“Opaque electronics mingling with emotive song writing…” – Clash Magazine
“A new lo-fi record full of stunning soundscapes” – The Skinny
Scottish indie-pop 3-piece Stillhound are poised to announce their new single with the arrival of ‘Crowds’ this summer. Taken from the band’s acclaimed eponymous second album released earlier this year, they explain: “This was one of the final ones written for the album. We wrote it within the final days of our final writing/recording trips in ‘Letters’ just south of Ullapool. Dave had this unusual kind of dirty drum pattern so I distorted and muddied up my guitar as much as possible de-tuning to C and wrote this riff. At first it felt like it was way too far off the rest of the record but Fergus was able to write an ending that tied it in and we then painstakingly sat in the studio and at our practise space imagining ways of linking the two sections together. I’ve always admired bands that are able to put two totally juxtaposing sections together and I think on this we were able to do this very successfully. It is probably one of the most lyrically sparse tracks on the album and I really felt like we got a great mixture of effecting Fergus’ voice without losing any lyrical imagery.”
Having been friends since childhood. Attending the same school together, the Edinburgh three-piece grew up dreaming about making music, huddling together to swap ideas, write songs, and conjure dreams.
Debut album ‘Bury Everything’ was a remarkable creative feat, the sound of their musical lives distilled down to an essence. Largely rooted in their Lost Oscillation studio – located in Edinburgh’s creative hub Leith – it was the start of something, but also a finishing point. What comes next is their new album – it’s daring, it’s ambitious, and it’s self-titled, offering a new definition of Stillhound.
Spending their days hiking across formidable landscapes, Stillhound would return and make the best music of their lives. The environment seeped into their music, too – long days swimming in the sea, long nights surrounded by barren wilderness. “We’ve worked through some tough times, in terms of going away, writing, and not being sure of what we were expecting,” Dave adds. “But it’s been really nice to get away. It was bliss – incredible weather, really beautiful surroundings, we could go swimming at the beach.”
The results are startling. ‘Stillhound’ builds on the innate promise of their debut while introducing potent new directions for the band, ranging from Nine Inch Nails style darkness to the daring pop of Depeche Mode, or even the startling songwriting of Grizzly Bear. It’s a fusion of the digital and the analogue, the blend of technological prowess with engrossing songwriting.
Relentless in their approach, Stillhound have produced their most ambitious work yet: ‘Glass Lake’ took 30 vocal takes to complete, while ‘Zara’ is written in 5/4 time signature; ‘On A’ started life as a seven minute epic, before being reduced to a cryptic 90 seconds. Billed as “home-brewed” it’s a unique potion, and it all comes back to that staunch independence, to those long nights in the Highlands.
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Buy: https://stillhound.bandcamp.com/
This album campaign has been supported by the Momentum Music Fund. Momentum is managed by PRS Foundation, with support from PPL, Arts Council of Wales, Welsh Government, Creative Scotland, and Spotify.
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