Glasgow band Admiral Fallow fronted by singer Louis Abbott, Louis joined by Sarah Hayes and Kevin Brolly Most of us met while studying in Glasgow and we started the band pretty soon after that. We used to knock about at the same open mic nights and gigs in the city. Since then we’ve released three records and been fortunate enough to travel around a fair bit.
Louis [Abbott] is the main songwriter for the band, and his lyrics often take real life events as a starting point. As individuals we’re all involved in a few different musical projects, and these experiences can inform what we do when we’re together. I think we’re at the stage now where we know each other’s playing really well – we generally understand each other when it comes to suggesting musical ideas to try out. Our music has been described as ‘orchestral-indie-pop’ which is probably as good a summary as any!.
Our fourth album, The Idea Of You, is out on Friday 5th November on Glasgow’s legendary Chemikal Underground. It feels like a kind of consolidation of the various ways of working that we’ve tried over the years. Louis’ lyrics are at the heart of things and the rest of us bring our own musical identities into the mix. Paul Savage produced the record. We’ve worked with him on all our albums and as always he’s brought his outstanding ears and studio wizardry to proceedings. As well as crafting arrangements and production ideas, we’ve also tried to capture performance and personality, and worry less about imperfections than we might have in the past. We recorded more of it live than previously and ended up keeping a lot of those spontaneous moments and guide parts.
Louis usually sends a rough demo of a song or part-song and we take it from there. We spent a week away in the Highlands back in 2017, taking some concentrated time to play through the songs in the room together and seeing what appeared. We made some more live demos and worked on parts separately at home before meeting up again. Sometimes we’ll discuss a few key musical reference points, but that tends to happen more during the studio recording.
We’ve done a few live gigs so far since the summer and they’ve all been different. I think it’ll probably feel a bit strange to be back in a ‘normal’ gig setting, but we’re really looking forward to getting out and about and feeling that crackle of playing to people again.
We’ll be giving some new songs an outing – it’s been fun working out how to play them live! As it’s been a while since our last UK tour, we’ll be playing lots of old favourites, too. And Kev’s got a new synth.
Written and mostly recorded in 2019, ‘The Idea Of You’ is a captivating collection of songs – generously melodic, confidently executed and festooned with intricacies. Warmth, empathy and contentment course through the nine songs, a response to its makers having navigated personal and professional challenges to emerge with their identity. We’re really looking forward to getting out and about and feeling that crackle of playing to people again.
‘The Idea Of You’ is the fourth LP by Scottish band Admiral Fallow. The LP finds the band veering off in various directions from their indie-folk template, with pop, rock and Philly soul featuring. As always, the music is warm, the melodies will stick in your head and the vocal harmonies are beautifully executed.
Admiral Fallow perform at Metronome on Friday 26th November.
The Fat Angel Sings 