Spotlight On... Lacuna
Ahead of releasing their latest single, Shelley, on Valentine's Day, we catch up with Emily Beckwith of Glasgow outfit Lacuna to find out more
Emily Beckwith, Jack McLellan, Will Taylor, Sean Choon, Olivia Thom and Amie Huckstep are the six friends and musicians that make up Glasgow outfit Lacuna. The band have been putting out steady releases since 2021, with 2024 their biggest year so far. They played sold out shows at the famous Windmill venue in Brixton, and received a nomination for Best Newcomer at the Scottish Alternative Music Awards before going on to play a sold out King Tut’s show at the start of this year as part of the venue’s New Year’s Revolution series.
With their sights set on the future and their cathartic and harmony-filled euphoric fan favourite Shelley – its divisive and rebellious protagonist a cool cat that loves a rom-com – seeing the light of day on Valentine’s Day, we catch up with Beckwith to find out more.
I’d love to know more about the band, who you are, how you met and what inspired you to make music together? In your press release you say you formed after a chaotic night at Slouch Bar in Glasgow, so we'd also love to know more about that and what went down?
Lacuna was started in my bedroom when I was in high school; Jack and I both went to school together. We knew absolutely no one in the music scene and didn't know where to begin. I met David [Waters] from a band called Pinc Wafer and we ended up going for drinks and chatting about music. We needed a bassist at the time and that's when we met Will. We had all been drinking and Will, without really knowing me at all, lucky for us, joined the band and also roped Sean in on the deal too.
After our first few rehearsals it felt like we'd been friends for years, writing music and playing together is so so easy and fluid. It opened me up to a whole new way of songwriting. A year in we felt like there was something missing from Lacuna and that's when we met Amie and Liv, then Lacuna became a fully realised vision. Now we're one big family, we're so lucky to have met each other at such a young age and early stage of our journey into music.
When it comes to your music, who/what would you say inspires your sound and songwriting style?
Our songs are written with quite a lot of raw emotion and grit. Our music, whether its lyrics or melody, they tell a story about something that has happened to one of us. When I write I can see the songs before I can hear them. In terms of inspiration, Ethel Cain and Adrianne Lenker come to mind, they are so focused on storytelling. Ethel Cain’s albums take you on a journey from beginning to end and Adrianne's lyrics paint pictures in your mind. We write a lot about familial ties, womanhood and the past. I often think of our songs like dreams I've had – I never really know what they mean until I've mulled over them for a few days.
After an impressive past 12 months, you’re about to release fan favourite Shelley on Valentine’s Day. What can you tell us about Shelley – the person and the song? And why did you want to release Shelley on Valentine’s Day?
We have sat on Shelley for sooo long and it's exciting to finally have her out in the world. Shelley really has been around for a while though and has developed a sort of ‘cult’ following within the local scene. We wrote Shelley in about ten minutes at rehearsal two years ago, we were all jamming and it just came to be. I can't not mention the dance too, I genuinely don't know how our Shelley dance came around but people liked it and it stuck.
The character of 'Shelley’ really is who we all were as teenagers, a wallflower who thinks they're secretly quite cool with a funky music taste. Not part of the ‘in’ crowd but wants to be. Don't know if that's something we should have admitted about ourselves but it's true! If you want the easy answer though ‘Shelley’ is the name of the street I grew up on. ‘Shelley’ is our little love letter to our younger selves and the lovely people who have loved the band over the years – Happy Valentine's!
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Am I right in thinking I spotted a little teaser on your Instagram that there might also be a video coming out for this single? If so, what can you tell us about that?
What are you talking about?! Yes! We have a very special video coming out around the release, shot by our good friend Adam Mours. We've always wanted to release something visually fun that captures our character and theatrics as a band. It’s what draws people in at the live shows I think. Shelley is moody, campy and colourful, think Back to the Future meets Carrie meets Fall Out Boy? The video is also filled with the most special people – the Glasgow music scene.
Aside from the single, you just played a sold out headline show at King Tut’s in January, and you’re playing the House Guest festival in April, but what does the rest of the year look like for Lacuna?
Selling out King Tut's was a big boom into the new year for us – we’ll be playing a lot more shows both in Scotland and down south in 2025. I think the most exciting thing we have planned at the moment though is releasing the bank of music we've been sitting on. Our last release was early 2024, we can't begin to tell you about the big Lacuna seven-minute pieces that are gonna be dropping, anytime now.
Shelley is out on 14 Feb; Lacuna play House Guest festival, Glasgow, 12 Apr
Follow Lacuna on Instagram @lacuna.music