Stuart-LemonTree

Stillhound take to the Lemon Tree on Saturday 8 June! Stillhound have been friends since childhood. Attending the same school together, the Edinburgh three-piece grew up dreaming about making music, huddling together to swap ideas, write songs, and conjure dreams. Debut album ‘Bury Everything’ was a remarkable creative feat, the sound of their musical lives distilled down to an essence. Largely rooted in their Lost Oscillation studio – located in Edinburgh’s creative hub Leith – it was the start of something, but also a finishing point. What comes next is their new album – it’s daring, it’s ambitious, and it’s self-titled, offering a new definition of Stillhound. “The first album, it really represented everything we’d written up until that point,” explains Fergus Cook. “Everything we’ve written since then is very different because it’s much more in keeping with our tastes now. How we write and what we listen to. We’re trying to make a statement – that first record was a time capsule, and the new record is now.” Deciding that they needed a fresh environment, Stillhound literally loaded up their van with equipment and set off into the Scottish Highlands, turning small cottages into makeshift studios in picturesque but intimate landscapes such as Gairloch, Ardnamurchan, and Ullapool. “We get more and more extreme with how much equipment we take up there,” laughs Dave Lloyd. “The last couple times were just ridiculous. The van was literally packed to the very brim. Our lives consisted of writing, drinking, and eating for a week or two.” Spending their days hiking across formidable landscapes, Stillhound would return and make the best music of their lives. The environment seeped into their music, too – long days swimming in the sea, long nights surrounded by barren wilderness. “We’ve worked through some tough times, in terms of going away, writing, and not being sure of what we were expecting,” Dave adds. “But it’s been really nice to get away. It was bliss – incredible weather, really beautiful surroundings, we could go swimming at the beach.” Working completely independently, Stillhound took charge of every facet of their sound, and it allowed the band to become more free-form, more fluid, but also more direct and dynamic. “We feel that the best way of doing it is how we’re doing it just now,” says Laurie Corlett-Donald. “I would say we’ve all been pretty damn close for a long time now, but we’ve learned about each other in a capacity that you only learn about when you write with someone. It’s really, really hard to describe in another way.” The results are startling. ‘Stillhound’ builds on the innate promise of their debut while introducing potent new directions for the band, ranging from Nine Inch Nails style darkness to the daring pop of Depeche Mode, or even the startling songwriting of Grizzly Bear. It’s a fusion of the digital and the analogue, the blend of technological prowess with engrossing songwriting. “The way we write involves production,” notes Fergus Cook. “We’re half-way between a band and a bunch of producers sitting at a desk making beats. Sometimes the two come hand in hand. Sometimes the basis of a track can come from a production trick.” Relentless in their approach, Stillhound have produced their most ambitious work yet: ‘Glass Lake’ took 30 vocal takes to complete, while ‘Zara’ is written in 5/4 time signature; ‘On A’ started life as a seven minute epic, before being reduced to a cryptic 90 seconds. Billed as “home-brewed” it’s a unique potion, and it all comes back to that staunch independence, to those long nights in the Highlands. “With this one we were all totally agreed on how we wanted it to sound,” states Dave Lloyd. “It was completely obvious to all of us that – money aside – the best thing to do was to do it ourselves.” https://www.aberdeenperformingarts.com/whats-on/music/stillhound-dee-homealone-djs/2159

Friday 14 June, Lemon Tree An introduction to commercial musicianship, guiding and encouraging upcoming musicians/bands to take the leap into the music industry in the right way. The workshop includes a songwriting session with professional songwriters, a gig guide: the do's and don'ts, performance technique, networking and collaboration, an opportunity to perform and an open question session with a panel of industry professionals dedicated to helping upcoming musicians begin/continue to thrive within the industry. This is part of this years Light the Blue festival/ https://www.aberdeenperformingarts.com/whats-on/music/light-the-blue-2019-introduction-to-commercial-musicianship-with-katie-mackie/2302

As part of True North we have 2 free panels for musicians (and anyone else interested) which might be of interest to some people: TRUE NORTH: PANEL DISCUSSION - Sound Minds: Mental Health and Wellbeing for Artists and Musicians -Saturday 22 September The Panel for this will be: Representative from Help Musicians UK Iain Murray Halina Rafai RM Hubbert Aberdeen Performing Arts will be joined by industry experts and health professionals to discuss the topic of mental health and wellbeing for artists, musicians and people working in the music industry. This panel will be supported by Help Musicians UK. https://www.aberdeenperformingarts.com/whats-on/all-shows/true-north-panel-discussion-sound-minds-mental-health-and-wellbeing-for-artists-and-musicians/1281 TRUE NORTH: PANEL DISCUSSION The F Word – Funding for Artists -Sunday 23 September The Panel for this will be: Siobhan Anderson (Creative Scotland) Dougal Perman (SMIA) Mike Macdermid + 1 (still TBC) A relevant discussion for anyone looking to start out in the music industry, hear from those working in the music industry, and within the funding sector, about how to go about finding out about funding streams, writing funding applications and supporting your career development. https://www.aberdeenperformingarts.com/whats-on/music/true-north-panel-discussion-the-f-word-funding-for-artists/1291 We would really appreciate it if you could share this around with any of your musician friends as they should be really interesting, anyone who's ever seen RM Hubbert will know that the Sound Minds one will be interesting!

Folk fans, this one is for you, Twelfth Day are an acoustic duo with a style which has been described as genre-blending and both edgy and inventive. Catriona Price is a singer and fiddler from Orkney, while Esther Swift is a singer and harpist from the Scottish borders. In their own words, this is not so much a duo, but a two person quartet. Their two distinctly different voices, the fiddle, and the pedal harp, build layer upon layer of a complex and ever-evolving sound, rich with rhythm, harmony and texture. Their last album Cracks in the Room, produced by legendary English folk musician Chris Wood and mixed in the USA by Oz Fritz (Tom Waits), was released to great acclaim in 2017. Its 11 entirely self-composed songs and tunes embody everything that Twelfth Day is: undaunted, adventurous, natural, virtuosic, and quite unlike anyone else. There is almost a punk/jazz sensibility in some of the songs with a nod to Nina Simone, one of the duo’s ultimate inspirational artists, in Great Green – composed in the midst of the Brexit campaign, which reflects the changes in society at the time and as cuts to disability allowance were announced. As well as more standard music traditional music they have also done some interesting covers in their own inimitable style. To Book Please Book Here Websites: http://www.twelfthdaymusic.com/ Press: “21st century art music for trad fans.” – ***** fRoots “Lush orchestral colours... Bang up to date.” – The Sunday Times “Surrender to their charms you must… It would be a sin not to.” – Folk Radio UK Show Details Date: Sunday 11 March 2018 Venue: The Lemon Tree Doors: 7.00pm Price: £11.00 inc bf

If you are a fan of quirky, acoustic music we feel you might enjoy Juno award nominated Mo Kenney’s stuff, her soulful acoustic music with pop sensibilities will make for an interesting evening. With her recently released third album, “The Details”, Mo Kenney traces her own strange, devastating, and ultimately hopeful trip through the trials and tribulations of booze-fuelled breakdowns, clouds of depression, and disintegrating relationships. On each of its 14 tracks, she unflinchingly confronts her annihilation and eventual redemption, leaving nothing out. The concept album is her most personal and cohesive work to date—combining elements of bruising rock ’n’ roll, vivid psychedelia, and haunting, left-of-the-dial pop, Kenney navigates the darkest waters in her life with self-deprecation, genuine soul-baring, and typical black humour. Mo Kenney’s numerous achievements for her songwriting and music are impressive for an artist who began releasing and touring less than five years ago: 2013’s Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada Prize for her song Sucker, the USA Songwriting Competition’s 1st Place Winner (Folk) for IFaked It, numerous Music Nova Scotia and East Coast Music Awards, a Canadian Folk Music Award and a JUNO award-nomination. Mo Kenney has been steadily building an international reputation and in 2016 was nominated for a Juno Adult Alternative Album of the Year for her previous album "In My Dreams". This is a rare chance to see her play in the UK, in one of only 2 Scottish dates. Well worth catching her now in an intimate cabaret style setting, because who knows what size of venue she might be playing next time. Support for this show will be local Act Katie Mackie. Katie Mackie is a local alternative singer-songwriter who has been singing and playing piano since she was a young age. She has gigged around Aberdeen in bands and as a solo artist for several years and built up a solid reputation. To Book Please Book Here Websites http://mokenney.com/ Show Details Date: Sunday 04 February 2018 Venue: The Lemon Tree Doors: 7.30pm Price: £8.80 inc bf