St Deluxe: Cutting the Slack

They've been hailed by Alan McGee as a "Scottish Nirvana for the twenty-first century", but don't let that put you off. Glasgow's <b>St Deluxe</b> insist they're a different breed altogether

Feature by Ian Crichton | 29 Sep 2009

In any band's lifetime, the chance to collaborate with your primary influences is a rare honour - for many musicians, it's simply impossible; you can't jam with the dead (unless you buy Guitar Hero, of course). But in Glasgow four-piece St Deluxe's short time together, they've already chalked up at least four, with more on the cards.

“It's good working with people like that, people we respect and are influenced by. It takes us, not out of our comfort zone, but encourages us to be more experimental,” enthuses singer and guitarist Jamie Cameron. By “people like that” he means Calvin Johnson and Stuart Braithwaite, who've both lent their production skills to some new material, and Sonic Boom, with whom they’ve now twice shared a stage - all musicians who have had some hand in shaping St Deluxe's nebulous noise-pop beginnings (in Beat Happening, Mogwai and Spacemen 3 respectively).

St Deluxe's particular concoction of noise-pop is one treated with squalls of tremolo guitar and Cameron's washed-out American slacker croon, and it's surprisingly upbeat. By keeping their pop punk sensibilities intact, they're sidestepping the inherent weariness that comes with the genre, leaving them to gaze at the stars rather than their shoes. And it's winning them fans fast, including the aforementioned Johnson, Braithwaite and Sonic (that's Peter to his mum), who are now shaping the band’s sound in the most literal way, offering guidance in the studio and on the stage.

All this fraternising with the indie elite didn't happen by accident - since the band's inception in 2005, Cameron - alongside Martin Kirwan, Stuart Kidd and Brian McEwan - have been their own managers, recording in their own studio and organising the gigs they want to play. “The DIY ethic is important to us, it’s really another part of the inspiration from the bands and labels we‘ve always listened to, like K Records and Sub Pop,” says Cameron. And if St Deluxe haven’t had their favourite bands in the studio, they’ve probably had them round for tea - Cameron is the son of veteran musician and producer Duncan Cameron. “I grew up in a house with The Jesus and Mary Chain recording the drum tracks in the hall!” he recalls, with the kind of fondness one wouldn’t usually associate with the memory of a father who took his work home with him.

Coincidentally, the band’s current producer, Joe Foster, recorded JAMC’s debut single, and co-founded Creation Records with Dick Green and, their biggest fan, Alan McGee (“That 'Scottish Nirvana' thing really split people down the middle..." says Kirwan, "but it was a great gesture”). Foster also put out their eponymous debut on his own Poppydisc Records in January of this year, and despite it being barely eight months old, the second LP is already underway. “We're thinking about getting it out early next year,” Kirwan reveals. “Joe has produced two out of the four we’ve got so far - we’ll definitely continue working with him. He’s always got great ideas.” And with a wealth of material, a solid work ethic, and a too-perfect-for-words support slot with Mudhoney and The Vaselines lined up, it seems St Deluxe have plenty great ideas of their own.

Playing The Picture House, Edinburgh with Mudhoney & The Vaselines on 9 Oct.

http://www.myspace.com/stdeluxe