SNACK magazine Scotland

SNACK magazine Scotland Scotland's wee independent monthly What's On and Culture guide.

A heavy ‘Glue’ holds Gurry’s off-kilter pop together…Ever-charming crooner speaks to SNACKHe explains how his third alb...
29/05/2026

A heavy ‘Glue’ holds Gurry’s off-kilter pop together…

Ever-charming crooner speaks to SNACK

He explains how his third album reveals some weighty subjects behind the excellent knitwear.

Glue is out now, via the Gurry Wurry Bandcamp page

Interview: Chris Queen

Photo credit:

Link in bio

I’ve just had a couple of listens through Glue, so I guess my first question is: are you alright?

GW: It’s a slightly heavy album, innit? I think about halfway through, I suddenly realised there were weird metaphors in a lot of songs.

There was stuff like cars breaking down, about fixing things, about things being dented.

I think I do believe in a lot of that subconscious stuff; I guess your brain is trying to figure something out, so it probably is legit.

And then you start to see the themes and you’re like, how do I package this up into something that makes sense to someone else that isn’t just me?

There’s a nostalgic quality to a lot of it as well, I think.

GW: I guess I’ve always been drawn into older things.

Analogue sounds, analogue visuals, things that are made by hand. I think I’ve always been drawn to stuff that’s quite soulful and analogue, in a way.

I feel like I just make pretty accessible pop songs, I mean, I’m interested in different harmony.

I’m interested in jazz and soul and all sorts. I like music that surprises you.

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OOSOOM: Saving Lives, Found Family, and the Fight for Future FundingIn its 13th year, the Edinburgh-based exhibition Out...
26/05/2026

OOSOOM: Saving Lives, Found Family, and the Fight for Future Funding

In its 13th year, the Edinburgh-based exhibition Out of Sight Out of Mind (OOSOOM) was not allocated funding.

Symbolic of cuts across Scotland’s art world,
the loss seems particularly poignant for an exhibition that supports people with mental health issues.

SNACK chats to planning team, Steph Wilson-Shaw and Lauren Stonebanks
to explore what an event like this means and the implications of the lack of funding.

Follow OOSOOM via

Interview: Beth Primrose

Photo credit:

Link in bio

How do people get involved?

Lauren: People can join the planning committee or they might just choose to exhibit their artwork. We also really need volunteers to do practical tasks like painting plinths or moving artwork. Volunteers can also help with invigilation.

If you feel able to, can you comment on how the withdrawal of funding has impacted the team and what it will mean for the future of the exhibition?

Steph: It’s not just incredibly sad but also disappointing. We’ve worked so hard and for so long to establish a practice and way of working that is inherently good and has so much value.

When you work with a group of people who already feel sidelined and dismissed, it feels like another layer of disregard.

As much as we want to self-organise and carry on, the more we do, the more the government feels they don’t have to do it. But it needs to be valued at that level, because it is life-saving.

Lauren: Some of the groups that submit artwork – it’s something they look forward to all year, and with it being gone, they are devastated too.

How can people support OOSOOM and ensure it continues?

Lauren: People can also support by sharing the GoFundMe, the website, and their experiences of the exhibition, as well as any grant opportunities.

Steph: Even if there isn’t an exhibition, there will be a space where people can share their feelings and come together.

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Sinking Cities, and the Voice to the Mediterranean…SNACK speaks with about THALASSA, out now on A six-part ambient work...
25/05/2026

Sinking Cities, and the Voice to the Mediterranean…

SNACK speaks with about THALASSA, out now on

A six-part ambient work that gives voice to the Mediterranean Sea at a moment of ecological crisis.

See the album launch presented at Edinburgh’s , on Saturday 30 May.

Interview:

Photo credit:

Can you tell us what your original concept for the album was when you originally set out to write and record?

S: I had been really fascinated and done quite a lot of research around the city and the fact that it’s fated to be underwater within our lifetimes.

I wanted to try and make a piece or new sound work that responded to the rising sea levels of the Mediterranean.

I work often with these underwater microphones called hydrophones, and so planned all these recording sessions.

I wondered how I could create something to give voice to this silent sea.

And I’d already been thinking about developing an instrument, a modular synthesiser, as I had thought about using my own voice to kind of modulate and manipulate in a way to create that voice of the Mediterranean. And that was the foundation for the album.

And it’s titled after the Greek sea goddess?

S: Thalassa was the primordial goddess of the sea, specifically the Mediterranean, but the word itself also means ‘the sea’.

The personification of the sea and how that alters our relationship with it was an interesting area of research while I was developing the project.

When you give something an identity, it encourages us to care for it more.

You have a show coming up that will be rather unique. What makes it special and where are you performing?

S: For the album launch on the 30th of May, I will perform THALASSA in quadraphonic – an immersive spatial sound system.

This will be performed using a custom-built instrument, which has been in development for four years.

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‘A Bad, Bad Place’ - giving the victim a voice….Frances Crawford’s debut novel does just that,establishing an exciting n...
21/05/2026

‘A Bad, Bad Place’ - giving the victim a voice….

Frances Crawford’s debut novel does just that,
establishing an exciting new voice in Scottish crime fiction.

spoke to Frances to find out more.

Out now

Link in bio

Can you tell us about ‘A Bad, Bad Place’?

FC: It’s a crime novel set in Possilpark, in the north of Glasgow, in 1979, and it’s about a dog walker. You hear this right across the crime genre, that ‘Who found the body?’ question. ‘Oh, it was a dog walker.’

They take their name and send them home. But I’ve always been really uneasy about what happened to the dog walker next, and this is that story.

The dog walker is 12-year-old Janey. She lives with her nana, Maggie, and it’s a dual narrative shared between the two all through the story. It’s the fallout from Janey’s discovery of a mutilated body.

What happens to Janey is traumatic. Was that difficult to write?

FC: It was. It’s not something I’ve ever experienced myself, and I did do research on children who had gone through traumatic experiences and on people who had actually found a dead body.

I discovered this really odd connection between the person and the body.

If it had been a violent death, the person who found them would follow the case. They might go to court and follow the police investigation. If it was natural causes, they might go to the funeral.

They have this feeling that the body somehow belongs to them. And children are very, very like that.

FC: Janey becomes attached to the dead girl. That allowed me to make the dead girl, Samantha, a character of her own. As Janey investigates Samantha, she wants to find out everything she can.

She’s not just ‘the dead woman’ – she’s a flawed, nice person. Quite often they’re just a body. Even on TV police shows, it’s that whole ‘beautiful dead girl’ trope. I was very, very keen to avoid that.
 
And why that time and place?

FC: I set it in 1979 in part to show how flawed the police were – I could show poor treatment of victims, victim-shaming – but really it’s because the music in 1979 was so good. I filled the novel with punk rock.

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Post-Gutter-Skunk-Funk For The People…Edinburgh’s chat to SNACKabout writing anthems, dividing audiencesand why a resem...
20/05/2026

Post-Gutter-Skunk-Funk For The People…

Edinburgh’s chat to SNACK
about writing anthems, dividing audiences
and why a resemblance to ‘Eye Of The Tiger’ is nothing to be ashamed of.

Weird Party and Weirder Party are out now on

Words: .musicjournalism

Photo credit:

Link in bio

Vicky Kavanagh: We don’t really want to sit in one genre.

Sometimes that means leaning into things that feel a bit cheesy or anthemic, but that’s part of the fun – letting it be sincere.

There was one track where we almost changed a section because it sounded a bit too much like ‘Eye of the Tiger’, but that actually became my favourite part.

There is guitar at the core of it, but we like pulling in dance elements, noise, whatever fits. Sometimes that means leaning into things that feel a bit cheesy or anthemic, but that’s part of the fun – letting it be sincere.

We came into music from pretty different angles – I hadn’t even really been in bands before, but we started sharing stuff, poetry, records, and it just clicked. We jammed for a couple of years and recorded early demos while still figuring out what we were.

A lot of our influences are things we discovered young but didn’t fully understand at the time – like The Rapture – and then came back to later and it suddenly made sense. Same with bands like The Clash.

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is back, and this time, she’s packing a six-string.Rest assured, though, she’s still pop, and there’s always space for ...
16/05/2026

is back, and this time, she’s packing a six-string.

Rest assured, though, she’s still pop, and there’s always space for synth.

The album is out now, via

Carla plays on Friday 29 May

Interview: Andy Reilly

Photo: Kat Gollock

Link in bio

Your new album, I Think That I Might Love You, came from thinking about women who picked up a guitar and just went for it. When did you realise you hadn’t done that yourself?

CJE: It’s kinda accidental, really. I play in – I joined their live touring outfit in 2017 – and Eugene [Kelly] said it might be good if I play guitar rather than keyboard on some songs.

I thought: I’ve just spent about eight years of my life with women telling me, ‘I just wanted to be in a band’.

So I got a guitar, I booked a gig before I’d even learned it, and off I went. And I’d been working at with kids that were very new to music-making, just no fear, no cynicism.

So when Eugene asked me, I thought, f**k it, you’re not too old to learn a new instrument.

Did making the feel like permission to push yourself?

CJE: One hundred percent. The whole project stems from me justifying TeenCanteen’s right to be on stage, right to belong.

I really feel part of a family, of all these incredible women that have made music before me, after me. I call it a sonic sisterhood.

The album was produced by Howard Bilerman, who produced your Impossible Stuff album. What does that relationship give you?

CJE: In the period between records, he’s been such a friend and mentor. Someone I can call if I’m ever feeling doubt in my creativity, or just to chat about a record I’ve found and think he’ll like.

What can people expect from the live shows?

CJE: Throughout my career, men have been saying ‘get out from behind your synth’. And I’ve always been like, ‘as if anyone told Kraftwerk to do that’, but I guess it’s a barrier.

So I’m really enjoying the freedom of the guitar and being able to move about and interact with my bandmates a bit more. They’re also just a sh*t-hot band.

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Let's make plans for the weekend 💛Deep breath...This month's mag hasInterviews:Carla J Eastonj.easton SHHE Frances Crawf...
08/05/2026

Let's make plans for the weekend 💛

Deep breath...

This month's mag has

Interviews:

Carla J Eastonj.easton

SHHE


Frances Crawford


Out of Sight Out of Mind

Barrie Hunter talks about Black Diamonds and the Blue Brazil

Gurry Wurry


Review

artland Extraction





r.sutherland

orchestra





Bits by


band band

band






+ Noodle by Chris Queen


_.flo wu



+ The Next Page by /



Linda Duncan McLaughlin



+ What's On





festival








+ loads, loads more

Enjoy

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It's SNACK time!Ch ch changesRead on the SNACK website or pick up your print copy across Scotland this month.💛
02/05/2026

It's SNACK time!

Ch ch changes

Read on the SNACK website or pick up your print copy across Scotland this month.

💛

Standing Together, Fighting Back, and the Power of Arthannah and .bissett33 curate ‘Mayday’Interview: Photo credit: A p...
27/04/2026

Standing Together, Fighting Back, and the Power of Art
hannah and .bissett33 curate ‘Mayday’

Interview:

Photo credit:

A production, ‘Mayday’ is for one night only, a curated and directed response to the political emergency which shall happen on the 1st of May at Edinburgh Central Hall.

Full interview in bio

Mayday has lots of different meanings, an emergency, a call for help. Where did the idea come from and why was it thought to be so immediate?

Hannah Lavery: It came out of an approach from Jackie (Wylie, Artistic Director of the National Theatre of Scotland). Her instinct was we’re living in a moment where we all feel we need to find a way of talking about this moment we’re living in, the permacrisis.

When me and Cora started talking about it, this idea, that it needs to be lots of voices, like multi-art form, not about offering answers or coming up with some sort of manifesto for the times – isn’t that what art does?

It’s about what are the best questions and how do we bring people together in a room, looking at the communities and artists from those communities that feel the most under threat with the kind of rhetoric that we’re politically and culturally living through.

We talk about community (and) often we’re talking about followers and online communities. Community is about being neighbours. Learning how to live together – that’s driving this night.

Cora Bissett: This night celebrates we are all Scotland. Scotland is beautiful, diverse and was becoming a very progressive place. There’s a big wave pushing back on that right now. This night is coming right back and saying, no, a small group of people do not get to decide that Scotland is.

What can people look forward to?

HL: A real celebration of Scottish culture. We’ve tried to be very broad, not dictating a very particular style of the night. There is something for everybody. 

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Essential new music from Scotland (February pt1).Words by Link in Bio
06/02/2026

Essential new music from Scotland (February pt1).

Words by

Link in Bio








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