The Stool Pigeon music newspaper

The hollow bloodshot eyes, the sunken cadaverous cheekbones, the unblinking stare of the recently deceased, the rictus grimace and the torn and blood stained clothes: Rough Trade may well have had a make-over when it opened a new superstore in east London but that doesn’t necessarily mean their punters did. In among the new coffee bar, the modernist chill out furniture, the wi-fi friendly media hub, hordes of record collectors shuffle up and down aisles looking for Prinzhorn 12”s and Animal Collective spin-off albums. But here to liven these stiffs up a bit this brisk Halloween night are Glasgow’s coolest, rockingest and best-looking band: Sons and Daughters.

They’re kicking off a string of intimate buzz-building dates at this in-store designed to introduce people to their second album proper, This Gift, but it feels like nothing short of the offer of a free plate of brains could prompt the indie zombies present into action. And it’s not like the band haven’t made an effort as well.

From stage right to left, guitarist Scott is in uniform amphetamine rake thin biker jacket and black denim and he’s also sporting a bullet hole in the centre of his forehead that is oozing gore down his face and onto his chest. Drummer David is not so much a man now as a shrunken headed voodoo skull with sticks, like the Spirit of Jazz from The Mighty Boosh. Singer Adele looks like the prom queen from Hell with smeared make-up, crooked tiara and blood stained frock (although she admits later that she feels more like Courtney Love out on the town or a “pissed Manics fan”). And Ailidh, well, Ailidh just looks like herself but a lot more threatening and even more pale.

The new material reveals they’ve backed away slightly from their blistering take on gothic punky blues rock and have started to revel more in a love for classic sixties girl group pop and revved up doo-wop knife fight rock. Opener ‘Gilt Complex’ is all itchy guitar strafes and metal dustcan rhythms. It’s true that Sons and Daughters aren’t in any way a new sounding band, but it’s also true that their torrid intensity renders that inconsequential. E=MC2 is the equation you need to find out the amount of destructive energy any one person contains. The weight of each band member multiplied by the speed of light squared. All of them humming and shimmering with the potential energy of several thousand hydrogen bombs exploding at once.

Some of this spills over into the audience, breaking through the rigor mortis and prompting jerky dancing during the throbbing Spectoresque ‘The Nest’. ‘Dance Me In’ is given extra urgency by the party gone horribly wrong vibe on stage. And by the end they’ve even breathed life into the typically dour London crowd. Say hello again to Ghouls Aloud - The Sound of the Glasgow Underground.

Your new album is noticeably a lot more pop. How much was that to do with the influence of producer Bernard Butler?
Scott: He wanted to make a pop record as well as us, but that’s why we chose him in the first place.
David: We wanted something that reflected our love for groups like Blondie. We wanted a sound that wasn’t throwaway - something that could be bubblegum without losing our…
Adele: …edge.
Scott: Pop means something else now than it used to. You can still be an intelligent band and do pop music. And that’s what we were aiming for.

Is he as much of a bastard to work with as you’d imagine then?
Adele: (laughing hysterically) Yes.
Scott: I love him. I really love the first Suede album. He’s one of my favourite guitarists - one of the best of his generation. But yes, completely. I thought it would be really interesting to work with him, but at the back of my head I was thinking: ‘The legend of the man is that he’s a fucking cunt in the studio.’
Adele: Everyone we mentioned it to said: ‘Are you sure?’ Their faces dropped.
Scott: But we met up with him and he’s a really lovely guy - socially we got on really well with him - but as soon as you get in the studio it’s a totally different ballgame.
David: We really admire people like Berry Gordy, Phil Spector, Martin Hannett - people who will go the extra difference to push buttons in the studio. You know, like the way Martin Hannett got Steven Morris (Joy Division/New Order) to play drums on the studio roof.
Adele: He was into playing his studio mind games as well.
David: He’d try and get under your skin.
Scott: Definitely. But he’s extremely talented and you can’t deny that. I think he himself would agree that he’s a total prick at times. And we agree… that he’s extremely talented.
Adele: Ha ha ha!

There’s an amphetamine intensity to good rock’n’roll. It must be easier to do live, but how about capturing that edge in the studio?
Adele: It wasn’t that hard with Bernard, with him stirring up tensions. He definitely created some intensity on purpose to give it that feeling. He literally messed with all of us. I’d be in the vocal booth and he’d say, ‘Right, if you could just come up with four backing vocals all with different melodies,’ and then he’d press record. Yeah, just like that. He loved it, though. Absolutely loved it.
David: This album does have a different feel to it because we had the luxury of time to record it. Previously we had that urgency just because it had to get done - we only had a certain amount of time in the studio. This record is more considered, more layered. There’s still energy there, but it’s different.

Is your recent single, ‘Gilt Complex’, about Heather Mills-McCartney?
Adele: (laughing) No!
Scott: It could be though!
Adele: It’s more about the people who are on Big Brother or Pop Idol or whatever and it’s about the guilty pleasure of being attracted by and repelled by these programmes and the phenomenon of 15 minutes of fame. It’s strange to watch these programmes which are about having no talent but making lots of money from it.
Scott: You can’t help but watch them, though.

I remember when you and Múm were drafted in as last minute replacements on the main stage at Slint’s ATP. The step up in quality to you and Múm was colossal. There was a sense of, ‘Thank fuck! A real band!’ Do you have to take what you do extremely seriously to achieve this?
Scott: Yeah, we do definitely. Especially with live performances. That is our favourite part of the whole shebang and we do spend a lot of time getting the live shows right. We’re not all that serious when you meet us in a situation like this but, even though it sounds like a cliché, when you’re on stage you do kind of get lost in the intensity of the moment.
David: It’s important that we’re good for ourselves. There’s nothing worse than seeing a band who are like, ‘Well, we’ve made a good record but we can’t really be arsed live.’
Adele: A lot of it is being on tour with really good bands. Going to America with Clinic - that really kicked our arses into raising our game. Those guys were really professional. They were on fire. The same thing happened after playing with Franz Ferdinand as well.
Scott: There’s also the adversity thing as well. Coming from Glasgow you might think, ‘Well, fuck you. I don’t care what you think about us we’re going to do it anyway.’ And I love Slint and ATP, but I’m aware that probably no one was there to see a band like us. But we did seem to win people over.