Since the early '90s, the name Irvine Welsh has been synonymous with postmodernist writing, constantly pushing the envelope with his work and opening eyes with brutal honesty on the subject of life in Scotland during industrial destruction. The creator of Trainspotting, Acid House, and Filth is back with a new novel called A Decent Ride.
Welsh draws much of his artistic inspiration from music. From up-and-coming singer-songwriters, to long-standing acid house bands, and everything in between. Welsh sat down with us, and we asked him to suggest five Scottish acts you need to know.
The Jesus and Mary Chain
"I think they are so innovative and so distinctive that they are almost essential. If you go into someone’s house, and you've been hanging out with them for a bit, and you realize they have no kind of Mary Chain in the record collection, you think, 'I don’t really want to be around this person. This person’s pretty square, really.'"
Primal Scream
"They are just such an exciting band, and such an exciting band live. They’ve done that fusion of everything — acid house, rock 'n’ roll, everything. You never know what you’re going to get, because they change from record to record, but you know it’s always going to be good, and packed with energy and explosive power. When Primal Scream put out Give Out But Don’t Give Up, I did this feature on them for i-D and we started hanging around after that, and we have been doing different collaborations ever since. We have become good friends."
Colin MacIntyre
"From Scottish group the Mull Historical Society. He’s an incredible pop genius, he writes such great catchy pop hooks, but they’re subverted by these cryptic ballads. A very erudite, artsy guy, he just wrote a novel, which is excellent too — a very interesting musician to follow."
Dean Owens
"From my hometown of Leith, Dean is quite interesting because, like a lot of Scottish people, he is obsessed with American country and western. He spent a lot of time in Nashville, he has done a couple of albums there, which are very good, but I prefer when he is doing his own stuff, which is very wrought, Presbyterian, angry Scottish ballads. He has a very uplifting kind of voice. I think he is one of the most underrated musicians around today. He has a pretty big local following in Scotland, and a pretty big following in the States thanks to the country music, but more people should definitely check him out."
Slam (Stuart McMillan and Orke Meikle)
Two of my favourite DJs. Stuart and Orke are DJs and musicians, so they DJ, but they also make all the music [in their songs] themselves. They always make really interesting stuff, kind of house, kind of heavy house, and they are massively influential, they are definitely guys to check out too.
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