1) Who are you, who is in the band, who does what in the studio and on stage?
We are St Deluxe, Jamie on Vocals/Guitar/Bass, Ross on Drums, Brian on Bass/Backing Vocals/Guitar. For the gig at Limbo we’ll be joined by Kev Hare from Ancient of Days/Ex-Black Sun for some extra madness for the last couple of songs
2) How long have you been writing and performing in this way?
We’ve been a 3-piece for a couple of years now. Previously we played with Martin on guitar, he left a couple of years ago but still pops up on guitar at the odd Telescopes gig. We decided to soldier on as a 3 piece and the change gave us a bit of a new lease of life.
3) How exactly do you work / write / record?
We bring ideas and work on them together – sometimes a riff, sometimes more of a fully sketched song, then hammer it out between the 3 of us in the rehearsal room. We tend to record quickly and try to capture a live performance, though we’re not averse to layering up sounds in the studio afterwards.
4) How do you feel your studio/recording style informs the way you perform your music live (or vice versa)?
We tend to road-test new songs live before recording them – playing them at gigs first helps us realise what works and what needs worked on! Also, with older songs we often listen back to the recordings and remark about how different they sound to how we play them now, so it works both ways.
5) What’s been happening lately and what’s new with you?
We’re building up to an EP release later in the year. One of the songs, Draw a Line, was recorded alongside one of the new Telescopes songs – Stephen helped out with sounds and ideas, and played some guitar, so it was a bit of a co-production. We’ll be playing that one at Limbo. We’ve put videos up on YouTube recently for a couple of other new recordings, links here:
Roky Erickson Cover Version – Red Temple Prayer (Two Headed Dog)
We also helped record the Telescopes record Hidden Fields this year with Stephen Lawrie – Ross co-produced at Riverside Music Complex in Glasgow and we all played on it. It was a great experience working more extensively with Stephen, we go back a few years and often help out as The Telescopes for Scottish gigs, so we know each other pretty well. The album’s been getting some great reviews. The experience has also seemed to have helped focus us, we’ve got lots of new St Deluxe songs at various stages of completion and are looking forward to inflicting them on an unsuspecting world very soon.
6) When was the last time you played Edinburgh (and where)?
I think the last time we played Edinburgh was last year at Wee Red Bar. It was a good show, we played with Theo Verney from Brighton and Wozniak from Edinburgh. We’ve since played in Glasgow with Wozniak and are big fans of their expansive shoe gaze. Theo Verney and his band were great.
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?
We played Limbo a few years ago – I’m gonna be honest, I don’t remember the show but I’m sure it’ll come flooding back when we load in! Jamie assures me we played about 5 years ago and that it was really good! That was with a different line up, I reckon you’ll see a bit of a difference in terms of songs and vibe, but we’re still very much all about Fender guitars, fuzz pedals, energy and off-kilter pop melodies hiding under the noise!
8) What’s next, coming up after this gig, for you and what are you generally looking forward to right now?
We’re looking forward to playing the first Rockaway Beach Festival next month in Bognor Regis, both as St Deluxe and as part of the Telescopes. It looks like a great weekend, looking forward to seeing The Fall, Spiritualized, Johnny Marr and others as well as our 2 slots! After that we’ll be planning our EP release, with some gigs around it – watch this space.
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’re all Rock/Paper/Scissors enthusiasts – it can get quite messy. If you see us all with one hand behind our backs it’s probably best not to approach.
10) How would you describe what you do – in a nutshell – to someone who’s never seen you before?
Glasgow’s premier fuzz-pop noise terrorists
