Sitting down with the singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who has been making waves in the Edinburgh music scene in recent years, we go in depth discussing her new band Fishbowl, the Scottish music scene, and taking up space as a queer woman in the music industry.
Photo by Redwood Streets @/redwood_streets
Fishbowl are a five piece chill funk band from Edinburgh, who since their formation in December (announced in April), have already played the Mash House, and are booked for this year’s Summer Nights festival at King Tuts Wah Wah Hut. Fishbowl was born after Kirstie’s old band Attic Days broke up, and a few of the members got sick of not gigging together, or doing anything with original music. Kirstie described their sound as “a lot more chilled funk; but right now it’s early days so I don’t know how to describe it. We are still finding our sound with Fishbowl and trying to not be so focused on ‘oh this sound is what we are’. ” Her previous band Attic Days, an indie pop-rock band, developed a core fanbase in Edinburgh, gigging regularly across the city and starting to break into the Glasgow scene. However, they ran into trouble with boxing themselves into a genre early on in their formation, which led to feeling “very creatively stunted , as we had made a sound that neither of us were that passionate about writing for anymore. We had started writing new music that didn’t fit the sound we had created with Attic Days and we felt that it had gone as far as it could go.” She laughed and added “And our drummer, Alfie Smith, had moved to Australia”.
Photo by Rogan Paul @/the_randy_randerson
However, she discusses the importance of having a few years under your belt in the local music scene as “We announced Fishbowl and were booked for the Mash House a couple of weeks later. It was a great foot in the door as we know so many people in the music scene- artists, sound techs, venue managers and promoters”. She adds “Rory (Guitarist for Attic Days and Fishbowl) did some bumsooking when we started the band, messaging promoters like ‘Hi we have a new band, we have nothing released, we have some bad quality voice memos from band practice if you want to hear them, are there any gigs going?’ ” From here, the reception to their live performances has been overwhelmingly positive. Kirstie describes a sense of confidence in the new project, as “we’ve only played three gigs and there’s been so many people at each one coming up to us and saying they’ve never heard anything like us before, which is a wild compliment to receive”, “I’m feeling optimistic, which is rare for me!”
Describing the Edinburgh scene as a very friendly one , I asked Kirstie about her favourite venues to play, and any negative experiences she had had on the scene. It should come as no surprise that Sneaky Pete’s , a 100 capacity venue on Cowgate named as one of the best clubs in the world, comes top of the list, with amazing sound, friendly staff and good vibes. Conversely, ‘there’s one venue we’ve vowed never to play again, due to what was probably bad luck on our end with sound techs and bad quality sound, and some venues are great sound wise but the staff have caused us to have negative experiences there.”
Talking more about the local music scene, I asked specifically about opportunities for progression, to break out of the local scene and onto a bigger platform. Kirstie has a matter of fact attitude about this, saying “I genuinely think so much of it is down to luck. It’s due to the right people being in the right place at the right time. It can be a bit frustrating as you see people with amazing opportunities and you can sometimes get the feeling that it’s not down to musical merit, it’s down to luck.” Followed by, “you do get to a point where it’s like cool, I’ve played sneaky’s more times than I’ve sh*t, I’ve done Tuts, and people can be gigging in these places all over Scotland but they never break through and get any higher.”
However, many of these frustrations are due to changes in the scene outside of anyone’s control. Brexit has made it almost impossible for small artists to tour without “boatloads of cash”, and as Kirstie points out “The best way to get music heard by new audiences is to tour, but it’s become impossible to do without loads of money, and then that’s where the luck comes in. But even when those opportunities come up, it’s so inaccessible. A popular Scottish band got offered a major tour support slot, and had to front £12,000 just to get everything across”- and that’s without the costs involved of actually being on tour.
Speaking to Kirstie about her song writing process as an individual artist she responded “I always try to write from the soul I guess, a lot of my songs are probably sad. But I like writing deep lyrics because people can relate to that as well in their own way, and take their own interpretations. My usual process is to sit down with piano or guitar and fiddle about and see if anything comes to me, a melody or some chords. I’ve been trying to move away from that, I think it’s been limiting me a bit, as if i was sat down figuring out chords and nothing came to me I would just give up. I’ve been doing a lot more of writing lyrics, wee melodies, and coming back to it. I have a massive note on my phone that’s a bank, maybe random lines and things that I can go back to for inspiration if I feel stuck.”
Alongside Fishbowl, Kirstie is part of singer-songwriter acoustic duo The Vennels with Ruariadh Rattray-Cruickshank, who can be found regularly playing in pubs and venues across Edinburgh. Speaking of her solo music, she talks of the influence of having family from Stornoway, and spending a lot of time surrounded by the beauty of the Scottish Highlands. “I think I’ve had a lot of background in traditional music, I have a lot of folky traits that come to play in my own music, particularly in the melodies I come up with.” Alongside this, she is working on developing her own solo music further, looking to release more demos in the near future, looking for funding tailored for female and non binary musicians.
Fishbowl is the second band Kirstie has fronted as the only female member, and when asked of her experience as a queer female musician in the industry she responded “I think I can count on one hand the amount of bills we have been on that have had another female or non binary artist on the bill with us, in any of the bands or projects I’ve been in, which is crazy. There’s been a lot of times where I have been the only woman there.” In recent years, major festivals and events in Scotland have faced backlash from their lack of female, queer or non-binary artists on the bill, and Kirstie notes “This year, some production companies have booked a lot of female artists or female fronted bands, particularly for Summer Nights and I’m not sure if this is a conscious effort or not. I don’t want to moan because it’s good that they’re doing it, but it’s a bit bittersweet because you’re left thinking- do you actually want me to be here? Am I the token hire?”
As a final note, her song for the Karma! Playlist is ‘Don’t Fall Asleep (strings version)’ by Hohnen Ford, and a big current musical inspiration is Adrienne Lenker, with Kirstie declaring “I’m so jealous of her, in so many ways!” You can support Kirstie’s music by going to see The Vennels around Edinburgh, listening to the music she has released on Spotify and buying tickets for Fishbowl’s upcoming King Tut’s support slot on the 27th of July, at https://www.ticketweb.uk/event/samuel-nicholson-callum-stewart-david-king-tuts-wah-wah-hut-tickets/13500984 . Summer Nights is an amazing festival showcasing up and coming local bands, with four artists on the bill each night, it’s worth checking out the lineup!
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