Please secure your valuables

So we’ve decided on a title for our album after a little bit of debate. Fili’s usually the master of naming records but this time I fluked the above phrase after seeing it on a fairground ride. It seemed appropriate. The record was mastered this week and it’s sounding andy dandy. Now we just need some artwork (hopefully of Fili as the Queen on a stamp) and then get them to the pressing plant. Here’s the tracklisting.

1/ Instruments of the Orchestra

Song about playing in a school orchestra. My school orchestra had 5 members of which I was one. This song is about that orchestra.  Powerpop like the Cars or something.  Excellent little song.

2/ Jenny teaches rock school

A song about a reasonably well known female Glaswegian “rock star” who Fili once saw in the corridor of Tesco screaming that she needed some “Hummus” or “Pine Nuts” while dressed as a rock chick. It really stuck and we built a song around it. The aforementioned “star” teaches rock school at a local college and buying “hummus” and teaching rap seemed a bit weird but then everyone has to multitask in these days of austerity. Maybe it’s also about me and Fili and anyone who’s got a dayjob. Kind of like an old Stax or Motown record.

3/  Neon Triple X

This is just an 8 second loop of Gordon’s drums playing a glam rock backbeat. All the guitars are actually synthesizers (well nearly). Fili wrote the lyrics about a sleazy bed in. You’d have to ask her exactly what it’s about.  Modern glam rock and pretty great track.

4/ Car boot sale

We had to write a song about this much maligned Sunday morning British activity. We didn’t mention the guys who come round at 7am looking for bargains or the old ladies wh will buy any kind of rubbish. Synth bass line.  Very 80’s like windsurfing or an Audi Quattro.

5/ Stars

Fili sang this in a falsetto. There’s loads of room for the heavy guitars and Gordon’s drums just groove with the Ibanez Destroyer and Joe’s  bass (I think it was a Gibson Firebird/Thunderbird bass as well). Got the lyrics watching a tv programme about this famous female British physicist and she said sarcastically “girls cant do physics” and “we are all made of stars”. Really stuck with me .I think it’s the best track on the album.

6/ Last person alive

This song’s about being chased around by electronic airships and computer controlled Nissans and eventually feeling so lonely that you want to end your life as the world’s getting taken over by machines. It’s all a bit JG Ballard but pretty sweet.  Brilliant bassline to go with the instrumental section. Kind of trying to sound like Coffee and TV by Blur. We even nicked the saxophone riff from “Heroes”.

7/ Trenchcoat

Fili wrote the lyrics about a teenage goth who she knows in Motherwell. I also had to add  little bit about Halloween Jack the Hussy’s uber fan as he wears a big black trenchcoat to Hussy’s gigs. The music’s from a little Korg drum machine and a couple of synths. It’s kind of like a quirky little spacey electronic song.  

8/ Daddy Daycare

About guys who don’t work and their wives do and the father looks after kids. Wrote it about a guy called Sice who used to sing in the Boo Radleys and he was in Q talking about how his job is bringing up the kids and he did all his work in the Boos and was now retired. Great band the Boo Radleys. Anyway, takes its musical cue from Fanclub and Dinosaur jr and those bands just before Britpop. Uplifting.

9/ Just about finished with love

I’d seen the Gruffalo on the TV and all the stuff about foxes, owls and the dark forest. Seeped into my unconscious and this song came out. Fili actually did the “aah aah ahh” backing vocals that sound like a sample. It always makes me think of a song called “Berkeley Mews” by the Kinks as the guitar is similar. Fili really nails the soft/loud singing on this.

10/ Caledonian Sun

We had to abandon another song halfway through the album and I had to write this off the cuff. We couldn’t understand why no one has called a song this. Joe said it had to be last on the album and he was right as it has an optimism about it. Great fuzz bass on the chorus. It’s the demo but Jimmy thought the guitars and keys were all on the money so we couldn’t see the point in re recording everything which had been done in an hour on my laptop and had a loose vibe.

Please secure your valuables will be out later this year.