Following on from our 10th Birthday at the end of 2016, and before the release of our upcoming fourth album 'What We Might Know' in March 2018, we've been looking back and taking stock, and it turns out we've come a helluva long way in the last 11+ years!

We've found there are quite a few interesting bits and pieces sitting in the archives that either haven't previously had a proper release (eg, Beer Drunk Soul), are an alternative earlier version of an established favourite, a chaotic live track (embryonic live version of A Darkness Rises Up), or just a curio that gives a bit of insight as to how a particular track came about ('Mandolin Song, Basel'). So as it's the end of the year, and before we get on with the serious business of the new record in the Spring, we thought you might like to join us for a bit of nostalgia from our last decade. And there's always a tale to be told...

1. MY BEER DRUNK SOUL IS SADDER THAN ALL THE DEAD CHRISTMAS TREES IN THE WORLD - 2014
The Christmas Songwriters Club became something of an Edinburgh tradition in the last few years (though sadly absent for the past couple). Usually held just a few days before Christmas, this charity event brings together all sorts of familiar faces from the Scottish music scene to perform a couple of festive songs each with one rule – no covers. Jamie had performed solo at it a few times in the early years when it was still down at Leith Dockers Club, but when the event grew in scale and moved to the Queens Hall it was time to put together a full band song.

Maybe not the most festive subject matter, other than the tree reference in the title (cribbed from a Bukowski poem btw), but hastily thrown together with some added sleigh bells it did the job for the 2013 concert. It had been so much fun to play that when Christmas 2014 rolled around we decided to relearn it and record it, this time with Salvation Army brass and even more sleigh bells. It never really had any kind of official release, though it did appear on the Shelter Scotland ‘Home For The Holidays’ charity compilation in 2016. So here it is. Merry Christmas. Again.

2. LIES (Chamber EP Version) - 2007
Similar to the re-recorded 7” single version released the following year, this is the original version that appeared on our debut self-released EP. It was our first go in a proper studio after realising how difficult it would be to record a full 7 piece band going full tilt on a home digital 8-track with just 2 mics! We recorded it all to tape instead with Stephen Watkins (more on him later…) at Chamber Studio, Edinburgh shortly after we formed. We still found some time to try out some daft experiments and messing with sounds – hammering the guts of and old piano, running the slide guitar through an AC30, Farfisa and Leslie Speaker simultaneously just for the hell of it, that sort of nonsense.

3. NEARLY HOME (Original Version) - 2008
As you probably know we’re not exactly shy about hitting the ’epic’ button, and this session at Substation in Rosyth is another example of us realising we just couldn’t translate the ideas we had in the practice room into the sounds we wanted on our home recording kit. Again, it’s not a million miles away from the final version from ‘Until The Earth Begins To Part’, but it was more valuable time spent learning about the recording process. Plus we got to play with some cool stuff we wouldn’t otherwise have been able to – that huge regal sounding Harmonium instead of the usual organ part, some of Mogwai’s old synths buzzing away in the background, and Nazareth’s gong in the finale. Just because. This version was never properly released in the end, though we almost certainly used it as a demo for touting round labels, and probably streamed it on MySpace too. Remember MySpace? Wild.

4. GHOSTS (Original Version) – 2008
This was put down almost as a last minute b-side/demo idea towards the end of some sessions at CaVa Studios, Glasgow when we were recording the Slow Parade and Lies singles. I think we were all surprised about how well it turned out, and in hindsight we should probably have used it instead of the final album version, purely for the gorgeous real mellotron part in the outro.

5. “MANDOLIN SONG", BASEL (original demo for ‘A Leaving Song’) - 2009
The iPhone* has probably been the biggest leap forward for musicians and touring bands in the past decade. Suddenly you could take care of all the social media stuff, tour planning and dull admin tasks from the back of the van on the way to the next venue. But most importantly it makes demo-ing and capturing ideas so much more portable and easy. Sure, you can take a digital multi-track or laptop with you to record on the road, but when you’re a touring party of 9 with an orchestra quantity of kit to cram into a splitter van then space is at a premium. Yes, the early recording apps were little better than a digital Dictaphone, but it then became so easy to share tracks with the rest of the band.

*other smartphone brands are available

So here is the original rough, lyric-less, mandolin led iPhone demo of A Leaving Song, recorded on the spur of the moment in a large empty concert hall in Basel, Switzerland. What’s also interesting is that although there’s no mandolin on the final album version, the song would probably never have been written without it. Often chord sequences or riffs come about for us when we’re just mucking about on different instruments from what we’d normally play, and picking up something new or trying different tunings is often enough to kickstart the inspiration. So would Jamie have come up with the chorus chords of if he’d just been playing a guitar? Probably not.

6. “NOT AN ENCORE” (early live version of ‘A Darkness Rises Up’) - 2009
The first album hadn’t even been released by this point, but we already had an eye on the second one when this was recorded at the Bedlam Theatre in Edinburgh, early 2009. Some songs can take us weeks, months or even years to work out, but this one just fell into place instantly (though not the lyrics as you’ll hear!). I can’t remember how much of it Jamie had written before bringing it to us, but it can’t have been more than a scrap of an idea. We hadn’t planned to play it at the show but we were having so much fun it just seemed like a good excuse to break our ‘no encore’ rule. We’d probably only ever played it through half a dozen times at most in the practice room, so it’s astonishing to hear how close everything already is to the final arrangement. Apologies about the glockenspiel in verse 2 though…

7. WINTERLESS SON (Acoustic Demo) - 2011
Pretty straightforward home demo of Winterless Son. We could all tell straight away from this recording that the song had legs, and the rest came together pretty easily after that. It’s also reassuring to know it can work as a solo acoustic track as well as a full pelt band version.

8. TOSKA (Demo No. 2) – 2012
Another case of us always looking forward to the next record – I can distinctly remember packing up all our kit at the very end of the Let Me Come Home recording sessions in 2010, while Jamie was idly picking this new tune out on the piano!

This is the second demo version of three. The first was a rough sketch, and the third demo with full drums was so good we ended up using it as the basic backing track for the final album version. So rather than put on a flatter version of the final mix, we’ve put the second demo down instead. No drums, and missing the outro, but loads of nice string loops and piano delays.

9. CARRY YOU AWAY (Demo) - 2012
When Craig joined the band in 2010 he also brought with him access to his own fully equipped recording studio. While home recording still has a place for capturing ideas, the ability to record demos with everything properly mic-ed up (especially the drums) allowed us a lot more flexibility prepping the Weights & Pulleys sessions. This one never made the cut as we either struggled to finish it, or it just didn’t fit, and this is the only previously unreleased song on this compilation. However, it’s got lots of interesting backwards loops and effect ideas laid down so for a demo it’s pretty far advanced…

10. DITTY (Guitar, Harmonium & Trumpet version) – 2013
This stripped back version was meant to be the b-side to the So Long, So Late single, and there must be an accompanying video somewhere. See, we can be quiet and gentle when we want to be.

11. WHAT WE MIGHT KNOW (Demo) – 2016
Not giving away too much about the (as yet unreleased) new album, but the title track is already out there, so we can let you hear the original glitchy demo Jamie made too.

12. SOMEDAY YOU'LL REMEMBER ME (Live) – 2016
We joined forces with Stephen Watkins again nearly 10 years on from the debut EP. He recorded and produced the new album ‘What We Might Know’ back in 2016, while also recording our Edinburgh Fringe show at Summerhall that year where this track comes from. This other wee new album taster can also be found on the Live at Summerhall EP we were giving away last Christmas.

13. “FORWARD COMRADES” (Demo) – 2006
So you’ve made it this far. You’ve probably subconsciously noticed a gradual improvement in arrangement skills, musicianship and production values as this compilation has gone on. Well allow us to dispel that illusion with this ‘rough as balls’ demo from some of the very first writing sessions way back in 2006. What passes for an almost recognisable embryonic version of ‘Eilert Loevborg’ was the product of a couple of late night practices at Rory & Jamie’s house a month before our first BR gig in December of that year. It’s also from before Gill, Dave and Andy were even on board, so only Arne, Ian, Jamie and Rory can be held accountable for this mess.

Yes, it’s four guys playing out of tune and out of time into two microphones. No, it’s unlikely to have turned out any better if they hadn’t had so much wine first. Or even settled on what instrument they each wanted to play. Of course there’s no excuse for the glockenspiel. Should we have put it on here? Probably not. But we have anyway, because as terrible as it is, it’s the sound of a bunch of people having a hell of a lot of fun making music. And there’s no point making music if it isn’t fun.

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