Malcolm Middleton
Let's face it: summer is over, and we're looking at six long months of winter. To get through it, we need some dark, depressive music, but with a sense of humour. Step forward, Scottish singer-songwriter Malcolm Middleton.
Formerly one half of Scottish post-folk duo Arab Strap, Middleton is by now well established as a solo artist, delivering a mix of alt-rock, folk and country topped by his dark, often hilarious lyrical observations. Playing Prague in support of his fifth solo album Waxing Gibbous, Malcolm Middleton joins us in the studio to give us some background on his uniquely dark, witty songs.
Some of the highlights of the interview are transcribed below; listen to the full interview, and the songs, right here:
JUKEBOX: Friday Ripple 06.11.09
Malcolm Middleton on "Waxing Gibbous" being his "final" album:
"No, it's not my final, it's my final for a few years. I think I've come to the end of this creative voice that I've been using to write songs of this kind of style. It's been 5 albums in 7 years, and I'm just gonna have a break from writing songs about myself."
On the amicable breakup of Arab Strap in 2006:
"Arab Strap's style was always quite to do with our youth, being young and doing stupid things, whether it's in relationships or going out drinking too much and the rest of it. So it didn't feel like we were living that kind of life anymore, and it felt... well, Aidan was writing too many songs about watching TV and doing the dishes, and it just felt like we'd grown out of it. So It was a good time to stop... We've been best mates since the band split up, more than we were in the band."
On a future Arab Strap reunion:
"I think we'll do at some point, but I still think it's too soon, it's only been 3 years. I think we need to do it for the right reasons: if we're writing lots of music and words that we think 'This is the Arab Strap style.'"
On depression and creativity:
"It's probably one feeds the other for me. I picked up a guitar when I was wee, out of boredom, and I still only play guitar when I'm feeling bored or melancholic or something. And if I'm happy, I'll be doing other things, I've got so much better things to be doing. So I suppose the style of my songwriting and playing guitar comes from being bored, being melancholic, being depressed. So yeah, it's a direct relation. It's not really that good sometimes - I'm proud of the songs that I've written, but, then, sometimes if you go on tour, and you're playing these songs you wrote when you were feeling rubbish, it's quite hard. Because you're thinking, 'I'm feeling great, why am I singing this?'"
There's plenty more in the programme, including background on the forthcoming Arab Strap box set.
Here's the full setlist:
Malcolm Middleton - We're All Going To Die (Full Time Hobby)
Malcolm Middleton - Red Travellin' Socks (Full Time Hobby)
Arab Strap - The Shy Retirer (Chemikal Underground)
Malcolm Middleton - Kisses at the Station (Full Time Hobby)
Malcolm Middleton - A Brighter Beat (Full Time Hobby)
Arab Strap - Turbulence (Bis Remix) (Chemikal Underground)
Malcolm Middleton - Loneliness Shines (Chemikal Underground)
Malcolm Middleton - F*** It, I Love You (Full Time Hobby)
Malcolm Middleton - Box and Knife (Full Time Hobby)
Arab Strap - The First Big Weekend (Chemikal Underground)
Casiotone For the Painfully Alone - Scattered Pearls (Tomlab)
The Jesus and Mary Chain - Down on Me (Blanco Y Negro)
Glasvegas - Flowers and Football Tops (Columbia)
Zuluboy -Genocide (Native Rhythms / EMI South Africa)
Imbube - It Aint Safe No More (Unreleased Records)
The Very Best - Julia (Moshi Moshi Records)
Six Foot - Anwudi (Out Here Records)
SoKo - I'll Kill Her (ABC Music)
Aran Epochal - Neklanka (Silver Rocket)
Boogie Balagan - Lamentation Walloo (Trikont)
Final Fantasy - Independence Is No Solution (Radio Wave Live Session)
RIAA vs NIN vd Burt Bacharach - Bite The Hand That Walks On By (self-released)
Shift Z - No (Lebanese Underground)
Lali Puna - Faking the Books (Morr Music)
Matisyahu - We Will Walk (Epic Records)
Patrice - Fear Rules (Yo Mama's Recording)
Listen to it now on the Radio Wave Jukebox under Friday Ripple > 06.11.2009.
