Lagoon Blues (1993)

I had to borrow the money to make it. A pal of mine who had a joinery workshop behind my flat said, ‘I know a friendly bank manager.’

It was seat of the pants. We did the record quite quickly two weeks or something, 15 songs, quite ambitious.

Read More: Chris Thomson on life in Friends Again and The Bathers

We ended up spending about 20 grand, which probably took me a decade to recover in the end. I put myself under a lot of stress because money was tight.

Sunpowder (1995)

The Herald:

[On Liz Fraser’s backing vocals] Liz Fraser was very likeable. She was no prima donna. She just sat in the room with the tracks running. It seemed to go on for almost an hour before she made a sound. But she was taking it all in. She had pre-mapped it. Then, she just went for it. Two or three takes on most things. In some cases we used both takes, they were so good.

Kelvingrove Baby (1997)

The Herald:

There are quite a lot of differences on the new versions [of the albums], particularly on Kelvingrove Baby. Part of the reason was the original tapes were quite badly damaged. They got damp basically. It was all done on Adat digital tape which was relatively experimental at the time and they didn’t store well. So, my options were limited.

On Kelvingrove Baby we ended up using alternate takes. I’ve had to redo bits. It’s a bit of a Frankenstein’s monster. But even I struggle to see the joins.