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celticbarb · 6 months

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Book:’’ The Hawk Laird” formerly ‘’Laird of the Wind”

Author: Susan King

Series: Celtic Hearts, Book #1

Publisher: Dragonblade

Length: 340 Pages

Overall Rating: 5/5 Stars

Blog Rating: 5/5 Saltire Flags

Scottish Lowlands, 1305

This book starts with Lady Isobel of Alberlady who is a prophetess and tells the future, also known as Black Isobel due to her long, dark, raven hair. As could see the future: she saw a vision of William Wallace being betrayed by people he thought he could trust and would die because of the hawk! Now one of the men who betrayed him is trying to get himself out of prison but goes to William to warn him not realizing he had been betrayed too! Except this vision was not absolutely accurate as most of her visions were metaphors. When Jamie realizes William has been caught he knows the English will torture him and give him an agonizing death! Jamie tries to give his friend a quick, painless, death, unfortunately his arrow missed his mark! He is accused of betraying him which is not the truth!

Now it turns out the Hawk is Jamie Lindsay the former Laird of Castle Wildshaw who is misinformed about this prophetess, thinking she has helped ruin his name unfairly plus she is also betrothed to his enemy Sir Ralph Leslie! He was given his castle by the wicked English King, since Jamie is a hunted Scottish outlaw and Leslie is a Scottish turncoat who sides with the English betraying his own people! Jamie had expected Black Isobel to be an elderly crone, not a beautiful goddess forced to accept Leslie’s marriage proposal by her father and their Priest! However everyone is using Isobel for her abilities and she knows it too. Furthermore Lady Isobel’s castle is under siege where she and her people are starving! She is also a Scot and very kind and caring too which was very unexpected to Jamie.

Isobel has been misinformed her entire life by men saying she is protected and not able to leave her own castle due to her godly gifts. This was because she was a prophetess and because she is also just a feeble, weak, woman! She realizes now she had been held captive not protected as even her own father was being advised by their priest. Isobel was expecting James “Jamie” Lindsay who she thought was her champion and savior since he saved her from dying as the English attacked her castle burning to the ground. She soon discovers he only came to make her his captive to trade her for his cousin Janet who was taken as a captive in his place. Ralph Leslie is a man she detests and only wants her for her supernatural abilities, to make him more respected and wealthier by the English nobles. Soon Jamie reveals he lives in Ettrick Forest but takes Isobel to his secret lair where only a special few outlaws like Wallace knew of its existence. He realizes he had been wrong about Isobel and feels truly torn. They also discover a Hawk where Jamie had been a falconer as well as Isobel’s father so she is no stranger to the birds. They train the bird together and fall in love.

However soon time goes on as Jamie hates her heartless betrothed Sir Ralph Leslie, a turncoat Scot who sides with the English as Jamie wants to save his cousin Janet. He wants to trade captive for captive. The problem is he is in love with Black Isobel! Except he has nothing to offer her being on the run, being hunted and living as an outlaw in the forest. He feels Ralph can give her a peaceful existence except Isobel refuses to go! She rather be on the run with Jamie as he has given her first feel of freedom and rebels against all of those who had tried to keep her hidden because of her abilities where she was truly captive. On top of that Jamie does not know what to do as he loves his cousin like a sister but is madly in love with Isobel. What will Jamie do to trade Isobel to a man that only wants to use her or leave his cousin as a captive?He is between a rock and a hard place and does not know what to do? Read and find out.

Susan King has always been a favorite author of mine. I read this under ‘’Laird of the Wind’’ many years ago and I love Scottish history. I loved revisiting this book again number one when I read it the first time I had not been to Scotland yet. Now I have been to Scotland and been to specific sites she described in this book like Dunfermline Abbey. I too have been to the thorn tree where allegedly William Wallace’s mother was buried where it is still marked today.Also King Robert the Bruce’s body rests at Dunfermline Abbey. Furthermore I am so excited Susan King is with Dragonblade Publishing now being one of my favorite publishers too! I can’t wait to read The Falcon Laird next!

Celtic Hearts

Book 1 - The Hawk Laird

Book 2 - The Falcon Laird

Book 3 - The Swan Laird

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy and an advance reader copy from Dragonblade publishers. I voluntarily agreed to do a fair review and blog through netgalley. All thoughts, ideas and words are my own.

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ebaeschnbliah · 7 years

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EVERY QUIVER OF HIS BEATING HEART .....

__________________________________________________

Am I the current king of England ... or are we here to see the queen?

Just like Mycroft is strongly connected with the term 'QUEEN', Sherlock is more than once connected to the 'KING'. In a way, both ot them represent 'ENGLAND/LONDON' with Mycroft as the Government, Sherlock as the countly, the city, the body ... and Baker Street 221b as the metaphorical heart of it. The voice given to that heart seems to be Mrs. Hudson but also John.

Mrs Hudson leave Baker Street? England would fall.

Once in a while Mycroft, in his function as government (brain), turns up - spying, controlling, offering dubious cases. Then John Watson moves in and 'takes the room upstairs'. John just came back from the East - from the battlefields of Afghanistan - scarred and badly wounded. Walking at the side of Sherlock Holmes, he sets his feet now onto a different kind of 'battlefield' ... as the brain tells him.

Most people blunder round this city, and all they see are streets and shops and cars. When you walk with Sherlock Holmes, you see the battlefield. You’ve seen it already, haven’t you?

On another day in the story Sherlock comes back from the East as well - from imprisonment and torture in Serbia - scarred and wounded himself. Most urgently summoned by his brain (Mycroft) because 'there's going to be a terror strike on London - a big one'. (terrorists=emotions)

Just put me back in London. I need to get to know the place again, breathe it in – feel every quiver of its beating heart.

Sherlock clearly enjoys HIS big city ... London. Seems he is indeed a 'city boy' just like his mirror Edward Van Coon in TBB. It doesn't seem likely that Sherlock could bear to live somewhere else for a longer period of time.

London. It’s like a great cesspool into which all kinds of criminals, agents and drifters are irresistibly drained.

And it looks like John Watson has very similar feelings where London is concerned ...

I returned to England with my health irretrievably ruined and my future bleak. Under such circumstances, I naturally gravitated to London, that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are drained.

But of course, this is from TAB and therefore in Sherlock's own head. What goes on in his head though? Is he considering how John might have felt upon returning from the war in Afghanistan .... or is he reliving his own return from his own 'war' back in TEH?

And then - when Sherlock, John and Mycroft encounter the 'final problem' - all three of them decide to be soldiers that day. Even Mycroft .....

JOHN: Today we have to be soldiers, Mycroft, soldiers ...

SHERLOCK: Soldiers today.

SHERLOCK: Soldiers? JOHN: Soldiers.

MYCROFT: Today, we are soldiers.

Playing once more with a methaphorical reading of Sherlock BBC where England/London represents Sherlock's body. It's part of a thread I decided to call 'Sherlock deducing Sherlock'. And of course, this is just one of several threads running through this story ... side by side .... every single one telling a different story.

More under the cut ... mostly vexillology and history but also lions and dragons .... beware ..... :))))

England/London ... the body ... Sherlock

The government ... the brain ... Mycroft

221b Baker Street ... the heart ... John

How the flag of England came into being ... the Union Jack

The flag combines aspects of three older national flags. The first version dates back to 1606 when James VI of Scotland united the crowns of Engalnd, Scotland and Ireland in a personal union, although the three kingdoms remained separate states. (X)

the white saltire on blue background of St Andrew to represent Scotland

the red saltire on white background of St Patrick to represent Ireland

the red cross on white background of St George for the Kingdom of England,

Saint George's cross

Its first documented use was as the ensign of the Republic of Genoa. Later it was used by cursaders. The cross ceased to be a symbol directly associated with the "taking of the cross", the resolve to fight in a crusade, after the failure of the crusades in the 14th century.

The St. George's flag, was adopted by England and the City of London in 1190 for their ships entering the Mediterranean to benefit from the protection of the Genoese fleet.

From 1348 and throughout the 15th century, the Saint George's Cross was shown in the hoist of the Royal Standards of the Plantagenet kings of England. The combined flag form 1606 was initially for maritime display, later restricted to the King's ships.

The symbol has since been adopted as the emblem of several countries and cities which have or had Saint George as a patron saint, notably the Republic of Genoa, the Duchy of Milan, England, Wales and Georgia in the Caucasus Mountains of Eastern Europe. (X)

Georgia and Tiblisi

Regarding Sherlock BBC several important things happen in this country. In fact, Georgia is (though just for some short scenes) more heavily featured than any other country in this story appart from Great Britain itself.

That's Tiblisi. Isn't it beautiful?

The legendary Black Pearl of the Borgias is stolen from a secret vault

The ambassador and her husband are taken hostage and killed

AGRA - the group of 'super-agents' - sent in to free the hostages - are deceived and get destroyed

One ot the important memory sticks is hidden in a Thatcher plaster bust manufactured in a workshop inside (?) or at least very close to the ambassy

A batch of those busts - including exactly the one with the hidden memory stick - is supplied to London.

The creators of Sherlock BBC could have chosen any country in the world for any of the events mentioned above. Why did they go for Georgia? Well, maybe .....

... the name, the flag, the coat of arms?

The flag of Georgia is also known as the Five Cross Flag. Originally a banner of the medieval Kingdom of Georgia, it was brought back during periods of Georgias national revival and served as one of the most recognizable symbols of the bloodless Rose Revolution. Since 2004 it is the official flag of Georgia.

This Five Cross Flag of Georgia is a red-on-white version of the Jerusalem Cross. The four small crosses are officially described as 'Bolnisi Crosses', even though they are only slightly 'pattée' .... meaning that the arms are narrow at the center, often flared in a curve or straight line shape, to be broader at the perimeter ... like the Maltese cross.

The coat of arms of the Kingdom of Jerusalem were originally displayed in gold on silver. But the colors could be changed. Usually metal on metal, brakes the heraldic Rule of Tincture. It was justified in this case by the fact that Jerusalem was so holy, it was above ordinary rules.

The five-fold cross symbolizes either the Five Wounds of Christ, Christ and the four evangelists or Christ and the four quarters of the world.

If England represents Sherlock's body, the red cross of Saint George and the name of the saint himself connect Sherlock very closely to Georgia. And the Five Cross Flag of Georgia constitutes a connection to Jerusalem and Christ. Another Christ reference in this story it seems ....

Georgia's coat of arms features an image of Saint George, riding a horse trampling upon a dragon, whose head is pierced by the saint's spear. Two lions are supporting the shield, which is surmounted with the royal crown of Georgia. The motto below the shield reads "Strength is in Unity"

Saint George's monument in front of the City Council in Tiblisi, Georgia

The Tiblisi incident

When AGRA are storming the embassy in Tiblisi the 'Five Cross Flag' can be seen very prominently in the background .... it looks like it has been blown into the open window by a draft of air .... but the weather must have changed ... because despite the still open window and all the action in the room, neither flag nor curtains are moving one bit throughout the whole scene.

Two life-size statues of lions are dramatically flanking the centre of the room ......

Saint George and the dragon

According to legend, Saint George was a roman soldier of greek origin and officer in the guard of Roman empereor Diocletian. He is one of the most prominent military saints and immortalised in the myth of Saint George and the Dragon. While the veneration of Saint George as a soldier saint goes back to the 7th century at least, the earliest known surviving narrative of the dragon episode is an 11th-century Georgian text.

The town had a small lake with a plague-bearing dragon living in it and poisoning the countryside. To appease the dragon, the people fed it two sheep every day. When they ran out of sheep they started feeding it their children, chosen by lottery. One time the lot fell on the king's daughter. The king, in his grief, told the people they could have all his gold and silver and half of his kingdom if his daughter were spared; the people refused. The daughter was sent out to the lake, dressed as a bride, to be fed to the dragon.

Saint George by chance rode past the lake. The princess tried to send him away, but he vowed to remain. The dragon emerged from the lake while they were conversing. Saint George charged it on horseback, seriously wounding it with his lance. He then called to the princess to throw him her girdle, and he put it around the dragon's neck. When she did so, the dragon followed the girl like a meek beast on a leash.

Of course, the story ends like almost any dragon story does .... despite 'meek and on a leash' the dragon has to die.

A dragon living in water, a game of chance, a damsel in dirstress dressed as bride, a knight making a vow, a dragon on a leash .... well, well .... if this doesn't sound familiar .....

The work of an unknown artist: Saint George and the dragon from De Grey Hours (a medieval Book of Hours probably written for the De Grey family of Ruthin c.1390) National Library of Wales

Once more unto the breach, dear friends ....

"Once more unto the breach, dear friends ... once more! Or close the wall up ... with our English dead! ... set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide. Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit ... to his full height! On, on, you noblest English ... whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof! And you, good yeoman, whose limbs were made in England, show us here the mettle of your pasture! ... which I doubt not, for there is none of you so mean and base ... that hath not noble lustre in your eyes! I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips, straining upon the start! The game’s afoot.”

In The Lying Detective Sherlock quotes William Shakespeare's HENRY V, Act 3, Scene1. Among other parts, the last two lines of the monologue are missing:

Follow your spirit: and upon this charge, cry ....

God for Harry! England and Saint George!

Saint George is the patron saint of England and the protector of the royal family. His cross forms the national flag, and features within the Union Flag of the United Kingdom.

Again - if England indeed represents Sherlock's body, the red cross of Saint George and the saint himself connect Sherlock very closely to Georgia, Tiblisi ... AND the hostage incident in the embassy as well.

Is this maybe a supressed and coded memory? Georgia representing England at some time in the past .... in Sherlock's past? Is 'Georgia' not a different country but a different time? Dead people in Sherlock's past? Did he triy/wish to save them, but failed? Because he was just a child at that time? And was there really some foul play involved? Has Sherlock told himself another different/better story, to 'get rid' of the painful memory of the actual event?

But this isn't the end of this post yet .... there are still more connections ....

The Royal Arms of England

It was first adopted in a fixed form round 1200 by the Plantagenet kings and depicts three identical gold lions with blue tongues and claws, walking past but facing the observer, arranged in a column on a red background.

This design has not been altered since then. Over the centuries it has been variously combined with the signs and symbols of other kings and royal houses, according to dynastic and political changes occuring in England.

The present coat of arms of the United Kingdom used by Queen Elizabeth II includes a harp for Ireland and for Scotland a rampant lion surrounded by a flowered border. The dexter supporter is a crowned English lion; the sinister supporter, a Scottish unicorn. The Motto 'Dieu et mon droit' translates to 'God and my right' (X X)

(dexter & sinister = right or left from the POV of the bearer of the shield)

During the promotion for S4 the Union Jack and the crowned English lion made their appearance together with a mysterious question mark .... and the term 'sinister' showed up two times as well in tweets.

Related posts: The mirrored question mark Question mark and eyes Lions Sinister & orphans Mark's 'sinister' tweets The sinister hand

The flag of the City of London

It is based on the flag of England but represets only the historical City of London .... not Greater London. The sword symbolises the sword that beheaded Saint Paul who is the patron saint of the city. (X)

(A sword is definitely no blunt instrument but a sharp weapon which can also be 'wielded with precision and without remorse' .... like a scalpel ... :))))

Coat of arms of the City of London

It consists of a silver shield bearing a red cross with a red upright sword in the first quarter, combining the emblems of the patron saints of England and London: the Cross of St George with the symbol of the martyrdom of Saint Paul.

Sherlock looking out over London ... Saint Paul's Cathedral to his right.

The crest depicts a dragon's left (sinister) wing bearing also the cross of St George, borne upon a peer's helmet. (X)

(A helmet is part of a knights armour, worn to shield the head. Broadly speaking, a helmet is rather similar to a mask ... hiding/covering head and face of a person. No one is able to recognize who's relly behind such an armour. Could be anyone. It's rather similar to ... 'putting on a facade'. Just saying .... :))))

Two silver dragons bearing red crosses upon their wings are supporting the arms. The latin motto of the City is Domine dirige nos, which translates to "Lord, direct (guide) us".

DIMMOCK: I go where you point me. SHERLOCK (walking away): Exactly.

(Sorry, couldn't resist this bit of dialoge from The Blind Banker. It's just too good! And John's words from HLV 'Your way. Always your way' run exactly in the same vein as well. :))))

There be dragons .....

In the episode The Blind Banker (S1) the Yellow Dragon Circus comes to London to retrieve something that was stolen. Not the Black Pearl of the Borgias, no .... but something almost equally small and probably equally valuable ... a jade hairpin in the shape of a snake. Or is it a tiny Chinese baby dragon? Anyway, snake or dragon, both are reptiles. And the showdown of that episode takes place at a place called ... 'Dragon Den, Black Tramway'

And the dragon references continue .....

JIM: Sir Boast-a-lot was the bravest and cleverest knight at the Round Table, but soon the other knights began to grow tired of his stories about how brave he was and how many dragons he’d slain ...

MYCROFT: He (Magnusson) is a necessary evil – not a dragon for you to slay. SHERLOCK: A dragon slayer. Is that what you think of me? MYCROFT: No. It’s what you think of yourself.

MYCROFT: ... but on balance you have more utility closer to home. SHERLOCK: Utility? How do I have utility? MYCROFT: “Here be dragons.”

MARY: Sherlock the dragon slayer.

Dragon or dragon slayer ... that's the question

Or could it be both? Is Sherlock not only the dragon slayer but also the dragon?

"... in your case, solitary confinement is locking you up with your worst enemy"

Sherlock at war with himself? Sherlock fighting parts of himself? The dragon fighting his inner dragon? And even his brain tells him 'this is a war we MUST lose'. Could Sherlock really be that dragon himself?

Well, it is said that dragons are breathing fire .... wherever there is fire there is smoke as well ...... :))))))

All pics not Sherlock BBC are from Wikipedia and related to the sites I used for gathering information. Thanks @callie-ariane for the scripts.

I leave you to your own deductions.

November, 2017

@gosherlocked @loveismyrevolution @sagestreet @sherlockshadow @raggedyblue @monikakrasnorada @possiblyimbiassed @sarahthecoat @darlingtonsubstitution @devoursjohnlock @tjlcisthenewsexy @kateis-cakeis @tendergingergirl

#every quiver of his beating heart #sherlock deducing sherlock #London=sherlock

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joneswilliam72 · 6 years

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The 405 Meets: The Twilight Sad's James Graham

It’s always slightly jarring when a heritage artist releases a capital-G Great record. There’s the inborn implication that heritage denotes a greatness of the past, where greatness is epochally removed, so their contribution to music while Vital or Important is received as a time capsule. Think of Bowie’s Blackstar, or Dylan’s Time Out Of Mind, or A Tribe Called Quest’s We Got It From Here… Thank You For Your Service; excellent records on their own terms, but nominally judged through the lens of the legendary career preceding them.

Given The Twilight Sad have only existed for 15 years, labelling them a “heritage” band might sound facetious; but for anyone who grew up having their unrequited crushes and identity-fraught adolescence soundtracked by the Glasgow band’s debut Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters, they’re intractable. They’ve put out good indie rock records since Fourteen Autumns, successfully evolving without compromising the exasperated sensitivity which draws new fans in like a trail of breadcrumbs, becoming one of those bands whose unshowy consistency has marshalled them towards that most backhanded of compliments; “underrated”.

Without denigrating the inbetween records in the slightest, It Won/t Be Like This All the Time is a different beast. It’s simultaneously a 2019 album and a timeless one, grappling with fiercely on-topic discussions of masculinity and mental health while tackling rock’s perennial burden of early-onset listlessness and the passage of time’s ennui. It’s an album which catalyses self-reflection and enables the listener to grapple with their own problems, joining the pantheon of other capital-G great rock records which extend genuine mental health support by virtue of existing.

But at what cost to the artist? That’s something Twilight Sad lyricist and lead singer James Graham knows better than anyone.

***

When I met Graham in a café in the south side of Glasgow the day after New Years, I was eager for him to break down the genesis of It Won/t; its inspirations and aspirations. Graham grounded me instantly: “This is our job now, we know we have to release albums.”

He clarified: “For me it's not a job like that really, I have to have a reason to write a song, to write an album even more so. We needed time to get home, to get back to real life because that was not real life, those tours. They were some of the best moments of my life, and the best moments for the band, but I've never been used to something like that before. It was such a grand scale, and everyday you're pinching yourself, ‘how is this happening to me?’”

The tour Graham’s referencing was a six month US and Europe tour with The Cure – a band he passionately confesses to be the Sad’s absolute favourite – where they, a group of softly spoken pals from the west of Scotland, were playing sold out venues of 10,000 people every night.

“Yeah, we're not used to 10,000,” Graham laughs. “It was also the way we were treated, Robert [Smith, Cure frontman] arranged a bus for us, we've never done a bus tour before as a band, we're like ‘woah this is mental’. Playing our music in those kinds of arenas, until you do it you don't know if your music's going to work. I know our music's big, cinematic, so you hope you could fill a space like that, but you don't know until you actually physically get up and start doing it. Luckily it seemed to connect."

Graham added: “For a band like us who work so hard, where things haven't always worked out, we've had some really horrible tours where attendance wasn't great, long gruelling drives, being away from home for a long time; to get to a point where our last record did connect, which was reflected by attendances, and then that [The Cure tours] to happen at the end of it, it was a big 'wow, how far we've come since the start – but don’t get used to this.'"

Those peak moments of perfect concord between the melody and the noise; those all-too-brief seconds of aural bliss which The Cure specialise in? It Won/t Be Like This has a good four or five those. The record began to take shape after the tour had finished, but Graham and Sad co-songwriter (and drummer) Andy MacFarlane derived plenty of ideas from their time with the stadium rock icons.

“Sitting watching them every night, watching the audience every night, I think subconsciously things were sinking in, and we knew what we wanted to do with this album after that tour. Andy did musically anyway, cause he scrapped everything; basically, we wrote the album [on tour] and then Andy scrapped all the music - though he kept all my vocals. He said when he sent through the new version, ‘you'll notice the music's different...’ aye fucking right it is. But it was for the better definitely, because he felt what he'd done wasn't good enough. We took on board that we can't just settle, not that we ever did, but we wanted to be better than we were."

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Once the tour was over Smith even volunteered his ear for a second opinion on the songs’ early drafts. “We gave the demos to Robert as well and he wrote back to us and rated them out of ten, which was pretty nerve-wracking. Sending unfinished demos to one of the greatest songwriters of all-time, then getting a response of ‘this is an eight out of ten, could be a nine’, that’s really fucking cool. He never said ‘do this, do that’, he said try this, try that, which was really cool. He gave options, suggestions. He was right 90% of the time; it wasn’t massive things, just ‘see this breakdown, try this’, which I think contributed to those peak moments on the record.”

The peak Cure-adjacent moments, that is. “All that only comes from working on it a million times, being patient. And I'm not a patient person! Normally I'm like ‘fuck it, next one’, but it was really satisfying to take our time without overanalysing it. I'm glad it has those moments, a new dynamic for us - and not just quiet/loud, because in the past we've been known just as the quiet/loud band, I think it's more layered.”

They’ve been known as a “quiet/loud” band, post-punk, indie rock, you name a rudimentary genre label and for certain at one point it’s been tossed at The Twilight Sad and unable to stick; Graham however, in an interview around the time of Fourteen Autumns’ release, described the band as “folk with layers of noise”. I asked him if he stood by this.

“I think it's down to the words. My lyrics are about me and where I'm from and things that have happened to me and my friends and family. To me that's what folk music is; not writing about politics, writing about very personal things. It’s also the substance of the music. Performing these songs acoustically, you've got to be thinking you've got a song beneath [the noise]. I think 90% of our songs you can take away all of the layers and there's a song there. We’ve went a bit more new wave, having synths and that, but I think the ethos of folk is at the heart of what our band is.”

Graham’s carefully enunciated Scottish accent has always been one of the band’s greatest assets, its guttural moroseness communicating the savage melancholy of his condition. A music critic cliché is describing the efficacy of someone’s voice as an instrument in itself; Graham’s accent however is more a natural vocoder, a conveyor of agony more clinical than any autotune.

“Listening to [Aidan Moffat, of Arab Strap] was the catalyst of all that. I grew up near Falkirk, and hearing his lyrics and remember thinking ‘well that's just writing about where's he's from, just going to the pub, being bored with his pals’, and he's singing how he would communicate normally in a conversation, and that was like ‘wow, you can do that?’, just relaxing and telling your stories as they're meant to be told. It'd feel dishonest if I sang in an American tinge.”

He elaborated: “I think more than anything it's not about being Scottish and glum; unlike in Trainspotting, I don't think it's shite being Scottish. I can't help being Scottish, and that's going to come through in my music. I'm not wearing a kilt or flying a saltire above my head, but I think the honesty is what comes from it; by singing that way, it is honest. We didn't go ‘alright, we're going to write this song and Jamie you're writing in a Scottish accent because Americans love the Scottish accent and we're going to sell shitloads’ whereas it's the opposite. It's just who you are, and unfortunately that is melancholy.”

Arab Strap and the Sad share plenty of DNA; while the former is more traditionally folky than its noisier cousin, lyrically they’re evocative of very specific contexts and characters, but expressed with such modest relatability that both transmute the intensely personal into the universal.

“Aidan is one of my friends now, which is mental, but he's still a massive influence. Did you hear the Christmas record he just did? There's covers on it that are funny but brilliant at the same time, but then there's this song about looking in the mirror and seeing this old man, seeing everything through old age, and it's just genius. I related to that, that was exactly how I was feeling that day. We've released three songs from the record now, and after we released ‘I'm Not Here’ people got in touch saying ‘I know you're talking about this as your own experience, but this is how I feel it’, which was nice because it was the most honest I've been, without the metaphors I normally use.”

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The Sad are synonymous with abrupt sensitivity, lyrics of candour and empathy interrogating depression, loneliness, deepest remorse and bitterness. When Fourteen Autumns came out in 2007 it starkly contrasted with the toxic laddiness which monopolised UK rock at the time. Mental health and masculinity are issues being more directly confronted by the scene these days, with Shame and IDLES both releasing worthy records last year which grappled with the noxious expectations placed upon the modern rockstar, and the modern man. As someone who’s sang about this for over a decade, what does Graham think of this fresh dynamic?

“I’m kind of the antithesis, or my music is, of that toxic masculinity, going on stage and greeting my eyes out every night. I was talking to my dad the other day, about growing up and how you were meant to act and think, and if you don't act that way you're different and weird, especially in the middle of Scotland. I'm very lucky I don't have a dad like that but I've seen where it comes from. When I was growing up it was ‘go and get a real job, get an apprenticeship, don't waste your life looking for these fancy dreams’. How is that a way to engage with anybody?”

“I want freedom from that as much as possible. I have a son and I want to teach him that that's bullshit, utter bullshit. My wife dressed our wee boy with pink trousers on and somebody in the street said "aw look at the wee girl" and I'm like what? Why does the colours matter? In the first song [‘10 Good Reasons for Modern Drugs’] there's a nod to that, ‘all wee boys look the same’, cause I was out one night in my local pub, looking around and thinking ‘what the fuck is going on’, and was disgusted by how young men were behaving.”

Graham continued: “I've got nothing against the bands in lad rock, sometimes it's not their fault. It’s more about how we can get away from that and just make it about everyone being able to go and enjoy their time and space at gigs. It's a basic solidarity really. That's what I want to promote. There's bands I've watched for years who as they've got more popular they've attracted that type of laddy audience. I have friends who don't go and see certain bands now cause they don't enjoy it, not that they feel threatened - well in a way they do, since their way of watching and enjoying that music is threatened.”

Fourteen Autumns came out through Brighton label FatCat Records, who in the late 00s oversaw something of a renaissance in Scottish rock. Complementing the Sad were Edinburgh’s harder-edged We Were Promised Jetpacks, and also the folk rock band Frightened Rabbit, who were, and remain, very close friends with the bandmates from the Sad, often helping with demos, tours, but also very essentially as supportive and considerate pals outside the music bubble. Frightened Rabbit’s lead singer Scott Hutchison committed suicide last May, a tragedy which broke the world for his friends and family, countless fans, and Graham.

I’m hesitant about pursuing a topic so delicate, but Graham insists “I'm happy to discuss Scott. I think we should discuss Scott, I think everybody should talk about Scott.”

When asked about that those few years at FatCat, Graham smiles: “Looking back it's weird, even before Scott passed me and him would talk about it quite a lot; we never thought that we were doing anything special, we were writing songs just for fun. There was a point when we were sending each other our demos, back and forth with Scott and Grant [Frightened Rabbit's drummer and Scott's brother] to see whether we each thought it was cool, that was enough for us. We weren't looking for any widespread acclaim, just wanting to make a record and have fun; even if the subject matter wasn't exactly fun. We were skint, playing shitty venues, struggling to get by, but we had the fucking best time together. This whole journey started with them, and we've constantly looked out for each other as time went on.”

Graham pauses before continuing: “We were really struggling at one point on the third record, and Scott asked if we wanted to come and support their tour in America, cause they were doing really well and saw we were struggling, but believed in us and wanted to get us in front of more people. He didn't have to do that. We kept releasing things together, even when they went to Atlantic [Records, the label Frabbit joined after the release of their third record The Winter of Mixed Drinks] we kept the connection. We were best friends, really.”

“There was a friendly competition too; when they released [2006 debut album] Sing The Greys we thought ‘fuck, we've got to get the finger out’. Then we released Fourteen Autumns, and I remember being at a party and Scott said ‘everybody into this room now’ cause I'd given him a copy of the album, and he said ‘we're all going to sit down and we're going to listen to this Twilight Sad album’, and I remember sitting there physically forced to listen to our own music, distinctly remember the look on his face where he's just *grimaces*; because we were proud, we knew we'd made something special for us, and I knew he'd love it as well."

"Then I could see the determination in his eyes, and he basically went; right, I see your Fourteen Autumns, and I raise you Midnight Organ Fight. So he came back from America, and we sat and listened to [Midnight] in his flat in the West End on a CD player, me and Andy sitting in front of *that* and turning to each other thinking ‘ah fuck’.”

“We always had each other's back. I only look upon those moments with love and fondness. I still get those feelings every time each of us released a record. This time is going to be weird though, cause every time one of us released a record we'd message each other congratulations, so on the day of [It Won/t’s] release, I'm going to miss that. I've been thinking about that morning a lot, what it’ll feel like when that text doesn’t come. I'll say it felt good back then; not because we thought we were making something influential or great, just because we made it for us. There's a lot of darkness that surrounds everything back then and also now, but that was a really positive, happy period of our lives, and nobody can take that away from us.”

Thankfully, part of Hutchison pulsates through It Won/t Be Like This, having contributed ideas to most recent single ‘VTR’, a lasting imprint and tribute to their friend.

“Him and Andy were wanting to work together, trading ideas back and forth, then Andy said ‘I started to work on something from what Scott suggested, and I started to like it, so thought I'd just keep it for the Sad album.” It's nice knowing that Andy produced the track, when Scott was on his mind. And that song has the most hopeful line in the whole record, it's nice to note there was still hope when we were writing that. I do follow it up with a line that doesn't have any hope, but it's nice to know there's that through-line, that connection to him. There will be in everything we do from now on.”

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When I saw the Sad at Primavera Festival a few weeks after Hutchison’s death, their first gig since, they closed their set with a cover of Frightened Rabbit’s ‘Keep Yourself Warm’, which was indescribably moving, and a vehicle for some desperately needed catharsis; for myself, the audience, and the band.

“I didn't know if it was the right thing to do,” Graham says, “but after the reaction from the crowd I thought ‘we've got to do this every night’, and though I've not been able to get through it without crying, we've carried on playing it. I was thinking that maybe after a while I would be able to finish without, but... I’m always thinking about whether it's the right thing to do, but as I say we should be talking about Scott, we should be singing his words, because he was brilliant. Doing it for the first time, it's very blurry for me now. I'd like to try and remember it, I do every night when we play it. That first time, hearing people clapping along to the drumbeat knowing immediately what we were about to do, it was really special.”

Has the band played Glasgow since?

“No, no we haven't. That's going to be... we played in Edinburgh and that was, I can hardly remember it was that blurry. When we play the Barrowlands it'll be... I don't want to put any expectations on anything, but I just know what people are going to be like; which is great, we're in that room together, and we'll sing it together. I think we'll get through it. I've seen him play that song so many times there, and it'll be fitting for us to play that song for the first time in Glasgow at the Barrowlands, in a place that holds so many memories for both of us.”

It's now something happens that even now seems surreal, the kind of ludicrous coincidence that’d be dismissed from the early draft of an indie dramedy for being too on-the-nose or sentimental. The café starts playing Frightened Rabbit’s ‘Loneliness & The Scream’, the first time either of us have heard their music since Hutchison’s death.

“I've sang [Frightened Rabbit] but I've not been able to listen to them. That coming on there, it took me a wee bit. I'm not a religious guy or believe in certain things, but stuff like this keeps occurring and it feels like it means something. The record was written and recorded before what happened. The connection through some of the words I'm singing and the themes on it, the coincidences are scary. I can't quite explain it, there's a feeling of Scott within this.”

A parallel between the Sad and Frightened Rabbit, or more specifically Graham and Hutchison, is their accented vocals, as alluded to earlier. Like Graham, Hutchison sung accented because it was honest, to help purge his demons, or try to.

“People are starting to see the reason I do it is to get something out. The reason Scott did it is to get something out. That's something that scared me after it happened. Without this I would be lost, and I'm lucky that I have this. But after everything that's happened it's made me think ‘is it actually good for me?’ Scott was doing the same thing, and it didn't... it did help him, but it didn’t.”

“I'm terrified about releasing a record, I always am, the pressure I put on myself. I wrote these songs for myself, and sometimes you forget that once you release them you're putting yourself on the line to get absolutely slated, and that would destroy me. If somebody slates the record you get another 100 people saying it's great, I'll look at that one who's slated me and it'll tear me apart, and is that good for me? Is the reason I do this in the first place actually helping me? It helps in the writing and recording process, but the releasing and putting myself out there I'm not too fond of to be honest. I enjoy talking to people who like our music, that's a lovely thing, but this process isn't what happens all the time, and you can't escape it now with social media. If somebody thinks you're shite you can't hide from it, and I'm the type of person who really takes it to heart, and it affects me in my everyday life. I know we're about to release a record and I should feel excited about it but I feel genuinely terrified and questioning if this is good for me anymore.”

Graham pauses again. “That's something that Scott and I spoke about regularly. How the release process and criticism affected us, and luckily people have been very kind about both our bands over the years but sometimes people can be really cruel and snidey and I don't know why. Obviously Scott and I are very, well emo, let's not get away from that, very emotional and you can tell through our songs we take things to heart. When you look at Frightened Rabbit's rise, when they're selling out big shows and seeing this guy smiling on stage people think ‘everything must be fucking great’; that life can be brilliant, but with those highs are crashing lows. Nobody gets to see that, and you're not meant to tell people about that in interviews.”

“I think that's something I find hard and strange, when you're going out promoting something you're meant to be confident, positive, ‘this album is the best fucking thing we've ever done’, if you don't say that then people maybe question you; ‘do they even like it, do they appreciate they're living the dream?’ When you're doing an interview on the radio or telly you’re told you can never comes across as tired, because people will think ‘fuck them then, they're tired, all they're doing is making music’. I found that tour we did for two months, I was singing new songs, singing Scott's songs, travelling for eight hours a day, I was emotionally and physically exhausted. I just couldn't play anymore gigs than what we played and I became a shell of a person for a couple of days, and that's never happened to me before.”

Asked if there’s any real provision or support for artists in the industry, Graham shakes his head: “none, not at all, if I feel lost I don’t know what to do. After that Cure tour, to a guy who's never experienced peaks as high as that, I came home and looked at the wall and thought 'what the fuck happened?' I love my life at home; I've got a wife and kid I adore to bits but coming back I felt completely alien from everything. The only support I would have is my close friends and family, but I didn't want to burden this on them. I didn't know where to turn, what number to phone, who to go to. I'm maybe not the best person to talk about this stuff since I'm not educated about it, but I have felt it, so maybe I am."

“I think that a lot of the feelings I have are in those songs. Writing started sparking things, and not in a great way, but I got it out, then the whole process starts again of feeling anxious about having my feelings out there. Not promoting the album title, but "It Won't Be Like This All The Time" is meant to be taken as both a positive or a negative; it won't be like this all the time so cherish this moment, it won't be like this all the time because things will get better. But we need coping mechanisms in case it doesn’t.”

from The 405 http://bit.ly/2TU2QXL

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