New Year, New Things!

January 3, 2017

Morninnnggg! We awake unto the New Year with a sudden urge to cast off our knitting and throw ourselves into New Band Things with the vigour of January gym subscriber.

2016 was a great year for the band; personal highlights include, in no particular order:

  • releasing our debut record;
  • being embraced by the family Toad;
  • launching our record in the Happiness Hotel;
  • playing shows for Caught by the River;
  • making a video in our pyjamas;
  • recording some soon-to-be released tracks (the first for the MOJO March edition cover CD);
  • hearing oodles of radio play;
  • working with some truly good folks;
  • driving in the van from Cornwall to Mull, Wales to Brighton;
  • being part of the Earth Recordings Shirley Inspired record (and some Bert Jansch ones this year!);
  • appearing in a few end-of-year lists;
  • and, writing together and demo-ing our second LP, which we’re very excited about.

Some 2016 occurrences deserve their own mention:

MOJO, after giving us an effusive review for the record, named us in their top 50 albums (#19!) of 2016. Blimey. This didn’t really sink in until slightly later. We’re quite proud of it.

The List Magazine placed us at #74 in their ‘Hot 100’ of the Scottish cultural community in 2016. Ace!

Nicola Meighan, writing in The Herald, named Swell to Great as one of the best 12 LPs of the year. Brill!

We honed our live sound and got out on the road. We made Swell to Great as a recording project at first and it took a while to reconfigure ourselves. On stage, we figure all of us are using all of our limbs at all times.

We were invited on a UK tour with King Creosote. That’s now in 3 weeks time, and we’re limbering up.

Jan 20th, Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool (Tickets)

Jan 21st, Town Hall, Birmingham (Tickets)

Jan 22nd, The Barbican, London (Tickets)

Jan 23rd, Colston Hall, Bristol (Tickets)

Jan 24th, Tramshed, Cardiff (Tickets)

Jan 25th, Sage, Gateshead (Tickets)

And on Jan 26th we have our homecoming gig at the Glad Cafe, as part of Celtic Connections with Tisso Lake as support.

Hurrah. All that remains is to wish you all a happy and fulfilling New Year, we look forward to filling your ears with more tunes before too long.

Love, Modern Studies. xxxx