Aberfeldy were formed in May 2002 in Edinburgh,
Scotland. Riley Briggs (singer/songwriter) met Ian
Stoddart (drums), Ken McIntosh (bass) and Sarah
McFadyen (fiddle/vocals) in the famous Edinburgh
folk music venue The Royal Oak where he served his
musical apprenticeship playing three nights a week
for the great Scottish public.
Together they began working with producer Jim Sutherland
(www.jimsutherland.uk.com)
to record some of Riley’s own material and
were joined by Ruth Barrie (keyboard/vocals) after
spotting her singing in the Bongo Club cafe. Jim
had originally tried multi-tracking some of Riley’s
songs but felt the recordings lacked the special
quality of Riley just sitting with his guitar. Jim
hit upon a technique of recording around a single
microphone that captured the real in-the-moment
dynamic
of the band, helping to achieve the fresh sound
that perfectly sets off the five piece's beautiful
boy-girl harmonies and gentle acoustic sensibilities.Aberfeldy
spent the next year honing their sound, setting
up a weekly residency in the Forest Arts Café,
playing regularly in Edinburgh and touring the North
of Scotland. In the midst of their busy schedules
the band were working hard to develop and record
their debut album with Jim.
Demos of the songs began to attract considerable
interest and the band received airplay on Radio
One. In January 2004 the band were picked to play
at Scottish International showcase Celtic Connections
at the Glasgow Barrowlands. There the band were
spotted by a radio plugger who sent their fledgling
album straight to Geoff Travis at Rough Trade Records.
A few days later Geoff flew up to meet Aberfeldy
and the band were signed to the great independent
UK label.
Aberfeldy released their first single, a limited
edition 7 “ promo “Vegetarian Restaurant”
in June 2004. This was followed by the release of
their critically acclaimed album, “Young Forever”
in August 2004. Amongst a batch of great press the
album was given 9/10 in the NME, alongside a “Single
of the Week” accolade for first proper single
"Heliopolis
by Night"
released in September 2004, which reached number
66 in the UK charts.
Their second single Love Is An Arrow and accompanying
flash music video featuring lovelorn Eskimos (link
to video), was released on February 14th 2005, Valentine’s
Day, reaching number 60 in the charts. Seeing themselves
rather as the pop-tortoises of the race, Aberfeldy
plan to continue their slow but steady ascent.
Aberfeldy have played all over Scotland and the
UK since their signing to Rough Trade. The band
were chosen to play at the 2004 Edinburgh’s
Hogmanay Festival – the World’s biggest
street party – supporting New York’s
finest – Blondie and the Scissor Sisters.
A recent trip to play SXSW festival in Austin Texas
in March 2005 earned Aberfeldy rave reviews (www.austinchronicle.com)
and a severe addiction to cheese-dip. Luckily
the band were working hard to lose the extra weight,
playing four showcase gigs, doing interviews and
playing sessions for the BBC. The band also found
time to stop by in New York on their way home to
record a demo track with producer Roger Greenwalt
at Shabby Road studios.
The band will be concentrating on gigging over the
summer and plan to begin
recording their second album in the autumn.
