1) Who are you, who is in the band, who does what in the studio and on stage?
We are :
Pete Deane – Lead vox and guitar
Craig Nicholson – Guitar and backing vox
Archie MacFarlane – Accordion and keys
Dave Bishop – Bass
Simon Usher – Drums
2) How long have you been writing and performing in this way?
We’ve been in our current incarnation for a couple of years and it’s working great. The Last September has been through many transitions over the years though, but Pete still strenuously denies the murder of all previous band members (of which there are many)…
3) How exactly do you work / write / record?
The main lyrical and basic ideas behind songs generally tend to be written by Pete, who then brings these basic ideas to the rest of the band to develop. At this point the material takes on a more fluid form and is moulded by group effort. It’s a nice way of putting forward ideas which can be personal and sincere to the singer, while also creating a sound which benefits from being pulled in different directions as each member puts their own slant on things.
Thus far, we have always self-produced while taking on the assistance and good ears of engineers and mixers we trust. On this last album, we made a real attempt to record as live as possible. It felt important to us to record drums, bass and most guitars in one room at the same time in order to create an album which has a lovely live feel to it.
4) How do you feel your studio/recording style informs the way you perform your music live (or vice versa)?
I think there can be a process which occurs, whereby we prepare music for the studio by practising and playing it live, which, when recorded can take on a different life, and which then, when played live after recording can take on yet another life! In an ideal world, we’d tour each song for months and months before recording, but you have to commit to recording at some point. Ultimately, I suppose the way we play a song live may not always be ideal for an album or vice versa, so getting to know each song inside-out is pretty important.
5) What’s been happening lately and what’s new with you?
We released our third studio album Volcano in October last year which has been awesome. We definitely feel that it’s a great step forward for us in terms of songwriting, production and performance in the studio. For anyone interested in current music in Scotland, we feel like this is a pretty relevant work. It was recorded in, and (in many ways), set in Edinburgh. Much of the subject matter revolves around incidents or memories from Edinburgh or the Scottish Borders. And the name of course, is a reference to Arthur’s Seat.
We also worked with BAFTA-award-winning animator Ainslie Henderson to create the video for This Train Remains which we put out as a free single in September, and the response has been amazing with 88,000 online views so far!
6) When was the last time you played Edinburgh (and where)?
Last gig was our album launch gig in Bongo Club in October. It was definitely one of the most special gigs we’ve ever done as it felt a little like Show and Tell! So much new material which we were dying to play. And we invited Rally and Broad artist Rachel McCrum to perform the spoken word piece, ‘Climbing’, which she wrote and recorded for us on the album. It went down great on the night. Rumour has it she may make another guest appearance at Limbo…
7) If you’ve played Limbo before, what did you like/rate about the experience? If you’ve not played Limbo before, what have you heard about it?
This is our maiden Limbo voyage! It seems to be a pretty well-known and well-respected night in Edinburgh. It’s one we’re looking forward to, that’s for sure!
8) What’s next, coming up after this gig, for you and what are you generally looking forward to right now…?
Well the album is out and doing well. Available on iTunes and the usual sites as well as at our own website The Last September. Right now we just want to get back to basics and enjoy making music live for a while. After a big project such as an album it’s nice to turn attentions to another area. Putting on a really special live experience is where we’re all at right now. It’s the basic starting point, I suppose, and nice to focus on the basics for a change.
9) If you have any other passions/opinions you’d like to share, if there’s anything else you feel strongly about, pls feel free to tell us about it here…
We love birds, dogs, the highlands, photography and whisky!
