Tag Archives: Edinburgh

Fistymuffs ~ We Fight

Welcome to a new section of the blog, New Music Mondays, where we will be discussing new releases from local acts as well as great music from artists further afield.

First up it’s local grrrl’s Fistymuffs. This political punk/riot grrrl band is made up of performance poet Suky Goodfellow on guitar and vocals, DJ Nikki Fixx on drums, and bass and vocals from one of our ex Music Business students, and now Artist in Residence, Ashley Stein.

Fistymuffs have been gigging extensively since 2016 and have played with many notable acts, including Screaming Females, Lou Mclean Music, Gravelle, Sløtface, Petrol Girls and War On Women. Their lyrics are powerful and sometimes tackle dark subjects such as abuse in relationships and suicidal feelings, but always leave the listener feeling empowered, knowing that a better life is possible. Fistymuffs aim to empower people with their music and have been known to inspire other women to start their own bands.

This new record, We Fight, comes almost two years after the release of their debut EP, About Time, which focused on escaping abusive relationships, unwanted groping and bringing down the patriarchy. This new record sees the band tackle wider social issues while still managing to keep a personal tone to the lyrics. The opening track, Hey You!, is a literal call to arms, asking the listener to get active, stand up for themselves and fight back against our capitalist society. Gentrification of Leith discusses the #saveleithwalk campaign which was headed up by Leith Depot, the bands favourite venue and the place where they recorded their first EP, About Time. Riots Not Diets breaks down the indigestible truth of diet culture, while Survivors Write History is a powerful exploration of choosing life over the alternative.

Fistymuffs sound has also notably developed. Whilst their signature rhythmic changes are still ever present (see Innocent Contact from their first record as a good example of this!), the band have incorporated their communal love of post-punk on to many of the tracks. Most obviously tinted with this shared influence is Survivors Write History, where Suky has introduced a subtle yet arresting synth section to the mix.

So, whether you’re tackling diet culture, fighting gentrification, surviving depression or just want to be part of the revolution, there’s something on this record for everyone. You can buy We Fight from Fistymuffs Bandcamp page, or check out their music from any of their socials below:

Live review, Young Fathers, Brighton Dome Studio Theatre.

photo (8)Young Fathers were on thunderous form when we walked in on the second song of their first Great Escape set. Since I last heard them a couple of years ago these four guys from Edinburgh have taken on a darker sound but this makes their performance all the more compelling and the energy that they attacked this gig with was so gobsmacking that no other artist we saw at the Great Escape festival over the three days came close to this sort of intensity. Tribal beats, super tight rapping, sparkling almost boy band-like harmonies and powerful lead vocals made this set genuinely exciting and even unexpectedly moving.

Interview – The Asps

We had the Asps in the studio at Jewel and Esk a wee while ago and thisisfeast managed to catch up with Paul to check what they have been up to since we last hooked up.

thisisfeast: For those who don’t know, who are you guys?

Paul: Well we are the Asps, and I am the singer – my name’s Paul Dourley. I also play rhythm guitar, the lead guitarist is Chris Simpson, and we have a synth player Michael Barry, the drummer is Lewis Hutchison, the saxophone player is Graeme Renwick and the bass player is Craig Renwick, both brothers.

thisisfeast: Why did you call yourselves the Asps?

Paul: We got the name from the song “Man on the moon” by REM. One of the lyrics is – Egypt is troubled but the horrible asps. It’s always a lyric I enjoyed singing and the word itself is phonologically pleasing.

thisisfeast: I like the use of phonologically, I might have to look that up later. What have you been up to since we last saw you a few months ago?

Paul: We have been working away on stage set-ups and working on our new tracks, this month we are quite busy. We are playing BT London Live in Hyde Park, we are expecting a quite a busy crowd and quite a lot of exposure. We are also playing at Victoria Park for an hour on the same day, so we are very excited about that.

thisisfeast: How did you get the gigs in London?

Paul: We got it through Live Nation which is part of a thing called Live Connection, who we got in touch with last year. They are kind of reaching out to unsigned bands. You submit your music and they troll through the music and they pick you to become part of different events. Live Nations have been dealing with high end bands for a long time and I think that they want to reach out and offer unsigned bands a bit of an opportunity as well.

thisisfeast: I want to talk about your songs a little bit. Who writes your tunes and what does it involve?

Paul: Usually the main substance of the songs, well certainly with Microchip and Learn to Fly, is written by me and Michael Barry on keyboards.  He usually comes up with some music and I come up with the lyrics and melody, and then the rest of the band add their magical icing to it.

thisisfeast: I been listening to the mix of Microchip over the last couple of days and its sounding great. I was just wondering what the song about?

Paul: It’s a love song to the microchip. Lots of things would not be possible without the invention of the microchip. One of the main lyrics is ‘Computer subordinate we need Microchips invented’.  It’s harking back to a time when computers where pretty rubbish, you know all they did was calculate things and how frustrating they used to be, although they obviously still are. It’s really a love song to technology. (Paul texted me a later “its really a love song for robots”)

thisisfeast: What are you up to in the future?

Paul: Well, we recently signed a publishing deal with Sony and we are in the middle of re-negotiating, because they’re quite interested as we are making an album with Ron Nevison next year in San Fransisco and they kind of picked up on that. (Ron Nevison has worked with The Who, Led Zepplin, Bad Company, Kiss amongst others)

thisisfeast: How did the recording with Ron Nevison come about?

Paul: It was through reverbnation – we submitted our music to a competition. They got in touch with us about a month later and out of 9500 entries they chose ours, which was crazy.

ThisIsFeast@soundcloud
Microchip – The Asps
Engineered by Gavin Whyte & Hubert Aniolek
Mixed by Stuart MacLaughlan