Roddy Woomble: Sometime During the Night We Fell Off the Map, track-by-track

With Sometime During the Night We Fell Off the Map, Roddy Woomble has now released almost as many solo records as he has fronting his band Idlewild. This is solo effort number eight, following on from last year’s more electronic offering, the eponymous debut album from his Almost Nothing project.

Sometime During the Night We Fell Off the Map sees Woomble return to a more acoustic sound, working alongside long-time collaborator and guitarist Sorren Maclean. It also sees the songwriter returning to writing songs in a room with other people, an opportunity not afforded to him for the last couple of records due to the pandemic. And so Sometime During the Night... was mostly written in Woomble’s living room over the winter months – hence its cosy fireside vibes – and then recorded in an old Baptist church in Bunessan on the Isle of Mull, Woomble and Maclean joined by Hannah Fisher (violin and vocals), Danny Grant (drums), Matt Carmichael (saxophone), Mike Gordon (bass) and Woomble's son Uist on the piano.

With the album out today, Woomble talks us through its ten tracks.

Still So Far to Go
Still so far to go – metaphorically but also physically, mid-life can feel like a liminal space. Through life we never stop changing, we’re often not aware of it, indeed often don’t want ourselves to change, yet it's happening. Good songs can make you feel here, and yet somewhere else – happiness and sadness can weigh exactly the same.

Break Up the Sun
Where does nothing become something and something become something else? I don’t play video games, but love the complexity of them and the virtual words you can inhabit, you can be anyone, and literally destroy the sun should the desire take you – not that this song is about that.

Still Painting a Picture of You
Making art, being creative – it’s all an unfinished painting – abandoning one picture and moving onto the next. Creativity can sometimes feel like a curse if you’re constantly dissatisfied with what you’re producing, then at other times, beatific, euphoric even. This song was recorded live. I’m actually playing drums, acoustic guitar and singing at the same time, one-man-band style, which I won’t be doing in concert.  

Theoriser
The place from where art springs; what words represent; encounters with people you know you’ll never see again; natural and spontaneous changes. I guess these are the ideas floating around this song, and it’s in two parts, which I seem to do more and more. The band are so good I always want to do my bit and then listen to them play!

Old Negatives
'With eyes like old negatives' has been in a notebook for ages, waiting for a song. Then I went to seen Paris, Texas again and sat on a bench for an hour talking about it – it’s like a Western without a hero. I’m a failed photography student so I have drawers full of old negatives – all dissolving dreams. I think Wim Wenders would like this song. 

I Can Make Sense of It All Now
Things become clearer as you get older – overwhelmed by all the wonderful things still to do: make, think, plan, create, taste – losing your way, worrying, anxiety, procrastinating – it’s all temporary disorientation – ‘art helps us, like a banister on a dark stairwell’ after all. I’m fascinated by mirrors – they can help us too, just don’t look in them for too long!

Good Despite Everything
Aside from the travelling around between concerts, recording etc, I spend a lot of my time just living in a simple fashion. Not straying too far from home – cooking, cleaning, looking after children. And when I’m not doing that – reading, writing, walking, thinking. It’s easy to shut yourself off from the world, but it’s important to play a part in your community so it feels that the world around you works, or seems like it’s working and you’re contributing something. Ideas that emerge from consciousness when you can get to the bottom of yourself!

Read It Like a Secret
I keep photo albums, they are like memories, painted over by silence – like a hotel where you’re the only guest! I suppose a central theme to the record is reflection, which I find myself more fascinated by. The idea that you spend most of your life up until 45/50 collecting the information and experiences that you spend the rest of your life reflecting on. Those memories get confusing after a while, and I get them mixed them up with other peoples' stories, or books I’ve read.

All Things Considered
Because the song has a country feel to it, I lean into country style narrative lyrics, which I don’t normally do. So this is not a real person, not me – a fictitious character, ruminating on his inability to accept change, always looking for something better – until the chorus comes. He could be living in Nashville in 1975, or Arbroath in 1998. He’s having some doubts, but ultimately some wonderful thoughts while travelling.

Christmas Without You
I’ve been considering writing a Christmas songs for years, ever since I began playing annual Christmas gigs around 2012. This song came about quite naturally as it was written last December, it was stormy outside, the fire was lit, and the festive melody leant itself well to having lyrics that mentioned Christmas. I’m going for that feeling late on Christmas Day when it’s almost all over, and the melancholy begins to set in. Collective reflection is a big part of the festive experience, and it’s inevitable that you often focus on all the people who aren’t there anymore to spend it with you. I set the song in a cabin on the winter solstice – a resting place on a winter's night. I’ve written lots of songs, but I am especially proud to have now written a Christmas song.

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Sometime During the Night We Fell Off the Map is out now

Roddy Woomble plays The Venue, Dumfries, 25 Oct; Strathearn Arts Centre, Crieff, 26 Oct; MacArts, Galashiels, 27 Oct; Lemon Tree, Aberdeen, 28 Oct; Eden Court, Inverness, 29 Oct; Tolbooth, Stirling, 30 Oct; The Hug & Pint, Glasgow, 20 & 21 Dec

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