“We get to do whatever the hell we want” – Glasgow glamour goths WALT DISCO unpack debut album

Glamtastic Glaswegians Walt Disco caught Carl Marsh’s ear with their recently released debut album Unlearning, so much so that he had to find out how they go about their biz. So that’s what he did!

So, where do I begin? I could start by talking about the fashion of Walt Disco. I could talk about the production values that go into your videos and your debut album. It’s like you guys have been around for years – but that’s not the case, is it?

James Potter, vocals: Me and a couple of other members started when we moved to university and just started playing gigs around Glasgow. Then, gradually over the years, Finlay, Jack and Charlie joined. So, yeah, it’s an evolving cast!

“Collectively, we get to do whatever the hell we want individually. That’s the ethos.”

Finlay McCarthy, Walt Disco

But to get all six of you to, as it were, sing from the same hymn sheet when it comes to the fashion and production values, that can’t have been easy, if that makes sense?

James: Yeah. I think all these three were kind of fans of us anyway.

Jack Martin, drums: Exactly. We all knew what we were in for. And we all wanted to serve! [Laughter] We were dying to be a part of it and just be ourselves for the band, which is the best part.

Finlay McCarthy, guitar/keyboards: Collectively, we get to do whatever the hell we want individually. That’s the ethos.

Charlie Lock, bass: It’s lovely. It’s something that I feel all of us have wanted an outlet for, and to have an excuse to do it. So it’s nice for all of us, definitely!

When it comes to the Walt Disco writing process, is that a case of a collective effort?

James: We’ve done it in lots of different ways, such as in lockdown – working in front of a computer because obviously, we couldn’t really have lots of instruments together at the same time. So we’d be bouncing ideas back and forth over Zoom or via text. But, because this album was done like that, for the next stuff, we moved on to all writing together. This album definitely was an electronic effort.

In the middle of Unlearning, you’ve got a track called The Costume Change – an instrumental that takes the second half of the album in a totally different direction. Whose idea was it to do that?

Finlay: We’d been talking about the idea of an interlude called The Costume, as we originally started with an idea for an album almost like a stage show. It didn’t become that, literally, but I’d say it has that feel about it, especially with the running order of the last few songs. It’s quite… epic. And then there’s a bit of a sweet resolve to the album.

The Costume Change started as an instrumental piano thing that James had done, and we twisted it a bit and put loads of mental sounds on it. It was originally about five minutes long, but then we thought we should probably cut that down.

James: When the label [Lucky Number] came on board with the album, they did say they liked the idea but it was a bit self-indulgent. We were like, yeah, fair enough… [Laughter]

I don’t see you guys as being ones that would listen too much to the label anyway!

James: That’s the thing, they only speak to us when it’s something worth saying about stuff artistically. This isn’t one of those labels who just tell us, like, every song should be shorter or something. Actually, we were kind of shitting ourselves about one of the songs – we thought it was too long and they said, “no, keep it!” I’m glad they told us that.

Finlay: Yeah, because they were absolutely right. And I really liked the way the album turned out. I think it’s so concise.

Walt Disco, Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff, Wed 13 Apr. Tickets: £10. Info: here
Unlearning is out now on Lucky Number.

words CARL MARSH