100 Fables leave the past by the Roadside

The group had been drifting. Internal strife had become entrenched in some regards and the identity of the band did not fit with the maturing mindset of the band members.

Each note felt a little sharp, each word a little bitter. The situation was wearing them down and even live performances had become a stage for anxiety and foreboding. Something had to give.

The result could well have been collapse: If the dynamic is not working, if it is to an extent harmful, then why continue? But there remained an inherent desire to reclaim the ground lost to circumstance.

The group's singer Lyndsey Liora found herself at the proverbial crossroads – she and fellow 'Fables' bandmate Mark McMurtrie had ended a seven-year relationship, the deterioration of which left its mark on band morale. Liora then had to face the mental ordeal of battling the idea of leaving the band and performing altogether.

She told The Weekender: "Music became a really unhappy place for me, but it was still the only thing I wanted to do in my life. This time last year I was lying in my bed having a bit of a breakdown; I didn't know what to do; I was so unhappy.

"I quit my job and done all these things to invest in music and still music isn't making me happy. I didn't know how to fix this – I thought about quitting music and trying something else. I was racking my brain until the point I realised that nothing else was going to make me happy. That joy you feel when you get up on stage and you are sharing music and sharing yourself – that's all I've ever really wanted."

Chief among the issues for Liora was the shift in direction she felt for the band. Her appreciation of 100 Fables' edgy or grungy outlook had drained and continuing to embody that image left her feeling voiceless.

Her relationship had been a pressure point, and there was certainly a need to find some perspective after it had come to an end. For Liora, this applied both personally and musically.

"It hadn't been working for a long time," she reflects. "But since then we've both been doing really well. It's one of those things that sucks at the time, but some things are just not meant to be.

"But there were the usual tribulations: Not only are we splitting up a long-term relationship, it's a house we have together, it's a band we have together and it's all our work we have together.

"And looking back at everything we've released over the last few years, it just didn't feel like my voice anymore. I didn't enjoy writing and only ever wrote a new song when we really had to – I would just knuckle down and do it.

"As that was happening, we had a tour in November so we asked Cameron – who at the time was our photographer – to come play guitar for us and he was overjoyed as he'd always wanted to join the band.

"After the tour we all realised what great chemistry we all had and, so, in December we got together to talk about it all.

"I sort of realised that the music I go and listen to – it's Lizzo, it's The Chainsmokers, it's Maisie Peters – it's all these commercial-pop, dance, uplifting stuff. But that's not what I am writing, and it makes no sense to me.

"I spoke to the boys about it and asked what they wanted to write; Logan was into dance and EDM and Cameron was on the same wavelength. And then it hit us that the music we were listening to, and what we are enjoying, is what we should be making."

From the depths of dread sprang some much-needed optimism. The idea of retiring 100 Fables became a little absurd as the prospect of navigating a new musical direction took hold. A few months after their winter shows, the trio reconvened to test the water.

Liora recalls: "We went into the studio with Lewis Gardner – we thought he would totally understand that sound we were going for. We went in there in early March one day at around 10am and by 5pm we left with a fully written and recorded track."

The product of that session was a song called Roadside and last week 100 Fables launched their second coming with its release.

Liora beams with enthusiasm as she discusses the frontier ahead of her and the rest of the band. Roadside will likely stand in isolation for a while but will become seminal in the story of 100 Fables.

"We came back and started writing this song – and we were thinking about how we feel when leaving a gig. I want to be pumped up, happy and elevated and I think we wanted to capture that energy with this song.

"It had to be euphoric and dance-able, but still have that raw and realistic truth in the lyrics. It's one of those ones where if you listen to it without tuning in you'll think it's a really happy, fun song, but then you listen to the lyrics you'll realise it's got some depth. It's got some bite to it

"That's not who we are anymore," she adds: "We are allowed to evolve as artists; we are allowed to change. This is a massive shift for the music but it totally mirrors what has happened to me – I feel like I lost myself for so many years and have done a complete 180 and I'm back to being the best version of me. The music is always going to change if the artist writing it changes."

In order to make a clean break from the past, the band took the decision to take down their previous releases from the likes of Spotify. With such a radical shift in sound, the band felt the two styles would clash and bewilder audiences, while gigs would lack any real cohesion.

Liora says: "Roadside is pop, EDM and commercial – to go from that into a grungey, new-wave, 80s song during a live set would be really confusing.

"We had such a long discussion about taking the songs down and we've had so many messages from our fans since then to ask 'Where are they? Oh my god, where are they?'

"Maybe in the future we can bring an older song back into the set. But, for now, I am just so excited to get moving with this new sound, this new life and new love. We just want to properly explore it and to push the boundaries."

Covid-19 might have prevented further material from being released later this year, but those songs will come. The last few months have certainly been arduous for many artists in Scotland, with gigs, studio time and other associated jobs all falling by the wayside.

Some bands have, to an extent, innovated but it is near-impossible to plug the revenue gap that still exists. As a result, many acts are unable to record and promote as normal. Still, for Fables, the death knell is still a fair way off.

"All our gig bookings from this year have invited us back for next year – so that's a bit of a silver lining for us," Liora adds.

"There was some funding at the start there – and I was so, so grateful to get a good few hundred quid but that all went to paying bills.

"A lot of jobs that we did on the side were all based in the music industry: I was in events; Logan was a drum tech and Cameron is a photographer for live gigs. So, not only is the band's income gone, but our normal day jobs are gone as well.

"It's been a massive uplift of everything and we're all just trying to make it work. We've all found part-time jobs, so we can refocus on band things now.

"We would love to have more tracks recorded. We planned on having six or seven done by now, with one released, all in the knowledge that we would have others of a similar sound ready to go – but we just can't afford that just now.

"Then we just thought the song we have done is sitting there – so we might as well let people hear it as a bit of a taste of things to come. Hopefully, we'll be able to smash it through 2021 and give everyone a little bit more."

Roadside is available via media-streaming platforms.