!!! Bring Strange Weather to The Arches

"We were last in Scotland, when? I can't quite remember," admits !!! (Chk Chk Chk) frontman Nic Offer. "But since then Shannon replaced John. We just worked in a new bass player this week. I guess with the live thing, I feel like we've always been slowly changing it and adding to it. When our old friends see us, they're like 'Oh, it's changed a lot'. We don't feel like it's changed that much because we've been there for the whole slow evolution but I think it will be a big change from the last time we played Scotland."

In advance of the Sailor Jerry Presents gig at The Arches, Offer reflects on new release Strange Weather, Isn't It? (due out in August) and the turmoil the band have undergone since the release of last album Myth Takes in 2007. "It [Strange Weather] felt like a record that was about the band and about the changes in the band. In some ways everything has always been about that," he says. In truth, !!! have always had an ever-evolving line-up but most prominently, vocalist and drummer John Pugh left the band in 2007 to be replaced by Shannon Funchess, whilst last December the band's former drummer Jerry Fuchs - who was also a member of Maserati, Turing Machine and The Juan MacLean - died after a tragic fall down an elevator shaft.

The album was recorded in Berlin, a city Offer suggests has got "an aura and buzz which is easy to get under your skin." The dance-punk outfit will be showcasing five or six songs from their latest release which, as ever, carries somewhat of an autobiographical slant. "The first song on our first album is about us as friends and what that meant. When we got to this record it felt different, but at the same time we didn't feel like it needed to be about pointing fingers or blaming anyone. It was just what everyone had to go through. It wasn't a complaint, merely an admission that it was...strange weather."