WATCH: Arab Strap perform new song Be a Man for the Scotsman Sessions
Welcome to the Scotsman Sessions, a series of short video performances from artists all around the country introduced by our critics. Here, Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton of Arab Strap perform their song Be a Man, taken from their latest album Half-Told Tales
Falkirk’s finest - as it was once compulsory to refer to Arab Strap - mark 30 years as one of Scotland’s most distinctive, influential and bloody-minded outfits in style, with a new album, Half-Told Tales, which is as good as anything they have released in their time, featuring sharp observations on wellness culture, the manosphere, the nagging noise of social media and ghosts of the past, as well as the welcome incursion of live saxophone for the first time in their catalogue.
Theirs has been a hallowed run of candid punditry, admittedly broken by a ten-year hiatus in the middle. When singer Aidan Moffat and instrumentalist Malcolm Middleton initially called it a day in 2006, they were honest enough to say that, despite all the acclaim littering their path through their first decade, they just weren’t making enough moolah to subsist.
They returned in 2016 - reunited but not reformed - to celebrate their 20th anniversary before releasing new music post-pandemic. The middle-aged Strap have grown old somewhat disgracefully. Moffat’s musings may not be as eye-watering as his early confessionals but he’s still partial to a self-deprecating shudder, as heard on the duo’s Scotsman Session rendition of album track Be a Man, recorded at an Assai Records instore in Edinburgh earlier this month.
“It’s all about the worries of the modern dad, and the fear and sadness – but also hope and joy – you feel when they get older,” says Moffat. The lyrics are for his son but could almost have been directed at his younger self. “Lyrically, it turned out the unifying theme [of the album] was time and its passing. It wasn’t planned that way, but I noticed it after I finished the first few songs and then continued with the theme. Now I’m in my fifties, time is clearly playing on my mind: how much has passed, how long is left, and how to spend it. Musically, I’ve no idea where these things come from – we never talk about it, it’s all just instinct.”
That instinct and the chemistry between Moffat and Middleton is as potent as ever. Their three post-reunification albums are such fertile affairs that it feels like neither of them will ever run out of things to say and play. “Essentially we work the same as we always have, just with more sophisticated technology and hopefully a little more expertise through experience,” says Moffat. “From a band perspective, I think we’ve learned what we like and enjoy about Arab Strap, and understand the music a bit better. And we understand when to leave each other to do what they do.”
The duo hail their past, celebrate their present and look to their future on a UK tour this week, bookended by dates in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Tours in Eastern Europe and Australia follow with more dates to be added into the new year. Sounding fully contented in his thirty-year vintage, Moffat says “we don’t have any plans beyond getting out and playing the new – and old – songs. We’ll just see where it takes us.”
Arab Strap play the Liquid Room, Edinburgh, 11 October and Barrowland, Glasgow, 17 October. Half-Told Tales is out now on Rock Action.
The Scotsman’s arts newsletter is now sent twice a week - subscribe today
Enjoying the Arts & Culture journalism on scotsman.com? Make it easier to find by selecting us as a preferred Google source
Want the latest Scottish headlines sent directly to your phone? Sign up to our new WhatsApp channel here
Comments
Want to join the conversation? Please or to comment on this article.