Hi. We're The Recovery Club - a band from Glasgow. Our constituent parts are.. me, Graham McCarey - I sing, play guitar and occasionally other minor instruments; Amy Rafferty - she mainly sings but also has talents for guitar and piano; Allan James - plays guitar and piano, and sings on some songs too; and Dochan MacMillan - a man of many talents: banjo, guitar, mandolin and lap-steel, to name but a few.
How would you describe the music you make?
We set out from day one to try to make what we regard us simply and un-selfconsciously lovely music. What I mean by that is that, in previous individual ventures we had maybe tried to some degree to crowbar ourselves into a particular genre or scene of music. That can get in the way of serving the music as well as you can, so we've always tried to disregard that and just make the pure music that's in our heads. Whether we achieve that or not is clearly in the ear of the beholder I suppose, but we do seem to connect with a wide range of people. Don't like to resort to lazy comparisons, but bands like Mazzy Star, Low and Lambchop might point you in the right general direction.
How did you start out making music?
Allan and I first got involved musically in my old band theoceanfloor. I was the frontman and main writer of that band and Allan managed us, though he got quite involved creatively too. While we were working on music with theoceanfloor, Allan met Amy at a party and was blown away by her singing voice and the two of them hit it off straight away. So we started a side project writing material based around Amy's voice. When theoceanfloor disbanded it became our main project and eventually evolved into The Recovery Club you see before you today. At our first offical gig as The Recovery Club we met Dochan, who immediately seemed to warm to what we were doing and a while later he came on board to bring his multi-instrumental magic to the mix.
What process goes into the way you write songs?
It varies. Sometimes one of us will write a fully formed song and the others will help to bring the arrangement of it together. Sometimes, for example, I'll take a poem Amy has written and put it to music, or Allan will have an intrumental demo to which one or more of us will bring words and/or melody. But often the best results can come from when we write something truly collaboratively - bring something to life on the spot in a rehearsal. The current set we play includes examples of all these approaches.
What can people expect from your live shows?
We love the moment at the start of a set when silence descends in the room and you can hear a pin drop. Our sets often have a real fragile quality about them that draws that reaction from an audience, but there are also more powerful, joyous moments to offset the gentler material.
What are you all listening to at the moment?
Bands that some or all of us are listening to at the moment include The Handsome Family, Grizzly Bear, Field Music and Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, as well as evergreen favourites such as Low, Lambchop and The Cocteau Twins. There's also a strong Beatles anorak contingent in the band that can't get enough of all the rehashes and remasters which keep cropping up.
What can we expect to see/hear from you in 2010?
Our first single 'Rest and Be Thankful' is coming out right now (5th July) on the Antimatter label. So we'll obviously be promoting that as much as we can with gigs and other events. We have another single pencilled in for after the summer, and are also working on our first album which will hopefully come together and be unleashed on the public before long. We have a large backlog of material to work with, so we'll be whittling that down into something that encapsulates what we're about. But we're also keen to include some little sonic diversions which will surprise those who think they know us…
Rest & BeThankful by The Recovery Club
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