In March 97, four Edinburgh students cobbled together their loans to release 'Queen of the Trouble Teens'. Three short years later and their scholarly careers have been placed on the backburner, and their band Idlewild, named after the quiet meeting place in Anne of Green Gables, have become one of indie pop's brightest hopes.
An ever burgeoning studio confidence is revealed on their current opus 100 Broken Windows, recorded at intervals last year over seven months in four contries and with two producers!
"Bob Weston (Shellac, Rodan, Rachel's) made us realise exactly what work we needed to do on the songs while Dave Eringa (Manic Street Preachers) made it possible to actually do it. It s a record that we're very proud of. Usually we had always recorded songs that we played live but now we're doing it the other way round", enthuses highly adrenalized lead singer Roddy Woombie.
Dramatic melodies colllide with power chord driven noisefests to produce a huge wall of blissed out melancholia, sometimes supplemented by an inventive and minimal piano technique.
"I never made it past Grade 3 on the piano, but what does that matter? Punk and rock guitar playing never needed exams!"
Lyrically, Woombie comments "To be honest, we write about the things we know about. You're going to have Idlewild songs about jumping off the Niagra Falls! We are approaching our surroundings and background in a far more confident way, even though we have often been labelled the nice boys of rock who are always drinking tea and wearing tank tops! We have a history, everybody does, and that s something that not enough people document for themselves."
Indeed Idlewild have already made a little bit of their own quite significant pop history. They begun 1998 opening for Midget and Glitterbox in the Flapper & Firkin in Birmingham, and by the year's end they had released four singles, one mini-album, one full length album and headline gigs in Japan, earning a repuation as one of the most adrenalined-fuelled live acts around.
"We do go completely mad and we've all got cuts and bruises to prove it. I smashed my front tooth out with my microphone in Amsterdam, got a false one fitted and then smashed it out a few weeks later."
Idlewild play The Empire, Belfast on Wednesday 26th April and Temple Bar Music Centre on Thursday 27th April.