Tuesday 30 April 2013

Aye-m Scoattish.

  • Reflections on whether the age of the Scotrock is, or at least should be, over.


Being in a band forces you to mature fast. Not long after first putting your music out into the world, the realisation that no one cares sets in. Why should they? No one owes you anything. There are a million things going on in the lives of others. Why would you ever have dreamt that your music would play a part even 1/100th of the size in their lives that it has played in your own? Given the brutality of it all, I think it's important to support local acts. I buy CDs when I can. I offer courtesy Facebook likes to bands that friends show me even if their music doesn't particularly interest me. If it makes them look more legitimate and makes it easier for them to win real fans then I'm happy to help.

On that note, I feel pretty uncomfortable about this blog post. I don't enjoy being cynical. I don't think it's especially productive, particularly when cynicism is directed at low-level acts. For a while I toyed with the idea of making this post something of a name 'n' shame. I planned to turn each bitchy criticism into a little red hyperlink, highlight an example of what some new band was doing so horribly wrong. Eventually my sense of support and community won over and I decided against it. In the interests of full disclosure, at this point I would also like to admit that the I am guilty of all the sins listed in this article, and in many cases my complaints are born partially out of jealousy about the fact that so many of my peers shamelessly pander to the zeitgeist so much better than I do. Nonetheless, I ultimately hope that something positive can be taken from this post. While it may cause many to deservedly hate me, I hope it might provide inspiration for others. 

So what am I complaining about? I recently received an email from a friend entitled "why do I hate this so much?". The music was identical to virtually every "hey, check out this new band my friend started" song I get sent these days. Thick Scots accent? Check. Delay-soaked Telecaster riffs? Check. Uncomfortably sincere lead vocalist? Check. Quietverseloudchorusquietverseloudchorusepicmiddle8loudchorusend? Check. I attempted to reply to my friend and to pin down exactly where his gut-reaction hatred came from. This post is an extended version of my reply.

I think the best place to start is the Scottish accent. While the accent alone can't be held responsible, all my other criticisms seem to form neatly around it. Now, it goes without saying  that local accents have always been a part of folk music (it almost feels wrong to refer to them as a "part" of the music given that they most likely simply existed unconsciously in the music). Following that, The Proclaimers also made the accent widely popular in the 1980s. Roddy Woomble settled on his natural accent around the turn of the century with the release of Idlewild's 100 Broken Windows and The Remote Part. Nonetheless, without undertaking any research, it seems to me to be the case that accent overemphasis really took off with Fatcat Records' big three - The Twilight Sad, Frightened Rabbit and We Were Promised Jetpacks - sometime towards the end of the last decade. These acts, in conjunction with their lesser-known contemporaries, provided inspiration for a slew of imitators and now, in 2013, we're left sifting through the dross. 

What is it about the use of our accent that can inspire anger in certain listeners? I believe that it's because it is little more than a mild form of emotional blackmail. Before it became over-used, the accent was a symbol of sincerity. This is probably due to its close connection with folk music. It made heart-on-sleeve, emotional lyrics okay again after the mid-2000s, which saw Wales provide the world with a series of bands that sang in nasal, emo, fake, American Pie accents. Coupled with the genuinely excellent music on early records released by the bands discussed above, the Scottish accent earned global respect.

However, respect quickly became cashing in. "This is what people like now? Better turn off the American and switch to Scots! People dig emotion? And metaphors? And weather? I bet they'll like alliteration too: waves, wind and water (and drowning, of course) sound great together! Are you cold? I'm cold! We're in Scotland man! Better write a song about how hard it is to be warm and/or getting stuck in the rain! I'm true to emotion and true to Scotland. Like. Me." I think that the anger comes from the fact that what was once a symbol of sincerity is being abused in a completely hollow manner no more genuine than the American Pie emo already mentioned. Whilst I'm being slightly hyperbolic, my complaints aren't far from realistic. I once played a show with a singer who spoke with a strong English accent. When he got up on stage and began singing a tonally-perfect Simon Neil impression, I had to stop listening, head for the bar, and buy a strong drink. While the accent and lyrical style is the primary focus of my frustration, I think that the whole package - delay lines, telecasters, and unnecessary start/stop riffing - has become stale. It's particularly frustrating that imitators' musical style of choice seems not to follow innovative furrows ploughed by the likes of The Twilight sad, but instead that of Scotrock's most bland act, Twin Atlantic.  

Identifying problems is easy. Coming up with solutions is harder. What would I like to see the next time a friend sends me a link and asks me to "check out this sweet band"? Ditching the accent would be problematic. Intentionally abandoning homegrown accents would be just as transparent as intentionally overemphasising them. I think singers should be encouraged simply to sing naturally, but it's a shame that this has become "singing in his/her accent". So to get Scotland out of it's rut, I think we need to change our approach to making music and break away from the emotional niche that we've been bludgeoned to a tearful death with. I think that CHVRCHES' overnight success must be partly attributable to the simple fact that they offered something new. Personally, I would like to see music with an element of danger. Something with a bit of passion, sleaze and aggression. If the next band in my inbox is Scotland's answer to DFA1979, LCD Soundsytem, Les Savy Fav, Fugazi - or better yet all of the above and something new - our country will be a far more interesting place.