SEAFIELDROADWHO: Andrew Eaton-Lewis(vocals/piano)WHERE: EdinburghFOR FANS OF: Snow Patrol,Idlewild, The Blue NileJIM SAYS: Seafieldroad is oneof two acts featuring AndrewEaton-Lewis — the Leith-basedsinger-songwriter also performswith critically acclaimedelectro-pop trio Swimmer One.While Seafieldroad is

Andrew’s solo project, the othermembers of Swimmer One, hiswife Laura and best manHamish, are very much involved.Laura sings backing vocals,

while Hamish has producedboth Seafieldroad albums, andmuch of the material started lifeas Swimmer One offcuts.Andrew told me: “Over the

years I’ve built up a collection ofsongs that didn’t quite lendthemselves to what SwimmerOne were trying to do.“When we were recording the

second Swimmer One album,we decided to spend a coupleof days recording some of thesesongs, too. It worked out so wellthat we ended up with twoalbums’ worth of songs. Thisbecame Seafieldroad.”The acclaimed debut album,

There Are No Maps For ThisPart Of The City, materialisedthis time last year, and thesecond, the eponomously-titledSeafieldroad, is out next week.Andrew said: “This album is

the most stripped-back mymusic has ever been. It isbasically just me and a pianothroughout, which is veryunusual for me. Swimmer One’s

music has always had about 20different things going on at onceand even the first Seafieldroadalbum had a string section andlots of harmonies.“With this album I wanted to

see if it was possible for me tohold people’s attention with onlya voice and a piano.”But where does the name

come from?Andrew explained: “I thought

it would be quite funny to namemyself after one of the leastpicturesque streets in one of theworld’s most beautiful cities.“Seafield Road seems to

consist mostly of warehouses,and a sewage works, and smellsa bit as a result, but I cyclealong there quite often to getfrom my home in Leith to thebeach at Portobello, which isone of my favourite places.“It seemed like a good

metaphor for the fact that theroad to happiness isn’t alwayspretty, which is very much atheme of the lyrics on the newalbum in particular.”Seafieldroad is released on

Monday and there is a launchgig on Sunday at the VoodooRooms in Edinburgh.MORE: facebook.com/seafieldroadQ Jim’ll be playing Seafieldroadon In:Demand Uncut — Sunday7-10pm on Clyde 1, Forth One,Northsound 1, Radio Borders,Tay FM, West FM & West SoundFM. See jimgellatly.com. Photoby Alex Hewitt.

NEWMUSICBY JIMGELLATLY

By CHRIS SWEENEY

THE Ting Tings SCRAPPEDtheir long-awaited secondalbum because they werescunnered with everyoneelse making electro pop.They’d gone to Berlin towork on it but the onlysong to ever see the light ofday was Hands — a collabor-ation with Calvin Harris.Now the Glasto heroes havereloaded and are all set to gowith a new untitled secondalbum, due out in January.Singer Katie White, 28, fizzed:“We went to Berlin for eightmonths and recorded a bigchunk of songs — they were elec-tro pop based.“Then we’d put on the radioand go ‘there’s an electro popsong and oh, look, another one.’“It was doing my head in.Then someone suggested we lis-ten to Paul’s Boutique by TheBeastie Boys — suddenly we hadthis epiphany where we wanted

to make 80s New York-soundingstuff. So we packed our bagsand went to Spain where thesun was shining and wrote thebiggest chunk of the album.“We binned a few songs too.We wanted it to be unique andthe best album we could make.“Even though our songs arepop, we’re not a pop band. Wedo everything ourselves, fromfilming videos to taking ourown photos. That takes time buthopefully it feels that little bitmore authentic.

Shame“We had a bit of pressure butthe record label had the goodgrace to trust us. Now we’veplayed them the new songs andthey were like, ‘Wow, we’re soglad we went with this’.“It would have been such ashame for us to rush a recordout just to cash in on the firstalbum. We didn’t want to doany old s**t. We wanted to be

artistically fulfilled. It soundslike a complete w***y thing tosay, but it’s true! If you do analbum you’re not happy with,you’ve got to live with it.“This is our lives and work. It’sbeen three years in the makingand we hope it’s good.”New single Hang It Up hasgenerated a great reaction onlinebut Katie admitted: “I’ve noidea who’s going to like the newalbum. I do know it would havebeen easier to make a Euro poprecord as that’s what everythingon the radio sounds like.“We’ve probably shot our-selves in the foot. But at leastwe’ve made an album we like.”The duo — the other half ofthe group is Jules de Martino,42 — had blistering success withtheir 2008 debut We StartedNothing.It charted all over the globe andshifted more than two millioncopies — plus spawned the smashhit That’s Not My Name, which

bagged a million downloads inthe US ALONE. But Katie admitsthey felt out of their comfortzone being celebrities.She said: “I just don’t thinkwe can play the game — we’rereally bad at it. We’ve beentraipsed down the red carpet atthe Grammys and we looked sohorrific and awkward in theclothes that we’d been given.“We know what we’re good at.The second we try to be some-thing we’re not, we’ll fail.“Our strong point is doing itall ourselves and being creative.”The highlight of their rise tothe top was rocking Glaston-bury in 2009.

FailedKatie, 28, explained: “We’dplayed it three years on the run— the first time was to 70people, then 15,000.“We honestly didn’t expectthis band to do well, we’d bothbeen in bands that had failed.“Then a year later we wentback and 55,000 people turnedup! We were so blown away aswe’d been touring out of thecountry so we didn’t realise ourmusic had been on CoronationStreet and stuff.“To come back to the UK andhave all those people suddenlywatching us — I just stood thereand couldn’t really perform.”They’re back with a low-key

UK tour with a difference thismonth — it hits The Arches inGlasgow on November 29.

The concept is thatlocal art students takeover each gig andKatie said: “Thosesmall, intimate showswhere we’ve donesomething artisticallyinteractive with theaudience are ourbest memories — somuch more fulfill-ing than playingbig venues.“And we wanted

to play this newalbum in small ven-ues to feel how itworked, like we didwith the first one.“The students can

make clothes for us orhelp design our set. We’re

going to get big boards theycan paint. Guitarists can per-form on stage with us.“If it ends up being terrible,

you’ll have to blame the peoplefrom your city!”Q Tickets and info at thetingtings.com

By EMMA JACKSON

INDIE rockers FrightenedRabbit are living up totheir name — they’re terri-fied about turning up tothe Tartan Clef Awardstomorrow night.The guys from Selkirk havenever made it to an awardsbash before and it’s all a bitdaunting — especially pickingthe right clothes.The glitzy charity bash — inaid of the Nordoff-Robbinscharity, which uses musictherapy to help kids — takesplace at the Old Fruitmarket inGlasgow — and the boys willbe in good company.Songbird EmeliSandé, The Rezillos,Kassidy and BigCountry are also alldown to play.Frontman ScottHutchison said:“We’re really lookingforward to goingalong, but it’s a firstfor us so I don’tknow what to expect.“We’re worried about how todress. I don’t have any smartclothes.“So we’re just playing it byear and seeing if we can getaway with a smart version ofwhat we normally wear.“We’ll probably be in jeansand a jacket. I’ll wear a scarf’cos it’s bound to be cold, andmaybe a cane to smarten it upa little bit.“But if it’s ball gowns, kiltsand black ties, we’re f***ed.“You’ll be able to spot us amile away then — see the guyswho’ve never been to an awardceremony before.“We’re performing on thenight, but it looks like it’sgoing to be a long one because

we aren’t performing untilabout midnight.“First you’ve got the dinner,the awards and then theperformances.“We’re going to keep incontrol before the performance— a couple of light wines willbe the only drink we havebefore we get up on stage.“We’ll wait until after we’veplayed to have a good fewdrinks.“I don’t think you can verywell be nominated for anaward, then get up on stagehalf-cut and be crap.”He added: “I’m really looking

forward to seeing Emeli Sandéand Kassidy playing.“I think Emeli is great — I’veseen her perform on the TV afew times now.

Celebrating“It was weird, I didn’t evenknow she was Scottish untilsomeone told me after I hadseen her perform at theMOBOs in Glasgow withProfessor Green.“It’s going to be a greatnight for Scottish music.”And it will definitely be aspecial night for the band —

Scott, his brother Grant ondrums, Billy Kennedy on bassand guitarists Gordon Skeneand Andy Monaghan — becausethey are also up for an award.But even if they don’t win,they will still be partying.Scott revealed: “I’m turning30 this weekend, so regardlessof what happens we will beout celebrating. It’s going to bea great weekend.“The hangover is going tohappen on Tuesday. I’ll just keepgoing all weekend until then. Ithink that’s the best plan —there’s no point stopping.”Once the boys have recovered,

they will resume work on theirnew album.Scott said: “We’ve been writ-ing new material and we arejust in the process of gettinginto the studio.“It’s not going to be wildlydifferent from the materialwe’ve released before.“The only difference thistime around is before I wasthe sole songwriter in the bandand this time everyone hasreally got on board and it’sbeen a team effort.“You never really know howdifferent it’s going to be untilyou put it all together andhear it as one.“It’s exciting. It will be outnext year. We don’t know

exactly when, but wejust want to makesure we have every-thing totally rightbefore we finish it.“We aren’t in anyrush. We’ve felt nopressure to get thealbum out quickly,which is really nice.“As a result we’vegot really strongmaterial and it’s

great to have that space towork.”But Frightened Rabbit areputting some pressure onthemselves to book a return toScotland’s top music festival.Scott admitted: “We missedT In The Park this year, so itwould be amazing to comeback next year with a newalbum and get on the bill.“It’s one of the biggesthighlights of being in thisband, the last time we playedT In The Park.“I hope the album is out intime so we can do it as wellas a few other festivals aroundScotland.”Q See Monday’s paper for thewinners. For more info or to make adonation, visit tartanclef.org

LADSARENERVOUSABOUTAWARDSBASH

Friday, November 18, 2011 SFTW 5