Scroll down to find out about all our music releases since 1995
Welcome. (Updated December 2022 )
If you stream our music great. We hope you enjoy it. However, if you really want to support us, download or order a CD from our Bandcamp Site. Follow us on Spotify
Our Latest: February 2020 on Bandcamp scroll down and read about all our albums
Writing
It started slowly, (Overthinking) Circle in my Head and Stranded were written first. Protein Shaker came quickly after. Then there was a lull. While we stood in our new (and inspiring) practise room we decided to aim for a February 2020 release. It was summer 2019 so we had to get writing. Pabs brought down his phone every week with a new idea and the rest of the guys made it work. Stu wrote all his solos prior to the recording which really helped.
Songs (CD and Digital track listing)
- Angry 2. Not Giving Up 3. I’ll Always Be Here 4. Protien Shaker 5. Goddess of Dundee. 6. You Light Up (Everything I See) 7.The Ability To Be Yourself 8. Taking on the World 9. The Plan 10.(Overthinking) Circles in my Head. 11. Stranded 12. A Man You Can’t See.
How We Recorded It
This is the most fun we have had recording an album. After seeing an article in Sound on Sound which described recording a band live in one room we decided to try it. I sourced a couple of amp stands that helped isolate the guitars. They were faced away from the kit to help reduced bleed. We set up in Craigenrae cottage, recording the drums, guitars and bass live with vocal and solo overdubs a day later. It took us just four days to lay down the album. It was a superb experience.
How we Rate It
Now that we’ve played it live I have a new found love for it. There are a few tracks on here that we are really pleased with. Not Giving Up is our most popular song to date…Its hard to put this in context, as we were together for years before the onset of streaming, but to have so many people stream this song as we reach our 28th year gives us confidence we are still writing music people want hear. The Ability is a nod to Nirvana that is becoming a live fav. The brilliant Tommy Clark a radio presenter had it in his top albums of 2020. I do think there may be one or two tracks too many. But generally we think its a great representation of our work.
Overall
An album that has new ideas with our familiar sound. We needed February, we needed to prove we can still write and produce records. This album came around so quick. It has given us confidence as we enter our third decade as a band. Not Giving Up has been our most streamed song of all time. It took a while, but this album has become very popular. A good place to start.
And now…All our albums in chronological order.
We have recorded many albums over the last 27 years; if you are kind enough to give them a listen then perhaps we can guide you through our work. Scroll down to explore our albums in detail, we aim to give you an idea of where to start. Please note all these opinions of our music are completely biased. however, you can now contribute! Vote!
The first! Whapper Stormer (1995) on Spotify
Our debut album was written in 1995; this was an era of intense optimism for the band. We were in our late teens and we had just left school. Together we faced an uncertain future with a dream of making it in music; we were up against it though. Rock was out of fashion during the late 90’s as Britpop swept in. Whapper Stormer offered something a little different back then.
Writing
I wrote the lyrics and sang the melodies to Stu who would write the music. derek and Greg would complete the song. Occasionally during these sessions Stu would start with a riff which I would attempt to sing a melody to. I had started to play guitar and wrote the acoustic parts. This is regarded as ‘classic’ Weird; the way the band started its early life.
Songs
- Educational Suicide. 2. Vancouver. 3. Show Your Face Soon. 4. The Rain. 5. Sofa Girl. 6. Chameleon. 7. Just For Today. 8. Now I Can See His Eye. 9. Downer. 10. Glass People.
How We Recorded It.
Vancouver, The Rain and Chameleon were recorded in 1995 at a professional studio called Split Level and the rest except Glass People were recorded around 2004 on a Tascam 788 (digital 8 track) at Derek’s flat. Glass People was recorded on the same device but at my old house. This album is not mastered however it did turn out reasonably well.
How the band rates it today.
I love it and would recommend that you listen to this album after Weird Decibels 1 and 2 and February; this album has some of our strongest lyrics and music. Stu is also very fond of this album; the standard of his guitar work is particularly high on this record. While Derek enjoys this record he feels our later work is as strong if not stronger, Greg also leans towards our later work. We are a different band now, this was nearly 30 years ago! But I still love this era.
Overall
We think this is a great example of our work.
The rebellious second: Firkin Outburst (1998) on Spotify
I remember the difficulty we had trying to follow Whapper Stormer. Firkin Outburst was written under the influence of alcohol and we lost a number of good ideas in the haze of ale. This is one of our shortest albums at only 9 tracks.
Writing
By 98 I was playing a lot more acoustic and writing more of the music alongside Stu. Most, if not all, the songs were written and include an acoustic guitar. This was the ‘heavy and acoustic’ phase. The lyrical content dipped for this album but the music was still of a good standard. Some of the songs were written at our temporary base in Bonnybridge.
Songs
1.Bought a Gun. 2. Summer High. 3. Culture Creature. 4. Hell Never Felt So Good. 5. It’s Been a While. 6. Dirty Stream. 7. All Good Things. 8. Long Way Down. 9. Today Saw the End
How We Recorded it.
In a very similar way to Whapper Stormer! In 1998 we recorded Culture Creature and Summer High at Split level, although this session was not as good as the previous. The remaining songs were recorded around 2004-06 on the Tascam 788 and Tascam 2488 (8 and 24 track) at Derek’s flat over a number of months. It took us a considerable amount of time to finish this album. We had to trawl through hours of VHS tapes of old practises to find and relearn the missing songs.
How The Band rates it Today
With fondness; this is the album we nearly lost but we salvaged some songs from the wreckage. (Don’t drink and write folks). I’m not a huge fan of Hell Never Felt So Good (lazy lyrics) but there are some notable highlights, Culture Creature being one. We all have a soft spot for Firkin but it is not our favourite, strange fact… ‘Its Been A While‘ was one of our most streamed tracks for a while, it was popular in both South and North America…
Overall
A good but not great album; one to check out if you enjoyed our stronger albums.
The difficult third: Cold Home Street (2000) on Bandcamp
Conned out of money, lack of gigs and disillusionment we moved onto our third. Stu had lost heart and it shows on this album.
Writing
I had bought my electric guitar along with my Marshall amp. I had numerous ideas and riffs while Stu grew frustrated with our direction and lack of progress. I now wrote the riff first, followed by the lyrics; Coldhome was not a band effort and it shows. There are some good moments on this album. Sometimes I am too harsh on this record due to its awful sound.
Songs
1.Sun Shines Brighter. 2. I Tried To Fly. 3. Strength From My Weakness. 4. Crazy Head. 5. Hometown. 6. Method in my Madness. 7. Hope. 8. Flame. 9. Another Year Gone By. 10. Another Year Gone Backwards. 11. Pearl Necklace. 12. Turtle Song. 13. Beauty Queen.
How We Recorded It.
Around 1999/00 We recorded Sun Shines brighter, I Tried to Fly and Hope at Red Eye Studios, it wasn’t great. Beauty Queen and Flame were recorded at Random Rhythms, again the results were questionable. The remaining tracks were recorded at our practise room on just 4 tracks. I had just began my long adventure of sound production and I had no clue what I was doing. The sound is pretty bad on this record.
How the Band Rates it Today
I think we all agree that it’s our weakest album although we enjoy playing many of the songs from it. Suffers from poor recording. However we recorded Flame as part of the live acoustic album ‘Grand Day out’ and its one of the strongest tracks. We think there are some great songs buried under a poor sound. I suspect more songs from this record will appear on future projects…
Overall
One for completists! Not the album you should listen to first.
The fun fourth: One More Solo (2004) on Spotify
After a 4 year hiatus we came back with a bang to write one of our best albums so far; One More Solo. It was a heavy, straight forward band effort. By this time we were quite happy to be back together as a band, our dream to make a living out of music was now a very distant hope but our desire to play gigs was very much evident.
Writing
One More Solo seemed to write itself, it was one of those ‘jam’ albums. We enjoyed our practises and it seemed like every week we would have a new song. The four of us were engaged in its creation, a real team effort.
Songs
1.Waiting For the Sound Of Your High Heels (baby). 2. Easy Way. 3. The Ending. 4. Sodium. 5. Whiskey in my Head. 6. Cold Calling. 7. Hanging By A Thread. 8. Fighting With Forever. 9. Bit Part Optimist. 10. Trying To Grab Hold. 11. Stand For Your Rights.
How We Recorded it.
Recorded entirely on the Tascam 2488 at Derek’s flat over a number of weekends throughout 2004. We were getting slightly better and laying tracks to disk but still we made many mistakes. A bass heavy album that was remastered a couple of years back and sounds a bit better, but not much.
How The Band Rates it Today
I think we all really enjoyed this era; One More Solo is a favourite of the band. Pity about the muddy tone. NOTE It has been remastered (sort of) which you can hear on bandcamp. It is a slightly better version with a couple of alternative mixes used.
Overall
A good example of our work; if slightly wayward sound.
The wandering fifth: Riot Act (2007) on Spotify
The first of our ‘lodge’ albums. We started to hire holiday cottages in the remotest parts of Scotland for inspiration and the excuse to make as much noise as we wanted. We lived up to the album name in Cannich, it was a Riot!
Writing
You could call Riot Act the punky phase, all this album, like One More Solo before it, was written in the practice room but the ideas seemed a bit thinner. Around this time we started playing cover songs in order to gain some paid gigs and guess some of that influence found its way on this record.
Songs
1.Home Sweet Home. 2. Riot Act. 3. Sky Is Falling. 4. Night Time Town. 5. Sounds of the Night. 6. It’ll All Work Out. 7. Weekend. 8. Underachiever. 9. Love Hate Thing. 10. Razorwire. 11. Only Has a Shandy. 12. Not Easy To Catch
How We Recorded It.
In the stunning Cannich valley we hired a lodge that wasn’t suitable for recording music due to its size. However we had a great time, the drums were recorded in the room with the lowest ceiling and the sound reflects this. Tonally the master doesn’t sound quite right. Most of the tracks were laid in the lodge. At the time it was the most fun we had recording an album.
How the Band Rates It Today
A real divider this one, I am not a fan of this album. Lyrically it is very weak and the music at time is uninteresting. Derek is a fan of Sky is Falling it’s one of his favourite songs that we have recorded and I love It’ll All Work Out. For various reasons Riot Act is one of our weakest albums; its telling that we don’t really listen to it.
Overall
One for loyal listeners of the band.
The subtle sixth: Quiet Act (2008) on Spotify
We had covered most bases in the rock genre so we took the decision to switch off the distortion pedals and wrote an acoustic album.
Writing
Quiet Act was another album to be written in its entirety in the practice room in between learning cover songs. Given its close proximity to Riot Act many of the themes remained the same.
Songs
1.Who Are You. 2. Good Souls. 3. Woman In My Dreams. 4. Buy You A Cape. 5. Breathing Space. 6. Grand Day Out. 7. Sunday Morning Song. 8. What Did You Mean By That. 9. Mobile Phone Song. 10. Three Days Ago. 11. Choices.
How We Recorded it.
We set off to another lodge this time in the beautiful surroundings of Gairloch and Badachro. We hired a property with a bigger room to try and get a better drum sound and it worked to a certain level of success. We had so much fun recording this although we would find ourselves sorting a lot of the mistakes when we got back home. The record sounds open and has clarity that we did not have until this point.
How the Band Rates It Today
I think we see this as the album we had to write before Weird Decibels 1. There are some good songs on Quiet Act but it’s telling that we’ve never played it live. We’ve talked of doing another acoustic album but I’d imagine that’d be in the distant future. I thought Quiet Act treads water however a recent revisit provided a refreshed and enjoyable listen.
Overall
Not a bad listen at all; lyrically seems lazy but there is more to the words than I had realised when I had wrote them. You know what I love about this record? We had the balls to try something different (it was Derek’s bold idea) A fully acoustic album, far removed from what we usually record. If you delve further into the album it reveals more. I hope we do something similar in the future, an album that is far departed from our usual sound. We have nothing to lose.
The Wonderful Seventh: Weird Decibels 1 (2012) extended version on Spotify
Somehow after 16 or so years together we arrived at Weird Decibels 1. An album that reaches into every genre we like. All our influences are fused into one 45 minute record that went down well with our listeners.
Writing
Much of this album was written in the practice room; we had ditched the cover songs and now had more time to dedicate towards our own creations. WdB1 is also the most inclusive band effort since Whapper Stormer. We were all involved in the writing of this album.
Songs
1.Psalm. 2. Speak. 3. Wonder. 4. Steel. 5. Crown. 6. Wait. 7. Forward. 8. Joker. 9. Power. 10. Pay. 11. Deliverance. 12. Industry.
How We Recorded It.
New desk, new lodge. Weird Decibels 1 was recorded onto the Korg 3200. A brilliant portable studio with 12 inputs that allowed us to put more mics around the drum kit. We recorded the drums on the practice room before hauling all the gear to Ettrickbridge to a brilliant lodge to record the bass, guitars and vocals. We had to do some of the guitars back at the rehearsal room. The vocals didn’t sound good in the lodge so they were all re-recorded at the rehearsal room where we had created many of our past albums. A difficult album to put down but one of our best sounding to date.
How The Band Rates It Today
I find Weird Decibels 1 quite harsh with vocals that are perhaps too loud. However the rest of the guys love it. It’s arguably our best album ( I argue that Whapper is our best). We play many of the song live, it is definitely a band favourite and remains one of our most popular releases. I have asked followers of the band what is there preferred album and this comes up a lot. It has many great and ambitious moments.
Overall
One of our best and most ambitious albums to date and a good place to start listening to Weird Decibels.
The underrated eighth: Weird Decibels 2 (2016) on Spotify
A short, sharp burst of our thoughts and frustrations about modern life. There are new characters on this album including the fading sex appeal of Miss Asphyxia, Simon who works in the stock markets and the final performance from the Actor.
As we get older we seem to be looking a little more intensely at life, when your younger you think there is time for things to change…but nothing does.
Writing
A difficult album to write. When we agreed to call the album Weird Decibels 2 it put a certain level of expectation on it. We scraped most of the first batch of songs.
Eventually we retreated to a remote cottage and wrote some of the tunes on this album. Turned out to be a good move.
Songs
- Kill it! Kill it! 2. Miss Asphyxia 3. Its Who You Know 4. I Hear The City 5. Quoted Not Voted 6. Almost Beautiful 7. Once More With Feeling 8. Medicine 9. Little Thoughts Lost 10. The Dancer 11. Curtain Hits The Cast.
How We Recorded it
We searched high and low for a cottage in a remote place with a large room for the drums. We found Springfield nr Kelso and it was perfect. The main room had a high ceiling which gave us a nice drum sound.
The drums and bass were recorded together. We recorded some of the guitars and vocals before completing the rest in Falkirk. Overdubs were added later with mixed results. After a prolonged mixing and mastering period we took a break and revisited the album. This helped, we remixed and remastered and finally we had an album we were happy with.
How the Band Rates it.
One of our best sounding albums to date (remember we self produce all our music). Its a short and focused record with many fine moments. You could argue that it has not had the impact that WdB1 had, perhaps as its not a radical departure from that album, or perhaps we did not gig it as much as we should’ve. We love this album, its now going on four years old, if you haven’t heard it give it a listen, it has many great songs that became live favourites.
Overall
Its a great example of our work. I spend ages trying to squeeze a decent sound out of the Korg D3200 and it sounds good. Start with this album, February or Weird Decibels 1.
Raw, live, rushed?. Live at the North Star (2016)
How it Happened.
We decided to run our own live night in Falkirk to promote Weird Decibels 2. We had managed to get a guy to agree to run a desk in the North Star, a Falkirk Venue that was known for holding some great nights of music. Sadly the guy pulled out of doing the sound so we had to haul our PA to the venue and I did the sound. For some wild reason I thought it would be good to take the Korg D3200 down.
Choosing the Setlist
We were promoting WdB2 so a lot of the songs came from that record, we did a cover of Molly’s Lips by Vaselines (in the style of Nirvana) but had to omit that from Spotify (its on a CD somewhere!). Some WdB1 tracks that we love playing made it onto the setlist.
Songs (original album listing in brackets)
- Speak 2. I Hear the City 3. Curtain Hits the Cast 4. Quoted not Voted 5. Ms Asphyxia 6. Once More With Feeling 7. Wait! 8. Deliverance 9. Medicine 10. Killi t! Kill it! 11. Industry
How We Recorded It
Live at the North Star in Falkirk. Vocals went through the PA and I took a feed from there. I flung some mics around the drum kit and in front of the amps. I was really pushed, I recorded three bands, mixed a live sound and then played. If we ever do this again it will be better planned…
How the Band Rates it.
It’s a rough record, recorded in front of a small but passionate crowd. I think it gets better as we get deeper into the set. We’ve always played on a knife edge, either blistering or bad. We kinda lived on both sides that night. Some songs didn’t make the cut for this record. But yeah I like it, it’s a moment captured. Stu loves it.
Overall
I guess one for completists? Wouldn’t start here, saying that, if you like the WdB era then you will probably like this. Sounds good on CD though.
The EP: Everyday Heroes EP (2018) on Spotify
Writing
Over a prolonged time we wrote songs for this EP, it was a stop start affair as we were playing a few gigs in 2017 and we couldn’t always make practise.
Songs
- Take the Blindness From Your Eyes. 2. A801. 3. Speechwriter. 4. Fathers Verse
How We Recorded it
It took us far too long, we started in our old practise room, we laid down the drums, around late summer 2017 then Stu and I started to overdub guitars and vocals. I hated the practise room by this point. It smelled really bad and some idiot at the takeaway next door would idle his car all night long as he awaited his next delivery, so that wasn’t great for recording.
But we soldiered on and got most of the tracks down, then Stu and I stopped for Christmas 2017. When we returned in January 2018 we were horrified by the smell, the mess and the rat droppings everywhere. We had to move. I was gutted at the way the room had degraded we had so much history in there.
Temporarily homeless we thought this record was never going to make it however we found a great new practise room and finished the vocals. I tried to mix and master this quicker and it turned out alright.
How the Band Rates it.
Well we love playing Take the Blindness live and A801 has turned out to be one of our best recorded songs, Speechwriter is one of those strange tracks that we never revisit, Fathers Verse we like. We think its a good EP and we feel we may make more EPs in between albums, we love albums, don’t stop listening (or buying) albums folks.
Overall
This record has one of our best ever songs on it. A801. Worth a listen. A strong EP.
Not an ordinary day out…Its a Grand Day Out (Unplugged) (2019)
How it Happened.
Pabs ” I had turned 40 and I was given some studio vouchers for a small studio in Edinburgh. Sadly this studio did not meet our needs, however they did give us a full refund.
So with money in hand I decided to use a studio in our local area. Homegrown Productions in Larbert. I remember going to visit Andy Taylor, the resident sound engineer. He showed me around the studio, which is hidden away in a farm. I really liked it, he asked how many songs we were looking to record within a day, “fifteen” I replied. He raised his eyebrow and politely stated that most bands only manage 3 or 4.
“We’re doing it live and unplugged” I explained. At that point he seemed intrigued and after a pause, agreed to give it a shot.”
Choosing the Setlist
Many of the songs were instantly added; we’ve always had a quieter side to our sound. Songs like the Ending, Just For Today. Culture Creature and Trying to Grab Hold were chosen first .
I wanted to add Side by Side as this studio session was my birthday present and it was the first dance at my wedding ( I know I’m a romantic). We rehearsed for months and a few surprises came out of these sessions. Namely Flame, from our forgotten album Cold Home Street. We really enjoyed playing this song again. Industry, one of our heaviest songs to date sounded amazing stripped back. We tried Educational Suicide but that wasn’t to be…Maybe next time…
Songs (original album listing in brackets)
- Just For Today (WS, 1995) 2. Wonder (WdB1, 2012) 3. Vancouver (WS, 1995) 4. Flame (CHS, 2000) 5. Culture Creature (FO, 1998) 6. Power (WdB1 2012) 7. The Ending (OMS 2004) 8. A801 (EH ep 2018) 9 Trying to Grab Hold (OMS 2004) 10 Cold Calling (OMS 2004) 11. Side by Side (2005) 12. Little Thoughts Lost (WdB2 2018) 13. Industry (WdB1 2012) 14. Grand Day Out (QA 2008)
How We Recorded It
Live and unplugged in one room, in one take (with some tea breaks…), in Homegrown Productions. We probably did one or two overdubs to fix a couple of mistakes. Mixed and Mastered a few months later.
How the Band Rates it.
Personally? It’s one of our best. Not only is it well recorded, it’s well played. We put a lot of time into this. It’s amazing to hear our songs in their most primal form, even the tracks from the 90s. Stu loves it as well. We all comment on what an amazing day it was, indeed this recording captures us together in the same room for an hour or so doing what we love. Playing music together.
Overall
If you have listened to us for years you should like these versions of the songs. If you like acoustic music this will serve you well. A very good place to start if you want to hear what we have created over 8 albums and two decades.
Weird Decibels 2 forgotten tracks and demos, found!
Writing
Over a number of years, 2013 – 2016 we had been writing songs for our 2016 album Weird Decibels 2. We had started writing this album after a successful era, Weird Decibels 1. We had written a number of songs at our old practice room, then, after some consideration we ditched the lot except Ms Asphyxia.
Following this we changed our approached. We decided to have writing sessions over a weekend. The first was at a cottage in Oakley, nr. Dunfermline. This proved to be very successful.
We recorded everything and listening back now there are some good moments.
How we recorded it.
Live, rough and ready. The rawness of the demos are part of its charm. It was all recorded on the Korg D3200 at various locations. On one song Derek can be heard ‘I love flinging together stuff!’ this captures the feel of these songs/
Tracklisting
- Left right
- Feet First
- Rain Parade
- Miss Asphyxia (early version)
- Curtain Hits the Cast (Oakley session)
- Digital Takeover (Oakley session)
- Hit Me (Oakley session)
- Quoted not Voted (early version)
- The Dancer (Heights session)
- Away Home (Heights session)
- Car Crash
- Once More With Feeling (alternative version)
How the band rates it.
Early days. Pabs enjoys it, he believes in recording everything and letting people hear it, even if its a little rough, and this is. But there are songs on this album that never made it past the writing stage.
Overall
Like Weird Decibels 2? You might like to discover early versions of the songs and the tracks that were never released. This is one for fans of the band, don’t start here.
So There You Have it Our Records…Here is a suggested listening order…
In Pabs opinion, this is how to listen to Weird Decibels albums. This chart changes every month!
Start with:
- February, solid rocker that rarely drops the tempo, recently played live, see it in a new light (up 3)
- Weird Decibels 1, Our most ambitious album, a band reborn. (down 1)
- Its A Grand Day Out (unplugged). Happy memories of a day in the studio recording some of your favourite songs live and unplugged. (down 1)
- Weird Decibels 2 Stripping back the songs for the LiveCasts of 2020 reminded me of what a great record this is. (down 1)
- Whapper Stormer, Four guys starting out, some of our ‘classics’ are here.
- Everyday Heroes EP, Sometimes wish we tried to make an album here.
- Live at the North Star. Rough, but has some brilliant moments. (up 1)
- Quiet Act, An acoustic album that shows our gentler side (down 1)
- One More Solo, A fun record that, creatively, never really pushed us forward.
- Firkin Outburst, some great songs, a bit disjointed
- Riot Act, an album of its time.
- Little Tracks Lost (compilation) demos, lost tracks from WdB2 sessions.
- Coldhome Street, a lost band making a lost record. Some great songs but poorly recorded.
All views are mostly Pabs who recorded and mixed a vast majority of these records
Stu “February, Weird Decibels 1 and 2, Whapper, Quiet Act, Grand Day Out, Live at the North Star and Everyday Heroes deserve a listen”.
We hope you have enjoyed our look back at our careers work, if you can, please support us. Monies raised do not pay our bills but they do keep our dream alive as every pound you spend goes back into our music.
weirddecibels.com 