5:30PM, FREE Torrance Gallery’s annual festival show returns, bringing together regular favourite artists with exciting new names for a perfect snapshot of contemporary art.

Upright Gallery

EMMA-LOUISE GRADY: WANDERINGS

4-20 AUG, TIMES VARY, FREE Drawing upon the artist’s Irish roots, this exhibition engages with and subverts the intricacy of traditional Celtic patterns through the use of Emma-Louise Grady’s trademark vivid colours and intense details.

Dundee Art

DCA: Dundee Contemporary Arts

EMMA TALBOT: GHOST CALLS

UNTIL 8 AUG, TIMES VARY, FREE This major new exhibition brings together a series of works created specifically for the DCA by renowned British artist Emma Talbot, whose artistic practice spans the breadth of the visual arts, from drawing and painting to animation and modelling. CHIKAKO YAMASHIRO: CHINBIN WESTERN

21 AUG-21 NOV, TIMES VARY, FREE Drawing on influences as diverse as industrial landscapes and traditional Japanese theatre, Chikako Yamashiro’s filmmaking and photography practice explores themes of neocolonialism and collective memory. MARY MCINTYRE: PLACES WE THINK WE KNOW

21 AUG-21 NOV, TIMES VARY, FREE Engaging with ideas of spatiality and psychogeography, Mary McIntyre’s quiet interior photographs are presented in a uniquely sculptural way that pulls the gallery space into her work.

The McManus

A LOVE LETTER TO DUNDEE: JOSEPH MCKENZIE PHOTOGRAPHS 19641987

3 AUG-1 MAR 22, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE Turning to black and white photography from the 1960s-1980s, this exhibition charts the changing landscape of Dundee’s waterfront and the evolution of the City’s fortunes and its people. TIME AND TIDE: THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE TAY

3 AUG-2 OCT, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE This exhibition looks at the influence the Tay has had on the city of Dundee, and the ways in which its various faces, from early settlement to industrial giant, continue to reinvent its iconic waterfront.

NIGHT FEVER: DESIGNING CLUB CULTURE

UNTIL 9 JAN 22, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, £5-£10 The perfect exhibition in the light of the last year, Night Fever explores the relationship between vibrant global club culture and fashion, architecture, and graphic design, giving an intoxicating glimpse into the art that informs our nights out. WHAT IF…?/SCOTLAND

UNTIL 21 NOV, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE Designed to be staged at the Venice Biennale, this exhibition responds to the festival’s theme “How will we live together?” by collaborating with and involving local communities, highlighting and seeking to return to the civic responsibility of design.

The Skinny On... Carla J. Easton

Ahead of her upcoming live performance at Summerhall this month, Carla J. Easton tells us why she’ll never forgive George Lucas, and what made her vomit on 27 June

What’s your favourite place to visit? Paris. It’s a good place to get lost [...] I like going places where taste is a big part of the experience – Paris has lots of flavours.

What’s your favourite colour? Yellow. It’s happy.

Who was your hero growing up? My Great Aunt Kath. She was my best friend. She was both glamourous and homely. Fierce, independent, stubborn but incredibly loving and kind. She chose a different life and path from her sisters which made me realise, from a young age, that was perfectly okay to do.

Whose work inspires you now? I took part in a writing residency (via Zoom) in March, organised by Howard Bilerman [...] We got to have lectures from Sharon Van Etten, Tamara Lindeman, Beverly Glenn Copeland, Basia Bulat and loads more songwriters. The one that stood out for me was Mary Margaret O’Hara [...] I can’t remember most of what Mary was saying, I just remember how I felt while she was talking: completely and utterly inspired to be myself.

What’s your favourite meal to cook at home? I like the ceremony of cooking steak. I like sealing in all the juices and having to time everything perfectly.

What three people would you invite to your virtual dinner party? Yoko Ono, Frida Kahlo and Yayoi Kusama. They are three incredible human beings who have never compromised themselves or their work. The conversation would be insightful, inspiring and fun.

Which album by another artist have you loved this year? I really love Clair’s album Earth Mothers. It’s a wonderful and comprehensive piece of work that reminds me a bit of Virginia Astley’s From Gardens Where We Feel Secure, but instead of English country gardens we’re thrown into the urban extremity of Glasgow... It’s a really exciting album.

What’s the worst film you’ve ever seen? I’m a huge Star Wars fan... But I will never forgive George Lucas for Episode III. Darth Vader is one of the most dangerous villains in cinema history. As a child he is the stuff of nightmares. The scene where he breaks free of his shackles screaming ‘noooooooo’ at the point where he transforms from Anakin to Darth reduced the character to pantomine depths of danger. It was – and still is – unforgivable.

How have you stayed inspired during the multiple lockdowns and various restrictions of the past 17 months? My initial reaction was ‘adapt’ rather than ‘accept’ in terms of music-making [...] I love collaborating and that has been hard but doable; Poster Paints [Easton’s new project with Simon Liddell] became a bit of a lifeline [...] But it was also simple things I found inspiration in. I fell back in love with my record collection. Walks [...] Coffees in parks with friends. Looking after and helping my mum – she’s had two strokes during the last ten months which has been hard. Gardening. Falling in love. Trying to learn the guitar. And also learning how to do nothing and being okay with that.

What books would you read if you had to self-isolate for the next ten days? The Elegance of The Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery and Tales of The City by Armistead Maupin. I’ve read The Elegance... about five times and every time I discover new details. It’s a really beautiful book Photo: Austin Temby exploring language and philosophy. I read the Tales... series a couple of years ago and got immersed in the world. I wanted the characters to be real so I could be their friend.

Who’s the worst? People with hidden agendas/liars.

When did you last cry? This morning during therapy.

What are you most scared of? My mum having another stroke because it would be awful and the outcome would be full of uncertainty.

When did you last vomit? 27 June. It was my niece’s 10th birthday. That morning I had my second vaccine, although it’s probably more to do with running around after four nieces and playing with them on the trampoline all day in blistering sunshine and not the vaccine.

Tell us a secret? During lockdown I started a Certificate in Floristry as a means to keep creative and learn something new and am taking part in the World Skills UK competition. I made it through to the second heat and am awaiting my results.

Which celebrity could you take in a fight? I don’t know. I’m pretty short and small. I think most people would take me.

If you could be reincarnated as an animal which animal would it be? A cat. I like to be left alone but will seek out company when I feel like/ need it. But I also really like otters.

You’re playing Summerhall in August! What are you most looking forward to about the return of live music this year? Drums! I never thought I would say I miss the sound of a snare drum soundchecking but I really do. I can’t wait to finally play WEIRDO live – a whole year after release! I am looking forward to sub bass synths blasting out a PA and rehearsing with my band and the elation after performing and loading in and soundchecking and ALL OF IT [...] I can’t wait for a live performance to be this one snapshot in time of people being in the same place at the same time and it existing only in memories. I can’t wait to sing. I have forgotten how much I love singing.

Carla J. Easton plays Summerhall, Edinburgh, 18 Aug

carlajennifereaston.com posterpaints.com