Tacocat are an excellent pop-punk-rock-surf band from Seattle currently touring their 2nd full length album, Lost Time. Ahead of their show at Electric Circus here in Edinburgh I was given the opportunity to catch up with Emily Nokes, Bree McKenna, Lelah Maupin and Eric Randall.

MG: How is the tour going so far, how are you enjoying being here in the UK?

EN: It’s been good, it’s very cold here.

BM: Scotland’s been the warmest.

EN: Yeah it’s like Seattle in winter. But back home its 80 degrees right now. We are missing our summer.

BM: But yeah it’s been good, this is our third date, we were on a tour of the US a month before. So this is a little bit of a wild culture adjustment. There are so many beautiful old things here; we’re just walking down the street being like what?! It’s insane, it’s like a fairy tale land. It’s endlessly exciting.

MG: I saw some pictures from the Manchester show that looked crazy, like people actually dressed up and stuff which was awesome. You are probably used to it in America but did you expect that to happen here?

LM: No, uh uh.

EN: It was a festival so I guess that was part of it but yeah it was like a weird art project just walking through the crowd. It was really cool.

LM: Sometimes people do it at our shows in the states and it’s just like “grins”.

ER: What did somebody wear, like a shark suit…?

BM: Yeah and he was so cute. He was like Japanese kid who didn’t speak much English and he was just like really enthusiastic and he was like I love you so I wore a shark and that’s basically all he could say. It was so sweet.

MG: Is there anywhere that you guys are really looking forward to playing while you are over here?

ER: We are playing almost all new cities from the last time that we came.

BM: Most of it’s like 90% new. I am excited to go back to Paris because our show there last time was so fun but that’s like one of the only double up’s we are doing besides London, Paris, Berlin and Belgium.

MG: So the reason you guys are on tour is because of your album Lost Time. I got to review it when it came out and I loved it. One of my favourite songs was 'Dana Katherine Scully'. Obviously, sci-fi and aliens especially, are quite a big part of your personality as a band as well as your music and I just wondered where the fascination with that came from for all of you?

EN: Around the time that we were recording the album I was watching all the old X-Files before the new ones came out. I’m also just really in to sci-fi. Sometimes there’s not a lot to do when it gets really cold in Seattle and it’s raining all the time so your just like yeah I’m gunna binge on books and TV so yeah that just kind of like bleed in to the album coz it’s what I was kinda doing at the time.

BM: I’m really in to sci-fi too I think that it’s like a really good way to like express social change coz like there’s a lot of feminism in sci-fi, there just such interesting topics you can bring up.

MG: The other track I loved was 'Horse Grrls'. I have an idea in my head of what I think it’s about and I wondered if it was literally, just about girls who like horses or if there was some other crazy different meaning that I wasn’t really picking up on?

LM: It’s about…..Bree.

BM: I was a horse girl, it was such a big part of being a teenager for me.

EN: I remember horse girls really well coz I grew up in a place called Montana which is like a very Western state, there were horses everywhere.

LM: I remember observing horse girls and just being like whoaaaa.

BM: I actually didn’t have a horse or a lot of contact with horses; it was just like books and stuff. I don’t know, I just think it’s a weird thing that happens to young girls; it’s like really bizarre, all of us know some weird teenage horse girls. It’s kind of an interesting thing to examine.

MG: How did you guys enjoy recording the album? What were your favourite songs to work on?

EN: We really enjoyed recording it. We recorded it with a guy named Erik Blood, he’s just a wizard. He was wonderful and sweet and we drank our weight in Coronas every day. My favourite one? I don’t know, it all felt like a big process.

BM: He had really interesting ideas that we had never tried, like weird little recording ideas. Like where he wanted to record peoples drums or how he wanted to record Emily’s voice. He’s really brilliant, he’s like a queer musician too, makes really cool music and he’s sort of made our sound a little darker.

ER: He doesn’t really do a lot of music like ours either, he does like hip hop and like electronic stuff. It’s the first time we have worked with like a proper producer that had input. I recorded the first album and all the other stuff that we did before that and NVM we recorded with somebody else but we still decided what we wanted to do, this is the first time somebody has told us what to do. For some reason we just trusted him.

LM: We didn’t even know he was going to do that he just did it. Like when we first heard the first song fully mixed, I was like, wow the bass sounds great and he was like well, have you ever heard my stuff? And I was like uhhhh yeah, I’m so sorry!

MG: The other thing you guys were working on recently was the Powerpuff Girls them tune. How did that come about?

BM: It was a weird email. We always take a long time to email back and I remember I was like walking to work and I was like you guys Cartoon Network just emailed us! I think I called them back maybe like 5 minutes after I saw that email. But it was like a very long process, you know like very professional?

MG: Was that difficult?

BM: Yeah coz we didn’t write the song, they had the composer write it so it was a little bit difficult. They were like here’s sheet music and we need the drummer to play to a click track which is all things we can’t do. We were just like we’re a punk band, we write our own stuff, this is not how we do things so we had to adjust a lot to our process.

LM: I guess thought it was cool to have a really pro experience, like to pull it off.

MG: Would you do something like that again, if it was something equally as cool?

BM: Yeah if it was something that we all liked. I think we would want to stream line the process a little more coz it was very confusing, a lot of going to different departments, so like that part was a little bit less fun than yay I want to play a Powerpuff Girls song. Yeah it took quite a long time. It was really cool, I’m glad we did it but it was like a really long process.

LM: Yeah we had to put all of our stuff on side which kind of stressed us out.

ER: We lost about a month of time.

LM: But yeah you don’t look a gift horse in the mouth and it was very cool to be part of it, it was just a bit like, whew.

MG: Visually you guys are obviously very bright and awesome and colourful and the videos that have been done for this album look amazing, I love the one for Talk. Who did you work with on those videos?

EN: For the 'Talk' video we worked with the same person who made the 'Crimson Wave' video.

BM: Marcy Stone-Francois.

EN: Jessica Aceti made 'I Hate The Weekend', the one with the big heads? She’s awesome. And then Lelah and I made the Scully video with just some wigs and shoulder pads.

ER: We had to make a green screen.

LM: Yeah that’s true we had to make our own green screen, that was hard. That did take the longest but it worked and Emily was just an uncanny Scully.

MG: At the moment there seem to be a lot more female lead bands around. Do you think there is a reason for that?

BM: Things are much better than they were 8 years ago. When we first started and we were touring people would say sexist things to us, we wouldn’t get matched with people who had the same values and now I think that the community is very supporting. Especially in Seattle, like Lisa Prank and Pony Time, Chastity Bet and like Mommy Longlegs, those are all like amazing bands and they're on the rise because there is a space cleared out where it’s not just like bro punk types.

EN: Yeah like we are all paving the way for each other. Making it easier for other women to come up through the scene and not have to deal with wading through that crap.

BM: And there’s a lot more cooler young women like yourselves who didn’t seem to exist as much.

ER: Punk is music for marginalised groups but it reached this point where it was all like male punk bands and it was like what do you have to be upset about? And I remember realising when we first started, this is something so important. It just clicked in my head this is a really awesome thing we are doing and I should have put it on a t-shirt back then “the future is female”, that’s how I felt at the time without knowing how to say it.

LM: The times have changed.

BM: And it’s for the better, it’s really positive, I’m really happy how it’s turning out right now.

MG: Do you have any advice for girls that are in bands now, both here and in the US?

EN: Start a band with your best friends!

ER: It’s important, like in Seattle it’s not like competitive; we all support each other, that’s probably the most important thing, staying together.

BM – Yeah it’s very special.

A slightly different aspect of the record industry gets the In Profile treatment this month. I've personally subscribed to the Too Pure Singles Club for the last four or five years so it seemed a good idea to put a few questions to Paul Riddlesworth there and find out how it continues to be excellent value for money and a leading champion of fledgling bands.

MG: The club has it’s 100th release coming out in April which, by my shoddy maths, means it’s been in existence for eight years now. Before we get down to talking about it’s current form though can you fill us in on the history behind it? I remember buying releases by Seefeel and others on Too Pure back in the Nineties – how then did the label become the Singles Club?

PR: Back in 2008 both the Beggars Banquet label and Too Pure were streamlined into 4AD at the time. We somehow wanted to keep the ethos of Too Pure alive without putting out long players so we decided to start up the TPSC. Most of our labels (under the Beggars umbrella) focus mainly on American artists so we wanted to be a label whose primary goal was to find mainly awesome UK bands. That said we have put out DZ Deathrays, Jeff The Brotherhood and Bear Hands. But hey, mainly UK, especially Leeds ... I've put out a LOT by Leeds bands. 

MG: Describe for us the selection process for the bands involved. For that matter who decides on the 7” artwork and indeed the colour of vinyl any particular release is going to be on?

PR: Its a lot of gig going, recommendations from other bands and keeping in touch with the indie shops up and down the country as no one knows better than them about good local artists. 

Every single release is down to the artists themselves. they have total creative control - from choosing which songs to release to artwork to vinyl colour. Its essentially their release and, to quote Annie Lennox, "Who am I to Disagree?"

MG: Other similar clubs pop up but never remain constant – Polyvinyl Records had one for the last couple of years but seem to not in 2016, Matador have periodically operated one, whilst Fortuna Pop! have one currently that’s rather more ad hoc in its release schedule than Too Pure etc. Do you put that down to deadlines being a chore to maintain – having to have one release per month without fail for possibly less return than on regular releases? Do you work up a slight backlog so that if one act can’t for whatever reason have a tune recorded in time there’s at least one in the can which can be pressed up?

PR: One of the main issues is trying to maintain the quality of the releases, which i think throughout the eight years I've managed to do. Some may disagree but no one's going to like everything we do, that would be spooky. I also like to have the releases sorted as up front as possible. This year we're up to November already which is going to be a bloody cracker even if i do say so myself ...

MG: Sticking with the cost of things you’ve consistently, over the five years or so that I’ve personally kept signing up, pegged the cost of membership at a very good price, averaging (I think) around only just over £3 for each disc including postage in the UK. If it’s not a trade secret how has that been possible, given the cost of the production of discs and in comparison to the £4 and upwards you’d expect to pay via bandcamp or at gigs or in stores?

PR: If i'm honest we probably should charge a bit more, as we just about break even but as a label we're not primarily about making money we're more bothered about supporting up and coming bands and hopefully giving them a starting chance. 

MG: Do you have a regular core of returnees year on year? And how many copies of each disc are ever made? Given the numbers on ones I’ve had over the years my guess has always been 500 per release. (As an aside to this – what eventually happens with any leftovers?).

PR: We do get a lot coming back for more, some years are better than others. We make up 500 of each release, 50 go to the band and we also send 100 to the indies. Even though we're primarily a subscription label its important to look after the indies, we have some fantastic shops up and down the country.

MG: The club had its first LP out for Record Store Day 2016, a ‘Greatest Hits’ to date if you like. How did you pick the tracks to include on it? Taking Record Store Day itself do you think it still serves the purpose it was intended for? I remember last year Steven from Bis being a bit of a dissenting voice and reckoning the major labels had now hijacked the whole affair with reissues of old rock albums.

PR: I'm so excited about this. Its called Pay No Attention and its on magenta coloured vinyl. It was an absolute ball ache choosing, however each year I do an end of year poll to subscribers to see who they liked and hated so that helped a little. There are definitely some I regret not putting on. Maybe there will be a follow up next year if this goes ok ...  

RSD is both a blessing and a curse. It's a curse as major labels clog up our pressing plants to reissue utter dross that you can find in any charity shop up and down the country for a fraction of the price and there are way too many releases for it. Some more dubious than others. Its a blessing though as it does still get people into record shops, it's been said many, many, many times before record shops are for life not just for RSD.

MG: Finally - what is the club’s 100^th release set to be and what other acts can we look forward to discs by in the coming months?

Continuing our build-up to Best Kept Secret, enigmatic guitar whizz Ryley Walker spoke with us. The mercurial Chicagoan has released four albums in the last three years. His most recent work, Cannots, is an hour of live improvisation with fellow Illinois musician, Charles Rumback. He’s been called “the reincarnation of the true American guitar player” and his songs encompass modern folk, free jazz, and wild, experimental finger-picked guitars.

His sound is often compared to Van Morrison’s classic albums, and those of the late Nick Drake. Fans of Tim Buckley, John Martyn and The Grateful Dead have been praising his dense instrumentation and hypnotic tunes. He has toured with Joanna Newsom and Danny Thompson of Pentangle recently and played at the Bert Jansch tribute shows in Glasgow.

Here’s what the psych-folk troubadour had to say to Musos’ Guide.

MG: You have just played in Whelan's, the spiritual home of live music in Dublin, as part of your Irish tour. How did that go for you? Have you been to Ireland before?

RW: Had a wonderful gig. Never had a bad time in Dublin. Always treated me very well.

MG: You'll be back to play in London next month and playing festival dates too. How do find the reaction in the UK?

RW: A lot of people are very nice. I enjoy my friends and label family there very much.

MG: You've released lots of material the past couple of years, did you have a backlog of songs that you wanted to get out? Can we expect the frenetic pace to continue?

RW: There's not a lot of material sitting around as far as songs go. Lots of old weird stuff with old bands laying around. I have doubts anybody will put them out. I have a new record out in August.

MG: You have an interesting choice of musicians to play with. The piano on ‘Primrose Green’ is like Bowie’s Aladdin Sane and experimental guitar on ‘Sweet Satisfaction’ adds a whole other dimension to the music. How do you choose who to work with? And do they have carte blanche to experiment on the individual tracks?

RW: I choose by closest friends in Chicago. There typically is a general theme to roll with, after that they can go nuts.

MG: You have toured with Cian Nugent. How did that come about?

RW: I met Cian through mutual friends in music, and eventually went to Ireland and we hung out. From there, we became fast friends and went on tour. I love him dearly. Very close friend and big influence for me.

MG: Are you happy with comparisons with Tim Buckley and John Martyn? Are you tired of hearing them?

RW: Yes, I'm pretty tired of hearing them.

MG: It’s your first time at Best Kept Secret. Who will you have playing with you there? What kind of set can we expect?

RW: I think the band will be a quartet. Lots of new material and sonic experiments! I have lots of new gear I'm excited to mess around with.

MG: You are a keen improviser. You even made a full length album improvised for Record Store Day. Will you do more projects like that?

RW: I'll always make new music - songwriting or otherwise. All signs point to releasing more hopefully. Just all economics and time management I suppose.

Ryley Walker will be playing on Sunday June 19 at Best Kept Secret, and will be back in the UK on Monday June 6 in London’s Oval Space and Caught by The River Thames on Saturday August 6.

There is something hypnotic about Leena Ojala. Her debut EP, EP1, was released last year via 51Den Music and it's been embedded in our minds ever since. This month, as part of a project that will see her release a track every month in 2016, she's releasing an original and a remix of the track 'Poison Words'. Having been captivated by her 'indie electronica' since the release of EP1 — in which her lush vocals were laid over shimmering layers of electronica that shifted between alternative and pop — we thought it high time that we spoke to Leena herself. 

MG: Hi Leena, 2016 has been a busy year so far. Tell us where your head is currently at.

LO: I’m making plenty of new music and collaborating with others. Live performance is also very important to me, and I'm trying to make inroads into the festival scene at the moment.

MG: What did you learn from 2015 that you have applied to 2016?

LO: Ahead of releasing EP1, I released the lead track ‘Why’ and the D/R/U/G/S 404 Remix of the same track as singles. They both received plenty of attention. I also have two other tracks in my EP which didn’t get the same attention, although I feel they are strong as well. For that reason, I will focus more on dropping singles instead.

MG: The response to your debut EP was very warm. Does that apply pressure as you move ahead with your career?

LO: I feel that my writing is getting better and collaboration with others is taking my music to a different level. I am really looking forward to releasing new material which I already have waiting to be released. I have some exciting things happening that I can't talk about yet!

MG: What was the most helpful feedback you received?

LO: It would have to be holding back on my vocals and that way getting more emotion to the song. I had a tendency of going all out with my vocals when it wasn’t necessary.

MG: What was the funniest response you heard?

LO: My video for 'Why' was covered in The Fader under the heading "7 Europeans That Are Making Pop A Safe Space For Weirdos". The article highlighted and discussed my eyebrow movements in the video. But it was great to be covered in The Fader!

MG: How has the positive response altered your ambitions?

LO: I did receive a positive response and I’m really grateful for that.  I think in music things generally happen slowly but there may be some triggers that can change things quickly.  I am not relying on the latter.  I am in this for long term and I feel I’m heading in the right direction.  Ambition is one thing you must have as a serious musician.

MG: If you had to define your sound to a stranger, what one sentence would you use?

LO: I would say my sound is electronic, haunting and dark with emphasis on structure and the vocals.

MG: If you could be filed between two artists in a record store, who would they be and why?

LO: I would pick Sade and Amy Winehouse. Both from different times and very different singers. But they both have that special unique emotion in their voices.

MG: We spotted that you have played a couple of dates recently - what is the Leena Ojala live experience?

LO: I am happy with the feedback I have received in the gigs. People come to me afterwards and tell me nice things about my music. My band and I always make sure that we are all well rehearsed and give our best wherever we are. We love performing and I’m really happy with our set. I am also doing a stripped back acoustic set with two guys where I play the guitar in addition to doing the vocals. On my main electronic set I just focus on the vocals. I really missed playing the guitar which I used to do as a solo act.

MG: What venue do you dream of performing at?

LO: I really wanted to get to The Great Escape this year but I think it’s too late now.  But I will be playing at a festival this summer — I'm just waiting for the final confirmation. People keep on telling us that our sound needs a bigger stage.

MG: Your sound is very structured. Do you have to make a lot of alterations for a live show?

LO: Not really since all the preparation has been done to include some synth sounds in the set, but we are generally close to the recorded sound.

MG: Lastly, tell us one secret that you have not shared in an interview before.

LO: I can be quite clumsy. I once worked in a pub and I dropped this guy’s fish and chips on his lap – and he was wearing a suit.

** 

In the coming months, we can look forward to further releases from Leena along with both electronic and acoustic live dates. For more information, check out her website and Twitter. The video for the single 'Little Place' is online now and you can check out her previous releases (including EP1) on iTunes.