Glasgow Gigs: Arab Strap reflects on 30th Anniversary and upcoming Big Night Out gig

As the band looks ahead to their gig at Queen’s Park Arena as part of Glasgow’s Big Night Out series of gigs, we caught up with Aidan Moffat and Malcom Middleton of Arab Strap to hear how songs from their most recent album, I'm totally fine with it don't give a f*** anymore, have been received.

They also told us about their new record shop and how they’re looking ahead to their 30th anniversary.

Glasgow World: We spoke after you’d been doing the acoustic gigs and you said you were excited to get back to making a bit of noise. I saw you sort of La Belle Angele, Edinburgh in September and thought that it was probably the best I've seen you. So how has this year been?

Aidan Moffat: “We've been pretty quiet this year because we've been outside the album campaign thing. So we've got wee pockets of gigs this year, like we're doing a tour in England later in the year, which is all the places we missed out the last time last year, you know.

“So it's kind of like a wee, a wee year of catching up with places and occasional festivals. And we've been working on new stuff as well. As you say, it's the 30th anniversary next year, so hopefully we'll have some new stuff ready for that to celebrate, but we're just kind of taking it easy.

“We've also started a record shop now too, which is good because it's my only work experience! We've started doing our own self releases and vinyl of the stuff we do on Bandcamp, all the archive stuff. The first one was an acoustic record of versions from our last album. And the next one is going to be a recording of the Philophobia Live tour that we did, and things. So mostly this year has been a year of business, artwork and trying to write songs in between. And I suppose that must”

GW: Is there a bit of that where you're kind of looking forward to next year with the 30th anniversary stuff when you're looking into the archives?

Malcolm Middleton: “Yeah, I think we've looked quite heavily in an archive, because Aidan was getting all that done during lockdown when there wasn't much else to do. So that is looking backwards, but you always need to find new things, which we've totally forgotten about and didn't know were there. So it's like a bottomless well at the minute, but it's good. It's nice.”

AM: “Yeah, there's quite a lot. I mean, there's a lot on there already, but the stuff that we've been releasing is all quite new. You know, it’s related to the last album or recent tours. A lot of older recordings that aren't on the archive from very early days, and I think maybe I could try something with that for our anniversary. But we also want to make a new record for our anniversary too, so I don't know yet. There's nothing set in stone at all.”

GW: The last album was so highly regarded, and the new stuff fits in so nicely with the old stuff, but do you feel like you don't need to promote something when you're out doing these shows?

MM: “Yes, I've thought this before. It's a good spot when you've launched an album, you've gone and toured it, even like towards the end of last year, it felt a bit more relaxed, and now going to play the songs again as they're not the new songs anymore. They've kind of melted in the background with all the rest. So it's nice to just have them all mixed together.

“And you kind of see at this point itself, what ones are going to stand out from an audience point of view, that you can see the audience reacting to from the last album, or that maybe we thought were better ones that they don't, or vice versa.

“But it's a good situation, because there's nothing to prove right now. We're just enjoying the songs that we've written, but it's that way. There's also a feeling that we need to move on now and get some new stuff done, because that's the exciting part of what we do, that and also playing live to people.”

AM: “I think what I've noticed as well is that, like you were saying about the new songs, it’s the new songs that seem to get the biggest reaction now. Obviously, these things are hard to quantify, and now we've got new tools like streaming and stuff like that, but, it used to be, people were always after First Big Weekend, but the Turning of our Bones from As Days get Dark and Bliss from the last album seemed to be really popular and taken over from the old songs a bit. That just reflects who's streaming. As I say, it's really difficult to quantify, but it does seem to be that the new songs are certainly getting at least an equal, if not better reaction than the older ones.”

GW: Last time we spoke, you said about Bliss being one of the most danceable songs you've ever put together. Like I said, when I saw you, I think it was one of the ones that got such a great reaction. Were there any that surprised you in terms of reactions from the crowd?

AM: “I'm surprised. At Turning of our Bones. I mean, that now appears to be our most popular song. And, you know, it's nearly five minutes long. It only has one chorus, and it doesn't happen until about three and a half minutes. But also, it was used as the theme to the Karen Pirie TV show, but it only happened once. There's only one series, but I've noticed that people are finding us through that which is good. I mean, that plays a part in that as well. As I say, there's no real way to quantify all these things, but the Turning of our Bones is such a long and strangely structured song that it surprises me that it has overtaken some of the other ones.”

Arab Strap will play at the Queens Park Arena on Friday, 4 July. You can get tickets here.