When thinking about the musings of Aidan Moffat, I always feel transported, transported not only into his music, but also to the locations, feelings and mindsets he creates. I feel the Monday evening pint slide down my throat with the weight of the weekend hanging heavy behind my eye-lids, the self-loathing and lows that follows the highs of the previous nights. The heartaches, the comedowns, the hangovers, the humour, it all feels tangible and real. A man of many, and many great words, I always had an inkling that he would be the kind of person you could sit down with in a pub and whatever topic came up, he would have a story or anecdote, or even if not he would still discuss it openly and honestly with you. I decided to test this theory and it turns out I was right.
The idea is simple, I wrote out questions for five categories that relate to Aidan’s life, but also in some cases have greater ubiquitous reach in their content and apply to us all. We sit in a pub, get pissed, he blindly chooses the categories and we discuss them as he picks them. A pub psychology piece, if you will. The topics:
Scotland – Drugs – Collaborations – Sex, Love and Getting Older – Life in Music.
Drugs
First ever drug experience?
Speed, I used to take speed when I was about seventeen or eighteen. I was quite a late starter for Falkirk! My friends went to Glasgow University but I never went to University, so I used to go up there and we’d go to Nice N Sleazy’s and we used to take as much as we could and see how long it would take is to get drunk, which seemed to be the next day.
Do you still indulge today?
I don’t necessarily indulge. I haven’t touched E in a long time, but if somebody offers me a line of cocaine it would be bad manners to knock it back. It’s not something I seek out, if it’s there and I’m in the company of people in bands, usually much younger than me who don’t have to get up in morning, I might dabble. But I don’t need it to have a good night out like I used to.
Has there been a noticeable decline in quality?
In E, certainly. I remember that getting pretty hellish for a while. But I haven’t touched that in such a long time, around seven or eight years I think. I used to take it quite regularly, but it was getting pretty shit by the time I stopped, but I hear it’s getting better again!
I hear tales of £10 pills again...
Ah, so you spent £10 on a pill and it lasts you all night, like it used to? That’s quite good.
Particular substance you were drawn to?
Erm... not really, I guess E and acid, I took acid for a while but I didn’t really like that, it could go either way and I don’t like the lottery. Other than that I haven’t really tried anything else, I don’t smoke you see, so marijuana means nothing to me. I tried a pipe, Jim who used to drum for Arab Strap loved it, he loved hash and all that and he used to make me little pipes to smoke on the bus because I turned into a fucking idiot and it used to entertain him. He used to think it was hilarious to get me stoned, because I’d talk a lot of shit. I was his pet monkey for a while.
Did you ever write under the influence?
No, I’ve tried it but I was useless. I used to go out with a dictaphone and think, oh I might have some ideas when I’m melted and it never happened, it was utter, utter fucking nonsense! Complete gibberish. Most of the songs I used to write years ago were written when I had a hangover, or the day after, so it’s not so much been an influence but a catalyst.
You’re subject matter on drugs/alcohol has often been about treading that line between enjoying yourself and then loathing yourself afterwards. Has that balance been struck or is it something you still struggle with?
I’m still very prone to making silly mistakes, but it’s usually alcohol-related now. It did something very silly recently, I won’t tell you. It was unfortunately in front of a band I really really love and I made a real tit of myself, but you know, shit happens, everyone takes turns in being a dick…
So, you embarrassed yourself in front of a band you love?
Kind of, erm… ahhh, let’s not go any further!
Ever been accused of glorifying drugs?
No, I don’t think so. I think people who listen to it are usually people who have taken them anyway. I remember Arab Strap fell out with Falkirk Council for a while, as they were angry that we were painting a certain picture of the town. But I mean, nobody has complained about it, I don’t think – but this was before the internet, so who knows?
High point?
Arab Strap used to go to T In The Park and you’d always find me in the fair, high, probabaly on E always on the waltzers – it was fucking amazing! And there is a sad element to this, but do you remember the poster girl for the anti-ecstasy campaign, Leah Betts? She didn’t die because of the drug of course (she died as a result of excessive water consumption – fifteen pints in ninety minutes), but the pills that she took were fucking fantastic, apples they were called, they were absolutely wonderful and I’ve never experienced anything as good as that since or before. They were the absolute pinnacle of ecstasy taking. You’re starting to get me back into it now!
Low point?
God, there’s been so many. I wrote a song with Mogwai once, it’s on an EP, it’s called ‘Now You’re Taken’. That was written the day after drugs and at a low point, I was coming down and a girl I was secretly in love with was away shagging someone and she called me to tell me, as we were very good friends. That was a pretty bad day. Once I had to come home at short notice to Glasgow on the train and I’d had a very heavy night on expensive cocaine that a major label was paying for and my god, I was shaking and crying all the way home *laughs hysterically* but y’know, you can laugh at these things now. You have to be aware of these things before you take them, so you have to expect them.
Best way to avoid a comedown?
It’s unavoidable.
Cure for one?
I just shut myself at home and don’t go out for long enough and try not to see anyone!
Life in Music
You’ve spent fifteen years as a professional musician…
Well the first few years we were still on the dole! So I don’t know about that, but thereabouts, aye.
Biggest noticeable change in the industry?
Well, downloads obviously. I was talking to my brother about this actually, he’s out in Japan and he’s thinking of staying out there because he keeps hearing all these horror stories about the economy, and I explained that us musicians went through that years ago when downloads starting to come in and we all thought we’d lose out on money. Things seem to be getting better though, vinyl sales are consistently up and there almost seems to be a divide between independent outlets and major ones again, which is good in a way, especially culturally and artistically, but if that crossover hadn’t of occurred in the '90s I don’t know where Arab Strap would be.
Your first band Angry Buddhists remain largely unheard and recorded on dicataphones and old four-tracks. In today’s world you would be everywhere and widely available, in hindsight, is that a good thing or a bad thing?
I love the sound of old tape, I love the calypso records that were always captured in one night, I think they sound fantastic. I mean, it’s much harder making music on tape. I recently played some drums on Malcolm’s new record and we did five songs in four hours. That would have taken a day to do before, and then a five day week having to go over it all. Things like that, it’s so much better to work professionally that way but I do miss that sort of lo-fi sound, I find that quire exciting when it sounds a bit rough, when it sounds too polished it sounds like you’re trying too hard. It should be about the songs and the people involved, not how fucking good you are at Garageband.
How has making a living as a musician been?
It’s been alright, I’m not rich by any means – I can get by. I was lucky that Arab Strap did one record on a major label and that kept us going for a year or two. I was also very lucky that I bought a flat and I sold it for twice as much, so I’ve been living off that. People seem to think that because your in the arts that your quite rich and I find it quite entertaining when people find out I have to work for a living. It’s very strange, I mean I work hard on other things too, I do artwork jobs for Chemikal Underground, help people put their artwork together, and occasionally write for people too. I get by. If I didn’t have a very wonderful partner - and I hate calling my girlfriend a partner because it makes her sound like a cowboy - I would be struggling, certainly.
Apart from the one record you’ve done with a major, you’ve been on an indie your whole career. Has that all been plain sailing as many presume it is? Or has that been at times rough too?
These days the relationship I have with Chemikal Underground is almost symbiotic, there is no reason for us to fall out at all. Whatever idea I have they seem quite happy to entertain, I would had to have to find another label. I mean, I was on Melodic from Manchester too and that was the same thing, it was quite casual and a very natural relationship where we understood one another and I prefer that. I mean financially, there is more on offer at a major label, but what I discovered from being on a major label [and I could not do again] was that I couldn’t possibly defer some of the responsibility to other people. There was a lot of things we couldn’t control, some of the things that we didn’t really understand that wouldn’t be within our control, like where to spend advertising. It’s our budget they’re spending and Universal decided to take out an ad in Q magazine, who had given our previous album two stars. I mean, what the fuck is the point of wasting time with Q? I mean ten years later they say they liked us at the time, which is absolute nonsense, complete piss.
Sex, Love and getting older
In your songs, you’ve been honest about your sexual activities in the past, has that come back to bite you?
Not in any bad way, no. There has been a couple of girls who’ve fallen out with me that I’ve met since and we’ve endured each other’s company for ten minutes in the pub, but I was never the sort of person who kept in touch with his exes anyway. Actually, funny you should say that an ex-girlfriend is coming to a gig, presumably with her boyfriend; she’s got a +1!
So, she requested this?
Well, she was actually too scared to ask me, so she asked Malcolm to ask me!
That sounds like her +1 may not be her boyfriend…
No, no. Me and her ended very very badly.
Has she been the subject of some songs?
Aye, she’s been the subject of quite a few songs.
She aware of this?
Oh, she’s very aware of it, aye! I shan’t tell you which ones.
Has she ever made her feelings known on the matter?
She never complained at all. I don’t like putting names in songs anyway, I think it limits the appeal. I did it once on the How To Get To Heaven From Scotland album - there is one song on that ‘Now I Know I’m Right’ in which I name them all, I just though fuck it, I’m going to try and break my own rules, but overall I don’t try to put names in because it becomes too subjective. People need to be able to get something from it. If you were just talking about yourself it would be a bit boring. I think that’s the illusion that comes from what I do, it sounds ostensibly introspective or solipsistic or whatever, but really I hope when people listen to it it’s because I’m saying things about their lives. Oh god, I sound like a fucking wanker on the late show, can we talk about drugs and tits again?!
On your latest record, you proclaim: “We invented love and that is the greatest story ever told.” Is that coming directly from your perspective?
There’s two ways to look at it, I mean love is an invention; you can look at it as though love is an invention of the race and the fact is that we’re all just trying to procreate. I mean it’s called ‘The Greatest Story Ever Told’ because there is a slightly atheist tone to it as well. I don’t believe in any religion or anything like that. I mean that song is actually about my son.
You recently told a tale to The Quietus about the only time your mum ever hit you as a child, after you’ve gone missing only to be found trying to buy an ice cream cone for a girl you had met but having no money. You were only very recently told about this and you said that you found that quite an apt representation of your later life endeavours?
I think with that story especially – knowing that my mum has heard all my records and knows everything she possibly can, all the things you don’t want your mum to know - you would have thought she might have mentioned that a few years ago?! *adopts his mums voice* “Oh our Aidan used to run off with wee lassies all the time.” It was such a perfect story, and I told her "I can’t believe it’s taken this long for you to tell me!" It did seem to be quite prophetic!
So, do you think you are a born romantic?
I don’t know. I think there are links to family - hyper-logically – I’ve actually never met my father, we didn’t have a relationship and I think psychologically there is a gap there, a yearning, so I don’t so much think it’s born romance, I think it’s part of your psychology. I think people need certain things and I was just looking for what I didn’t have. I’ve found it now and it’s great, if you love sleepless nights!
The new album is entitled Everything’s Getting Older and the funeral song The Copper Top deals even more clearly with death, you even recreated a funeral for the video, was that a tough thing to do?
-It was a fucking riot! I fucking loved it. The whole thing – mortality is something I thought about, especially with it being a dad [Aidan’s father's death was the subject of the song]. I started to think maybe I don’t have too long left.
Is death something you fear?
Not at all, no. We’re all just organic matter, you know. I don’t want to die, but I’m happy to accept I will. I’d rather die naturally of course. We’re pretty fragile creatures, so it doesn’t take much, often in the van I’ll think that all it takes is one fucking idiot and we’re all gone.
Collaborations
What’s the key to a successful collaboration?
It’s difficult to say. The biggest one post-Arab Strab is me and Bill Wells, and I think that comes from a mutual respect of each other's work. I spent a lot of time on the words, making sure they were okay because I loved his music so much.
So, is that how the collaboration works? He passes on the music to you?
Yeah and that’s how it worked with Malcolm too. He would write something and I’d find a way to work around it and then we’d arrange it together. I mean the main difference being that Malcolm and me were just lads having a laugh.
Any particular collaborations that have gone remarkably well or bad?
No, I think I’ve got everything I ever expected from them. I don’t have a bad word to say about anybody. I’m hoping to do something with James from The Twilight Sad at some point though - I’ve written the first two songs but we’ve not recorded them yet.
Do you get a lot out of working with other people?
Aye, I really enjoy it. I like being the boss and doing things myself, but finding that common ground with someone is great. I mean, with Malcolm we didn’t necessarily always agree on everything, but it was finding that middle ground creatively that was always so enjoyable.
You recently got back together with Malcolm to record a cover of Slow Club’s ‘Two Cousins’. What was the catalyst for that?
I just loved it, I think it’s my favourite song of the year. I know that they were Arab Strap fans and Rebecca wrote to me and asked me if I wanted to do it. I gave it to Malcolm and he liked it as well, so we gave it a go - I think it works well. I thought maybe we would have grown old and it would be something we’d have to work on but it took a day, piece of piss!
Has that made you want to do more stuff together again?
As I say, I played drums on his new record, but there are no plans to write songs or anything. We get on much better now than we ever did when Arab Strab were together. I think when you start a band with your best pal and then you have to work together every day it creates a tension, and now that we don’t have to do that we can just focus on being pals again. If we did reform we’d only fall out again, the second date of the tour would be fucking cancelled!
If you could collaborate with anyone alive, who would it be?
Alive? I don’t know, I honestly don’t know. I’ve written two children’s books and hopefully they’re coming out and are going to be drawn by the comic artist Frank Quietly, that’s a pinnacle for me. I honestly can’t think of anyone more.
If you could collaborate with anyone dead, who would it be?
Dusty Springfield.
Scotland
First memory of growing up in Scotland?
In the country? I’ve no idea. I used to get a wee little bit of Irn Bru and pretend it was whiskey, I guess that kind of sums up the culture! Drinking is just ingrained in us and I’m not saying it’s a good thing, but I remember being a kid and wanting to pretend that I was drinking.
You were expelled from school, what were you expelled for?
I wasn’t nasty, I was just somewhat ill-behaved and I didn’t really fit in that much. Funnily enough now that you mention it, I discovered the other day, as my mum was telling me – my mum has a cousin Heather, who has a girl who is a teenager and is at Falkirk high school and they were doing a talk at the school about all the people who went on to have success and my name was mentioned and I thought it was a bit fucking rich because they threw me out! I had just turned eighteen and I didn’t go to any classes, I had lost all interest. The headmaster fucking hated me though, so that didn’t do much for me.
What was Falkirk like to grow up in as a teenager?
I loved it until I was about twenty-one, twenty-two - it was a good place. Actually, when I had my son I almost considered going back there. I then got older and wanted to see good gigs and nobody really played in Falkirk. Getting good records wasn’t a problem because I worked in the record shop, so I could get all that. But the culture and the sociable aspect of it was difficult, there was nobody who I knew that was into the same music as I was.
First gig was David Byrne in Glasgow, yes?
Yeah, I was a bit of a late bloomer really.
David Byrne at 16 is pretty good?
Oh, I loved Talking Heads from the age of about 11 or 12, I was just scared of going to gigs, I was not a big fan of crowds. I wasn’t old enough, but I must have looked old enough my mum and dad drove me there and dropped me off. I bought a yellow David Byrne polo shirt too.
So was Glasgow a musical necessity for you to visit?
Oh aye, definitely. That was the place to go. I used to go to Edinburgh as well but they never really had the good venues.
You still live in Glasgow now?
I don’t think I could live anywhere else. I can’t imagine doing so.
All the cities that you have encountered over the years from touring, do any come close to Scotland in terms of culture, geography or feel?
I always found playing in Australia to be very similar to Scotland, every gig has been like playing in Glasgow, except you don’t quite have that undercurrent of violence – that feeling that something might go mental at any stage. But then again, I quite like that. I really like Japan though.
Falkirk is famous worldwide as being a UFO hotspot.
I think it’s a drinking hotspot more than anything else! That whole thing is just nonsense. They tried to build a UFO centre to encourage people to come, “come and pretend you can see something!” It’s like the Loch Ness, there is actually a Loch Ness visitors centre!
Would you call yourself a patriot?
Yeah, I think so. I mean I think the word has ugly connotations, but I love the place and I’m proud to be from there so I guess they are qualifying statements for patriotism.
Lyrics
How do you write? Do you have to force yourself down and work or is it more sporadic?
No, if I force myself to sit down and work, nothing gets fucking down! I can’t work like that. I can force myself to sit down and finish stuff, but I can’t force myself to do it no.
Do you have any self-imposed rules when it comes to writing?
None that I know of. As I say, I try not to put names in to try and not make it too subjective, but other than that I don’t think so.
Any subjects that you personally consider off-topic?
Well there are loads. But I mean I’m 100% in control of what I write, it’s just that barriers are usually a bit further back than most people’s. There seems to be this illusion that I bare all, though, and that’s not true, if there is something I don’t want people to know, they won’t know it. I hate the way people fucking talk about writers sometimes about how they are "brave" – writers aren’t fucking brave! We’re just expressing ourselves, saving someone from a burning building is brave or going to war is brave, writing a song is pretty fucking boring compared to these! There’s this assumption made that I’m exposed, but I’m not if I’m writing it, all writers are in control of what they write. You know what you’re doing, you’re in control, you have the choice of what to say when you write – so I fucking hate these people who talk like it’s beyond their control. I guess you could just say I hate most people who write songs!
Anybody that you find particularly inspiring lyrically?
There is a lot of lyrics I like but not that would affect or inspire me in anyway, no. I like The Twilight Sad's lyrics actually, I haven’t got a fucking clue what he’s talking about most of the time. Same with The Fall – I’ve been listening to The Fall since I was thirteen and I haven’t got a fucking clue what’s going on! The words on the new Slow Club record are great actually. I actually listen to a lot of instrumental music.
Are you a competitive musician, lyrically? Or do you see it more as a community-like experience?
Both, there is a lot of bitchiness in the music industry. Professional jealously is certainly a part of that, but I think I’ve rested my demons with that now. There were a few people that I got upset about, I got very upset when there were people you know who are doing better than you and you don’t think that they’re as good as you, but I think everybody thinks that. It doesn’t matter who you are, whether you are fucking Bono or some kid with an acoustic at an open mic night, you will always think that. But I’m over that now, there was actually a few people I drifted apart with a result from that, I’m not going to tell you which ones of course as that would cause far too many problems.
Bob Dylan or Leonard Cohen?
I don’t really like either, but if I had to pick I’d probably say Dylan.
Morrissey or Neil Young?
Neil Young, far and away. I hate fucking Morrissey! I fucking hate him!
Johnny Cash or Elvis?
Lyrics is Cash, as Elvis didn’t really write his own songs!
Nick Drake or Nick Cave?
Lyrically? Cave, obviously.
Lennon or McCartney?
Errr. Lennon.
Tom Waits or Tom Petty?
Waits of course! What a fucking question!