STINA Tweeddale had news for her bandmate Cat Myers when the drummer returned from a year of touring with Mogwai and KT Tunstall.
“I was like: ‘I’ve written this record, without you,’” says Tweeddale from her Glasgow home ahead of the release of that record, titled In Plain Sight, later this month.
There was no animosity involved, says Tweeddale, who formed Honeyblood back in 2012 with original drummer Shona McVicar.
“I was overjoyed for her getting these opportunities,” she explains.
“Meanwhile I was at home writing, very much alone. I think it made sense for her too because by the time she came back she was already being offered all sorts of other things.”
Tweeddale continues:”We’ve had this relationship for so long and a lot of people see Honeyblood as a duo. People were saying on the internet ‘Can’t you just go back to the way you were?’ But that’s not going to happen again.”
Though tinged with sadness at losing her bandmate, of the most exciting drummers in Scotland’s ever-bristling music scene, the split with Myers eventually “opened itself up into something amazing.”
That twelve-month period gave the musician the confidence to go it alone and claim Honeyblood as a solo project, as well as liberating Tweeddale’s song-writing from the drums and guitar format.
Whereas previous album Babes Never Die – a well-received record written in just six months – was tethered to a straight-up rock format, In Plain Sight is just as bold but considerably more expansive.
Spiky but apparently sweet lead song The Third Degree is a Hole-meets-The Ronettes-style middle finger to a rotten ex, while elsewhere tracks such as Touch recall the chilly synth sounds of the likes of Depeche Mode.
“Babes Never Die was very much a snapshot of what was going on with the band at the time,” says Tweeddale.
“Musically, it goes all the way through very consistently. With this record, I wrote 30 songs. I didn’t hold myself back as I had loads of time and I wasn’t working to someone else’s schedule or taste. I just wrote whatever I wanted. I had this freedom. I wasn’t writing for a duo – I didn’t know what I was writing for.”
When Tweeddale plays a headline set at the Garage tonight as part of Stag & Dagger – the one-ticket, multi-venue music festival which introduced Scots audiences to the likes of Royal Blood, Catfish and the Bottlemen and Courtney Barnett – it will be the first time her new band have played with her on home turf.
At time of writing, there are yet to be reports from a couple of dates in England as to the identity of Tweeddale’s new recruits.
“I’m not going to give too much away just now but I feel quite lucky with bandmates,” she says.
“I get myself into the situation of: ‘Right, I have to do something new, I’m going to change direction’ and I somehow stumble across the right people at the right time.”
Doubtless, the new Honeyblood live experience will be worth catching – Tweeddale has great form for things falling perfectly into place.
It was John Congleton, a highly-respected producer known for his work with Sharon Van Etten, St Vincent and Angel Olsen, who helped Tweeddale realise her widened vision for In Plain Sight over the Halloween period in Los Angeles last year.
“He was top of my list,” she says. “We didn’t think we could get him because he’s so busy but he had a gap of 12 days. He said if I could do it in that time, the slot was mine. We did it in nine.”
Tweeddale continues: “John totally got the vibe of my demos. I told him to work his magic. You make a wish and then it’s like: ‘How the f** did I manage to do that?’”
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