With Black Rebel Motorcycle Club vibes oozing out of every amp and microphone, West Australian rockers The Scotch Of Saint James end an almost decade-long drought between records with the release of 'French By Spilled Blood'.
The band did go on an indefinite hiatus seven years ago as other life responsibilities took control, each member drifting away to their own devices with the music resigned to history books.That is till Bobby Burgess (guitar/ backing vocals) returned from a stint living overseas after a nasty accident (more on that later) in 2018 and began practicing for some acoustic shows with Michael Paver (vocals/ guitar).
A long forgotten folder consisting of untitled audio files was discovered during this process from various recording and writing sessions from the band's past.
Soon an 'album' idea formulated between Bobby and Michael with the second incarnation of The Scotch Of Saint James coming together with new members added and a record of material featuring 12 unfinished and unreleased songs titled 'French By Spilled Blood'.
Ahead of the album's release tomorrow, which along with the heavy BRMC references also feels like The Dead Weather and Band Of Skulls (in a very good way) at other junctures, scenestr is stoked to premiere 'French By Spilled Blood' today. Enjoy.
"In 2014 the band went on a break," begins Bobby, "I went overseas, came back in 2018 (in a wheelchair due to a nasty hit 'n' run incident in NYC) and then during rehab started rehearsing with Paves for some acoustic shows we had booked that spring.
"While listening to the Scotch back catalogue in order to put a set together we stumbled across a folder on my computer simply titled 'Scotch' full of untitled audio files.
"After pressing play we were quite surprised to hear several unfinished songs from several abandoned recording sessions. Slowly all these memories of tried ideas and abandoned tracks came flooding back, and they were quite good. "It became apparent that they were actually all quite good, just missing parts or needing to be mixed and we should get to work and finish these songs off.
"We spent a few months compiling all the stems and files and then bunkered down at Paver's home studio Control Control in Denmark [WA].
"Some songs needed some editing and an overdub or two, others were in need of a lot of tracking, a couple only just needed to be mixed. It seemed strange that so much material could be overlooked, but once we realised we had 12 tracks that hadn't been finished or released properly we thought 'album'.
"Fast-forward to November 2021 and the release of 'French By Spilled Blood', a new album in a new decade for The Scotch Of Saint James. I couldn't be more stoked about it.
"It's an album that is looking forward while tying up loose ends of the past. The timing of it is perfect too because I realise I need this now more than ever.
"I couldn't be happier to be playing awesome tunes in an awesome rock & roll band, and just putting all the sh.t behind me."
The current single from 'French By Spilled Blood' is 'Cafe', a song about giving into your demons. "'Cafe' is an epic little number, in fact it's actually three different songs put together," Bobby says.
"I can remember piecing this song together over the course of a week or two way back in 2011. I just spent hours each day sitting on the couch strumming out this cruisy progression of jazz chords and then after a while the rhythm wanted to get a bit busier, so I let it do that, until it eventually became another tune with this disco guitar riff.
"Some time later I got together with Paves for a strum and we put a few words down like 'I must learn to say no' and 'there's always a baby to take you in'.
"I think after that he came up with the rest of the lyrics. We recorded guitars and drums for 'Cafe' at Sumo Sound in 2012 and then did the vocals and some mixing at Jimmy Scott's home studio in Freo in 2013. Both sessions were forgotten."
