Glasgow electro rockers Suspire have been around a while and over the course of that time have chopped and changed a fair bit, now they’ve finally got round to putting out that elusive debut album, which saw release early September.
Their brand of electronic pop music, which takes on a much more rock ‘n’ roll presence when unleashed in a live setting, has managed to catch attention round the world and with the band’s hands on attitude to their music and how it is released they seem to be confident and in control of everything that surrounds them.
Prior to the album’s release I caught up drummer and founding member Clare Duffin (previously ‘Clare Kelly’ until she married fellow bandmate, Paul Duffin in May this year) to discuss what we can expect from the album and the future of these very dedicated musicians.
The band, who is essentially a core three-piece, but often work with session musicians on their live campaigns, recently featured Chris Kelly who did tech work for the band at Wickerman Festival.
Chris was the perfect fit after getting on well with both Paul (guitarist/vocalist) and Brian Cunningham (bassist/vocalist), and having know Clare for a while before that, plus “he’s a brilliant player” Clare throws in for good measure.
Long-standing friend, Ian R. Thomson, has also picked up the guitar gauntlet for Suspire in session and will feature in the band’s forthcoming appearances with STV and BBC Scotland.
Suspire are no strangers to line-up changes, indeed with the band dating back to her high school days Clare is the only original member, she laughs “it’s kind of Sugababes like in some respects, it’s not that I’m kicking folk out the band all the time”.
Since those early days the music has refreshed year on year but this time they’ve got round to producing a full length album, a milestone Clare seems very happy with.
Of course the album isn’t the be all and end all, Clare is eager to point out that their music is something that they’re constantly looking to progress with, even beyond the boundaries of what Suspire’s sound is, but the writing relationship within the band is pretty tight knit, something that lets each member have moments of their own on the album.
“Creatively we’re always looking to evolve, Brian written with Paul on a number of projects, so there is a strong and trusted writing relationship there.
“When Brian joined Suspire it made sense and having his background in sound production, mixing, mastering has been a real boost to us.
“They [Paul and Brian] can easily bounce ideas off one another, Paul would be in the upstairs attic, or the ‘man cave studio’, as I sometimes call it, and he’ll send over a demo idea to Brian, then Brian will do a mix, change some stuff, and send it back, this works the other way as well, by the end of the week, we’re in the studio and working on it as a band, which takes it to another place again”.
“There are a few songs on the album, like ‘Catalyst’, that’s been produced by just Paul and ‘Yes!’ that was completely done by Brian, so there’s definitely bits of all of us there in different shapes and forms.”
Even though the band are now enjoying a spell with a set of regular members, Clare still feels that things are never settled within the confines of the band as they look to push their abilities further.
“We always want to expand and experiment and try new things, bands always want to do that but you need to take stock of where you are and frame that.
“It’s been a really good feeling to reach a point where we’re actually putting out an album and not just another EP, an album has a different sense about it.”
The album itself is dubbed ‘synth pop and rock’ but Clare feels that there’s enough variety not to confine the band to that genre, citing an acoustic track on the album which showcases a stripped back side of the band.
Clare reveals that although they’ve already started writing album number two, something she concedes they may take a step back on and push this album further, whether the sound stays the same is another question.
The band chose to have their album’s ‘celebratory event’ at Buchanan Street’s Hard Rock Cafe, something many would see as an odd choice as not only can they not charge for entry to the show but they’re not able to actually sell the album at either, hence the event title, but this is something the band feel sets the show apart and shouldn’t really cause any issue in the circulation of the record, while achieving themselves some more promotion through a brand as well known as Hard Rock Cafe.
“We wanted to do something a little different opposed to the run of the mill venue, where we sell tickets, sell the album and so forth, although that’s fun to do and we do enjoy it, we gave it some consideration and realised there was an option to do stuff with the Hard Rock Cafe.
“It’s a decision we took based on their strong, prestigious brand and something we wanted to be associated with, plus it’s at the heart of the city centre, so geographically it makes sense too.
“They have the ability to really push artists and they’re very conscientious in how they market anything in relation to their brand, we really respect that and thought it’d be good to work with them.
“It should be really a good atmosphere, Hard Rock are highly professional and have a campaign going out through XFM for their Live Wednesday shows.
“I would rather just concentrate on the making of the music, but such is the nature of it that we all need to do something over and above to make it work and it gives that added sense of ownership and you feel more proud of it, but it should be a good show, we’re expecting a healthy turn out.”
The band have been labelled as synth pop, something you wouldn’t immediately associate with Hard Rock Cafe, but Clare feels that their rocky live set won’t be out of place in this setting, stating: “when you listen to some of the more poppier tracks on the record they don’t give off that vibe, but we make sure they translate to the live audience, so the undercurrents of our live set is predominantly rock”.
When talking the future of Suspire that poppy sound again comes to the forefront, and while Clare is open to experimenting to a cleaner poppier sound she feel that if they did, it may fall under another guise.
“If it was polished polished pop, I would probably not brand it as Suspire, but there’s always room to experiment and try new things while staying true to the core of what Suspire is all about, if it went far beyond that it’d probably be under a different name, which is something that we have considered and may well do.”
Talking to anyone in Scotland around this time evidently chat comes round to the referendum, and although at the time of writing this we are way past the day of voting, it’s important to talk about what the band’s stance on things is and with the new album containing a track entitled ‘Yes!’ it’s not difficult to identify exactly where that is.
“We are predominately in the ‘Yes’ camp with good reason, it’s something we feel strongly about, it’ll provide more opportunities, but fundamentally if we want to have a say in what happens in government we need to have proper control of our own.”
“Although we don’t consider ourselves to be a political band we feel strongly enough on this issue to have a track on our debut album at this particular time to show our feelings about it.
“We played it for the first time acoustically last week and it had a lot of positive responses, the first time the full version of it will be played will be at the Hard Rock, but we’re not going to start lecturing to people when we play it, but we do feel it’s our responsibility to encourage people to vote in general and if they feel strongly about it they need to make it count.”
The referendum is something Clare could talk about all day, something we don’t quite have time for so we focus the matter back towards Suspire who created their own label a while back, which the album has now been released on.
The label, named Clay Davis after The Wire’s somewhat comic relief senator, was created so the band could take more control of what they’re doing, but Clare reveals it’s been a useful and rewarding learning curve that’s allowed them to make decisions about the availability of the band’s music, something they feel strongly about.
“It made sense, we were doing a lot of things on our own and we had to make sure we had the appropriate measures in place to take control, everything that comes in through the label and what we do performance wise goes back into the band, so it’s really important that we capture that.
“We have had offers of people wanting to manage us and change certain aspects, but it’s not been the direction we’ve wanted to go in and it takes the fun away, and takes away what is true to us.
“We chose to be independent as it’s true to who we are and what we do, it’s a portrait of us as a whole, not some edited, manufactured version of real life.”
“We have made a choice to not make the full album available on Spotify as it devalues the whole point of paying for music, although we do have singles on there to showcase the band.
“It’s something we feel strongly about, it probably comes more from bands that run their own label, and although we’re not a label that signs a lot of artists, it’s mostly an outlet for Suspire material, we have expanded to include Brian’s solo material and Chris Kelly’s other band, Touring Barcelona.
“It’s all a matter of time and resources, so we can get really into it and push it properly, that and working with the right people, it’s become more of a collective over the last couple of years; our own little family of creative people.”
As both Clare and Brian have their day jobs in education, doing a tour immediately after the album release has not been possible, so the band have chosen to focus on what they can do from home through the label and are planning spectacle shows for next year.
Clare reveals the band have been looking heavily into licensing opportunities, which in turn should create contacts further afield who would be better suited to booking tours in areas that the band are unfamiliar in for that “crazy summer period” when they’re all available to go out on the road.
Suspire are no strangers to playing outside of their Scottish comfort zone, having played down south as well as dates in France and Canada, the latter in Vancouver’s Railway Club where Radiohead made their first appearance in the city and also where Suspire’s then bassist met his now wife, and there’s no hesitation about doing so again.
“It’s amazing what difference having a Scottish accent makes playing internationally, we were supports for headlining band who had their own following and the promoters took the responsibility for getting the word out, in Vancouver there was a lot of walk ups, you get people saying “I’m an eighth Scottish” or something like that, they’re pretty welcoming.”
Still while the band have aspirations further afield they still acknowledge they are a band brought up through the bustling Glasgow scene, and while Clare notes that it is something they’ve “become embedded in” it’s not their be all and end all.
“We’ve played pretty much every venue possible in Glasgow at some point but it’s not where our aspirations lie or stop, we don’t want to just be a band in Scotland or the UK.”
While it may well be that Suspire are the most organised band in Glasgow, it is, as it should be, the music that lies at the centre of what they do, making music is the lifeline of each member and they never leave any stone unturned when it comes to the writing process.
“If I’m not in the studio for a few weeks I feel like I’m missing a vitamin but six hours in the studio on Saturday really sorts you out, but as long as you do what you love regardless of what that is that’s the most important thing.
“If someone has an idea we’ll always try it and explore it so we’ll decide as a band if it’s going to work, but we’re not the kind of band that has heated arguments in the studio, you can tell if someone isn’t really feeling it.”
When it comes to influences though Clare can list of many acts that the band share a common liking for but for herself she feels it’s more sporadic, coming from the subconscious of what she’d been listening too while hopping through the radio channels in the car.
“When you come together as a collective influences come out very subconsciously, so when we’re jamming something new and I start playing a beat and I won’t realise until afterwards that it’s something similar to a track I’ve heard on the radio that day, and I’m a total radio channel hopper, but it’s good to have variety.”
For Suspire they may have been going some time but when listening to their aspirations they’re still relatively young in the grand scheme of things, they’ve achieved some landmark moments in their time, getting to play over in Canada or playing festivals the size of Rockness are moments that never happen for most bands, but for Clare the best moment was a little closer to home, even if she thought Paul was in trouble with the police.
“Playing the Grand Hall in Kilmarnock for the Kilmarnock Edition was one of my own personal favourites cos I had my own podium for one thing, but the crowds were just crazy, so many people and such a great atmosphere.
“It was one of those shows where, at the end, Paul decides to start throwing CDs out to people and I thought ‘someone might get hurt’, and after the show one of the policemen started leaning over the top balcony and shouting at Paul, I thought he’d maybe gone and clipped someone with a CD, but as it turned out, the policemen was just asking he could have one himself.”
Words: Iain Dawson
