Kicking off our Friday, we have a live session from Seán R. McLaughlin & The Wind-Up Crows to mark the release of their Ninewells EP on 26th January, which we preview below (pre-save: https://windupcrows.ffm.to/ninewellsep).
This EP features the fantastic fiddle work of both Euan McLaughlin and Shetland-born Vicky Gray, alongside vocal contributions from award-winning singer-songwriter Lewis McLaughlin.
Ninewells was previously a Song of the Day and is about the loss of rational thought and the intoxicated imagery sometimes brought about by stress. Reflections on mental health run through all the EP tracks but perhaps none more so than in this song.
Seán has previously stated in Folk Radio that Ninewells is “…about time and how our awareness of time is brought in and out of focus. There are more specific images in here that have a lot of personal meaning to me, but I hope others can get something out of it. I think the general themes are pretty universal.”
The video for Ninewells was shot as an ‘Attic Session’ in an abandoned bank in the Scottish city of Perth by filmmaker, Lonnie Wright.
The space was made available by Scottish arts charity Outerspaces who support the takeover of vacant commercial properties with the goal of offering artists unique working environments and helping to contribute to the conversation on the future of city centres.
The three-track EP showcases the alt-folk rock outfit’s Scottish, Irish, and Shetland roots, alongside indie-rock and Americana influences. The release, mixed and co-produced by Jeremy Backofen (The Felice Brothers), comes ahead of a full album due later this year.
The opening track, ‘Cleaned’, has echoes of both The Pogues and Frightened Rabbit, with verses presented as three short stories that centre on the theme of human relationships with the Scottish coast. On this, McLaughlin states:
‘… the first verse in Cleaned is a wee January story. It’s about the complex relationships we have with our loved-ones, alive and no longer with us. The festive break can bring some tensions into sharp focus and January can become quite a reflective month.”
A satellite spinning in January sand
Burying the hatchet and hiding your hands
In the dancing detritus, you argue with ghosts
And phone-film a coffee cup float down the coast
“The second and third verses are about friends of mine and how useful the sea can be for mental health. There’s truth in these stories but I deliberately flipped a few things around and built in some ambiguity…I suppose the whole song is about how much we get from the North Sea and Atlantic Ocean, and how important they are to Scotland. It’s a sort-of protest song, but grounded in wee stories.”
Second track, ‘Feathers’ is a song about responsibility and fallibility, on this Seán explains that the “…narrator is trying to justify poor decision making, presenting the weight of short and long-term responsibility. He slept through a stressful day for his partner and seems to have made a bit of an arse of fatherhood, but we get the sense that he’s finding the pressure all a bit much. We shouldn’t condemn this character … I do empathise with him, his partner and their son.”
He sings:
Didn’t I stick around you, darlin’
Like a needle in your clothes
And:
I heard you moved to Kerry, where you raised our son
I heard he’d broken his ring finger, when he tried to hit someone.
The Ninewells E.P. is out on 26th January. Presave it here:
https://windupcrows.ffm.to/ninewellsep
Upcoming shows can be found here: