Deck the halls with Middleton and Shrigley

Former Arab Strap guitarist Middleton is no stranger to wry festive cheer, having previously released a yuletide carol called Burst Noel - and been the subject of a Christmas Number One campaign with a track called We're All Going To Die - while Macclesfield-raised, Glasgow-based Shrigley's work has long been defined by its hand-scrawled, dark and humdrum humour.

Their collaboration has been seven years (on and off) in the making - they met after Shrigley provided artwork for Middleton's website and A Brighter Beat LP - and the record is being released on heavyweight vinyl (among other formats) with individually hand-drawn artwork from both artists. They've been holed up in Shrigley's workspace in Glasgow Sculpture Studios finishing the sleeves, which is where we find them, hard at work, musing on the project's genesis.

"I suppose a track called Story Time started the record off," says Shrigley of a gorgeous guitar psalm that chronicles woodland plague and sexual carnage. "I wrote it for my friend Bridget [McCann], she does quite a lot of acting and voice coaching, and she's got a really great storytelling voice."

"It was one of the first songs that we worked on, but it was going to be off the record until the last day," says Middleton, carefully penning his name on each record sleeve. "But everyone who heard it was amazed by it - silenced by it, in a good way. It's dark, it's quite harrowing..."

"... it's very nihilist," Shrigley concludes.

Music and Words thrives on the contrast between Shrigley's bleak, dystopian, absurd narratives, and Middleton's compelling, often-beautiful compositions. These subtly underscore the record's humour, such as on Help, which sees Middleton's hi-octane, hyper-dramatic Miami Vice vibes soundtrack a comically prosaic scenario, and Caveman's primeval rhetoric, which begins as a vaudevillian a cappella sketch, before veering into homicidal bagpipe-guitar rock.

"I was worried that one was too dark," offers Shrigley.

"My problem was, I listened to David's words so much, I became desensitised to them," Middleton says with a laugh. "So David would say, 'that's really dark' - and I'd say, 'That's not dark! That's 80s rock.'"

Among the record's myriad musical styles, which are often reminiscent of Middleton's Scottish Album of the Year Award-nominated Human Don't Be Angry guise, there's a stark show-stopper in Dear Brain, the record's filmic, piano-led centre-piece. "I think Dear Brain might be my favourite," Shrigley suggests. "It's about the nature of consciousness I suppose." Does it also offer an atheist message as we embark on the festive season?

"One can ponder what it means, but your interpretation of it is as valid as whatever intent I might have had," he says, smiling. "I think when you make any kind of artwork, be it a song or a drawing or whatever, you're never going to be there when somebody looks at it, or interprets it, so you have to accept that their interpretation is just as valid as your intention might have been."

One such interpretation might suggest that the grand themes on Music and Words appear to chart the evolution of man - from The Tree, Caveman and Monkeys, through to swansong, A Computer.

Middleton looks up from his artwork. "Wow. I've never looked at it like that," he says. "You're right - we've got the whole of civilisation in there. I did ask David what it was all about in the studio, and I realised it was annoying him, so I kept asking,"

Middleton sniggers. "I'd say, 'What's The Tree about'? And he'd say, 'It's about a tree.'"

Shrigley shrugs. "I thought we were having studio banter. I thought that's what musicians got up to in the studio."

"It was good how we did that in the recording studio, and now we're doing this, the artwork, here - two worlds collide," Middleton says, and gets back to signing his name.

As a vinyl record that's also an original object by a Turner Prize-nominee, Music and Words raises questions about the value we place on music, and art. "So far, most of my fans are going for the six pound download," Middleton says. "They're saying, 'It's a bit steep for the vinyl...'"

"While of my followers are like, 'Wow, that is an absolute bargain, I am buying that right now,'" Shrigley counters. "It says more about the unique nature of the object, I suppose. People in the art world appreciate unique objects."

Middleton shakes his head. "So this is worth more as a piece of art than it is as a piece of music. It's not good. I'm calling my music art from now on."

Shrigley has previous form in exploring the value of art over music.

He has released a spoken-word LP (Shrigley Forced To Speak With Others), a split seven-inch with the Oh Sees, and his lyric book, Worried Noodles, was interpreted by David Byrne and Middleton's bygone Arab Strap sparring partner Aidan Moffat, among others.

There's a shadow of Moffat on Music and Words, too: one quiet stand-out track, A Tree, features an exquisite, hushed guitar line that recalls the early days of Arab Strap.

"Yeah," Middleton nods. "It does, definitely. We could add Aidan to that one eh?" he quips.

How did the Shrigley collaboration compare with working alongside Moffat?

"Well, I found myself repeating what the younger Malcolm used to say to his mum the other day," Middleton offers. "My mum heard Story Time, and I found myself saying - 'I didn't write the words! It wasn't me! I used to say that all the time in Arab Strap'.

Shrigley falters writing his name, and looks panicked. "My mum's not getting to hear it."

Music and Words is out now. Malcolm Middleton plays King Tut's, Glasgow, on December 13 (with band) and 14 (acoustic). David Shrigley's latest book, Weak Messages Create Bad Situations, is out now.