Grumpy yet still quite wonderful Scottish songwriter Malcolm Middleton is due to release his toe tapping new single ‘Zero’ on August 3rd.
Despite nearly fifteen years in the music industry, Malcolm Middleton still occupies a strange position. Not folky enough to qualify as an acoustic balladeer, he is nonetheless too folky to sit correctly in the indie scene.
More than five years since the mercurial Arab Strap split, Malcolm Middleton is still producing wonderful music – if only record shops knew which shelf to place it on.
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The Falkirk born songwriter recently hid himself away to work on his new album ‘Waxing Gibbous’. A glorious collection of songs, it finds Middleton on rare form, shifting between the uplifting and the elegiac with glorious ease.
Released earlier this year, ‘Waxing Gibbous’ was a glorious return from the singer. However Malcolm Middleton is never one to rest, and immediately followed this with a series of inventive takes on modern pop classics.
The singer is due to release his new single ‘Zero’ later this summer. Beginning life as an acoustic lament the song took on a life of its own after Middleton began experimenting following a post-pub musical session.
“You can sing along merrily waving your can at the start, dance during the middle, and then burst into tears at the state of the end” claims Malcolm Middleton. “Lyrically it’s a sprawling wordy mess and I’m still surprised that I managed to bash it into a song-worthy shape, but it’s one of my favourite songs that I’ve ever written.”
The new album featured help from a variety of friends, with the likes of King Creosote, Pictish Trail, Mogwai and Jenny Reeve all stopping by. Possibly his finest effort to date, Middleton insists that he is far from finished with music.
“I am not giving up music, retiring, dying, stopping song-writing, becoming optimistic, content or anything else along these lines’ he claims. “All I’ve said is that I’d like to try some other musical projects before I return to doing more solo albums in the future. I fancy a change and I need something new.”
“I want to do an instrumental acoustic guitar album, some electronic music, some collaborations, maybe start a new band, produce someone else etc etc.”
Malcolm Middleton releases his new single ‘Zero’ on August 3rd. The songwriter has confirmed the following dates:
June
26 Stirling Tolbooth Theatre
27 Aberdeen Tunnels
28 Glasgow King Tuts
29 Manchester Night & Day
30 London ICA
July
1 Birmingham Glee Club
2 Bristol Thekla
3 Nottingham Bodega
4 Newcastle The Cluny