Aye! It's Scottish RomanceWith Arab Strap!

Mon 24th Oct, 2005 in Features

Aidan Moffat is very Scottish. He hails from Falkirk, a small Scottish town. And he answers questions ‘Aye’. He’s also one half of Arab Strap, a two piece Scottish band which has been kicking around the scene for ten years now. With a new album, The Last Romance, hitting stores just one week ago, FasterLouder spoke Moffat about the new album, the old albums, and why playing 21 shows in 23 days just isn’t trying hard enough.

“The new album is quite different from our previous albums. It’s a lot faster, a lot more aggressive, and a lot louder. It’s a lot shorter too; I really just wanted to get the point across straight away.” Arab Strap consists of only two members; Moffat does vocals, and occasionally plays drums or keyboards on selected tracks. His musical partner, Malcolm Middleton, provides the instrumentation, or rather, according to the website, “All things musical.” For this album, it was still mostly just the two of them, although they had to bring in a drummer for certain tracks. “Yeah, some of the tracks were just too fast. I just couldn’t keep up, so we had to get in a drummer to play on some of the songs.”

Much of the press about the new album indicates that as well as being faster and louder, the new album avoids the dark and dour mood of the group’s previous albums. However, Moffat believes this is a misconception; not about the new album, but about the old ones. “We don’t really feel that way at all, it’s always been the opinion that our music is dark and depressing, but we don’t really feel that way at all.”

The new album is Arab Strap’s sixth in their ten year history. While some people would say that was a heavy workload, once again Moffat disagrees. “We just like to keep busy, we’re always working on things. In a way, it doesn’t really seem like much. There’s been a few live albums as well, so its more than six. Its good to keep going, just keep going, keep moving. But, now that I think about it, now that we’ve been doing it a bit longer, we’re starting to take our time with it. We’re going to try to make an album every couple of years, instead of every year.”

Arab Strap’s workaholism doesn’t just extend to recording either. Their new tour takes in 21 British dates in 23 days, a marathon for a live show that has been described as energetic, yet emotional. But once again, Moffat brushes it off. “It might be a strain, we’ll see. I just really don’t like days off, they’re a total waste of time. The more shows we play, the better off we are. Of course, ask me again in a weeks time, and I’ll probably change my tune.” And the support bands for this epic run of dates? “I’m not actually sure. There’s a Scottish band we’ll be playing with for some of the shows, but I’m not sure who’ll be doing all the supporting. laughs We should probably chase that up, with the tour only a week away.”

Arab Strap have now been around for ten years, making them veterans, even without ever having had a massive hit. But over the years, there’s been a few changes which Moffat has witnessed. “Yeah, it’s quite different now. When we started out, there was heaps of small independent and local labels; it was a great scene. Nowadays, all the smaller labels are being squeezed out because they can’t compete with the bigger labels. We’re just really grateful that we’re still around and that Chemikal Records is still around so we can work with them and release our albums through them.”

A recent news report stated that Arab Strap had been disowned by their home town of Falkirk, after a number of their songs slagged off their home town. But Moffat isn’t worried. “I think that was just stupid. It must have been an incredibly slow news day. It was very funny, they just asked some locals what they thought, got some bad opinions and wrote it up. The news reporters really mustn’t have had much to write about that day.”

The writing process for Arab Strap is fairly dynamic. “Sometimes Malcolm will give me a cd of guitar parts, and I will add some vocals, try some things out, and then we go to the studio. This time was different though. Malcolm has a studio at home, so we used that to write and test heaps of demos, and really knew what we wanted before we went into the studio. I think that really helped us make a better, more accomplished album.”

In 2003, Arab Strap performed a whirlwind tour of Australia, playing acoustic shows in Melbourne and Sydney only. And although they enjoyed the different feel of these shows, they are hoping to bring the full band out when they come out for a possible Australian tour in May. “Yeah, we like the acoustic shows, but it would be a shame to come out there and not be able to play the songs properly because we couldn’t afford the plane fare.”

And as for the future for Arab Strap? “We’ll be spending this entire year touring and promoting this album. After that, we may be doing some solo projects, or look at the new album, we’ll just see what happens, take it as it comes.” Whatever it is, it’s sure to be worth looking forward to.