Back to hell (and Kirkcaldy) with The Filthy Tongues

Martin Metcalfe of The Filthy Tongues playing at the Windsor Hotel, Kirkcaldy (pic by Calum Mackintosh)

The three-piece return to the Lang Toun following last year’s successful gig at the Windsor Hotel, courtesy of Kirkcaldy-based Filthy At Fifty Promotions.

The event is in support of a new album ‘Back To Hell’ which will be released at the end of the month, the second part of a trilogy which began with 2016’s well received ‘Jacob’s Ladder’.

Metcalfe said: “We’re part of the new low budget recording world. We produced and mixed it ourselves.

“It’s maybe an indulgence in some ways to take complete control because it can be good to get an outside ear, but we’re confident we can make something that we can enjoy and that other people can enjoy as well.

“The other thing about producers is they cost a fortune!”

Metcalfe says that the album would have been out earlier if it wasn’t for the welcome diversion of working on the comeback album from Fife legends The Skids.

“Derek Kelly and I co-wrote songs for their album ‘Burning Cities’.

“We made demos and things like that which ended up being use on the album. And it was a real shock to find out that it charted.

“I think if it wasn’t for Derek and I working on that the album would have only taken 18 months, so we’re going to try and get the next one out a bit faster. Hopefully in a year.”

Martin says the themes on the new album grew from the band’s experiences and use their home town of Edinburgh as a backdrop.

“They’re lowlife scumbag experiences most of them, and there’s plenty of that in every city.

“I think we just wanted to ram home the fact that Edinburgh isn’t always fluffy. It’s not all places, castles and monuments.”

When it came to writing the music, Martin says he now “aims for a different end point” than he did when working in his previous band Goodbye Mr Mackenzie in the 80s and 90s.

“I think we’re there abouts with the same approach because in the Mackenzies days we weren’t strictly a pop band. We did write songs that we hoped would chart, but we also did have some pretty strange stuff.

“But we’re not adverse to writing a song with a chorus!”

• The Filthy Tongues play at the Windsor Hotel on Friday, April 27 with support from Static Union. Tickets are £10 from the venue or ticketsource.co.uk.