Spotlight On... No Windows

With a musical bond that was formed while at school, multi-instrumentalist Morgan Morris and vocalist Verity Slangen are relatively new faces on the Scottish music scene. As No Windows though, the pair are already building up considerable buzz having self-recorded, self-performed and entirely self-produced their dreamy debut single Shout (Red Song). Ahead of the release of their Fishboy EP, the pair tell us about their early days, playing their first big festival and future plans as a duo.

You’ve been making music together since you were at school. What initially drew you towards one another? And musically, what did you originally bond over?
Morgan Morris: I remember being sat in an IT classroom and I came across Verity’s Instagram account. I didn't know her previously, being in different year groups, and I saw that she had posted some covers and originals. So I plucked up the courage to message and we organised to cover a Mac DeMarco song, but that didn’t happen in the end. Then one day, Verity put a post out asking people to join a band, which of course I responded to alongside two other people. And since then, all throughout school, we were in a bunch of different bands. All of them were pretty bad, but it was a good time!

Shout (Red Song) was your debut single but also the first song you wrote as No Windows. What's the story behind the single and why did you choose it as the first introduction to your project?
MM: Well, it was the first song that would go on to be a No Windows song because the first phrase – the chorus and melody with the super distorted vocals – had been on my laptop for probably a year before we actually turned it into a song. I remember forgetting about it completely then finding it again and deciding to build a song off of it, which I then sent to Verity to write lyrics and a melody to.

Verity Slangen: When I first heard Morgan's demo version, I really liked his vocals in it, and the melody was so nice that I didn't really want to overcrowd it with really complicated vocals. We wrote it with the idea of it being the intro to this EP, so I wanted lyrics that weren’t too deep or didn’t have too much meaning. The song makes me think of new beginnings and I think it's the sort of song you would listen to going into a new season or something similar.

Can you tell us a little more about Fishboy and its main themes and ideas? 
VS: For me, the songs weren't really written coherently. Each one has a different meaning but most of them were written around this weird time in my life, where I was just about to leave school and I felt really strange. There’s an uncertain edge to them. 

MM: It's all very stepping into the unknown.

How would you say you’ve changed as performers since you first started writing together? 
MM: Well, we've grown up in terms of age – we were literally children when we met and I'm still 17. But as performers, I guess, the biggest thing has been just existing outside of school. Everything we did prior to No Windows was in school. We’d rehearse in school, whenever we’d play live, it would be part of school concerts, which was great and very important to our development. But No Windows was never really tied to school. 

VS: In terms of performing, it’s been about trying to find that bit of confidence onstage because when speaking, I really struggle. But performing I think I have found a bit of confidence.

You played Connect Festival in August, was that one of your first gigs? How did it feel to be a part of an event like that and how did you find the reaction?
MM: We had our first ever gig at the Poetry Club opening for NewDad, which was so sick. And then prior to Connect, we had done opening slots at Sneaky Pete's and King Tut's, which feel like super good places for us to be. There’s a nice scene surrounding those venues, which we're lucky to be a part of. But Connect was our first proper festival and it was my first time going to a festival! We were on on the Sunday so we had the whole weekend before to enjoy it. We were super lucky to get the chance to play a festival like that.

VS: There were a lot more people than I was expecting to be there. But it was just this really nice atmosphere. I think for me, that's my favourite gig that we've done so far, because there was such a lovely feel to it.

What are your hopes for the future of No Windows? And what do you have coming up?
MM: I guess, being the most famous people on earth? No, I don't know. It'd be nice to get down south and do some shows there. But it's quite an exciting time just because of how early it is. And I think particularly with us being quite young, it feels like there's no rush. So more shows in more places and more music, hopefully.

VS: There's definitely a part of me that’s a bit nervous because of the unknown but it is really exciting.

---

Fishboy is released on 25 Nov via Something; No Windows play Sneaky Pete's, Edinburgh, 15 Dec