Album of the Week: The Savings and Loan – Today I Need Light

Savings

Banks, eh? Surely there’s nothing that could possibly make a visit to your local fat cat outlet more depressing as you beg for more cash or explain to some stuffed suit why you don’t have any.

How about playing the customers some seriously downbeat snail’s pace Scottish folk? If they haven’t already hung themselves from the light fittings then a dose of the Savings and Loan should polish them off.

Jesting over their financial institution name aside, the Savings and Loan are a serious proposition. Yes, it’s slow, yes it’s a wee bit depressing but so’s some of the greatest music ever made.

The band are a collaboration between Andy Bush, formerly of Bellshill cult favourites De Rosa and one Martin Donnelly. They’ve been tinkering away on the sidelines for years but re-emerged a  few months back to play one of Song, By Toad Records’ quaint-sounding ‘house’ gigs and Toad Hall is where this record has found a home.

It’s tough going. Themes of religion and alcohol hang heavy over the piece and we all know that putting the two together is a potent combination, never more so on Catholic Boys in the Rain. It starts with a grizzled Scottish voice rhyming off some of this nation’s favourite bevvies before edging into a heartbreaking lament.

Another standout track is a rearrangement of a traditional Irish love ballad, The Star of the County Down. The protagonist of the song imagines a beautiful girl, fleetingly glimpsed, as his future wife. The Savings and Loan treatment comes across like Nick Cave at his most morose and now sounds even creepier than the basic story already suggests.

It’s not for everyone, but it’s never anything less than captivating. Nine dark-hearted melodies best suited for lonely nights at home with a bottle of Talisker, rather than being played in a bank.

So who the hell are you?

Martin Donnelly: From east to west… Martin Donnelly, who writes the songs, and Andrew Bush, who records them. We both play various things, sometimes together, sometimes independently, and it turns out the way it does after an appropriate maturation period.

Please describe your sound in ten words or less.

MD: Bruised, considered, restrained. That leaves seven words for Bush to play with..

Andrew Bush: Brown, morning, coffee, whisky, night, M8, home.

I believe you’ve been together as a band for a number of years but a house gig in October was the first time you’d played live for five years. What provoked you out of hibernation?

MD: I don’t see it as hibernation. We get offers to play live quite regularly, and we’d probably do a bit more of it if we could. Trouble is we both travel a lot in our work, and it can be difficult for us to arrange to be in the same place at the same time. We also play multiple instruments on a fair chunk of the record, so we’d need to bring in outside help to play those songs as recorded. That’s something we’re looking into, but each additional person involved brings another layer of potential scheduling issues. So we operate this way out of necessity. But there’s no rush. 

The music you’re making is clearly different to De Rosa. Is there a different approach to making this kind of music?

AB: My approach is always the same, whether I am playing or recording: create a part or a sound that fits the song and its sentiment. There are some songs on De Rosa’s Prevention (Stillness, Swell, Tinto) that I think share certain sonic and songwriting sensibilities with those on Today I Need Light.  I very much enjoy using earthy, natural and ambient sounds, so you could say that Martin’s songwriting is perfectly suited to my tastes. Furthermore, as The Savings and Loan is currently just a two-piece I have more time with, and more input to, Martin’s songs. 

As a son of the Ulster county in question I’m intrigued by the Star of the County Down in particular. What’s the inspiration behind the song?

MD: Do you mean, why did we include it? I see it as a link between past and present. It’s an old Irish traditional song, although normally played more merrily than the way we do it, set not far from where my grandfather lived as a boy. I also wanted another lyrical voice in there to punctuate my own, as a sort of dreamlike invasion in the middle of the record before getting back to business.

Finally, what can we see from the band in the new year?

 MD: Hopefully some more live shows, if we can make it work, and we’ll probably make a start on the next record. Or two.

Here’s the album’s opening track Swallows for your listening pleasure: