Brighton debut album rescheduled amid coronavirus crisis

The coronavirus lockdown means a two-wave release for the debut album from Brighton band Son Of Ugly.
Kyle MacleodKyle Macleod
Kyle Macleod

Invitation To Danger is now out in digital format.

Keyboard player Kyle Macleod is promising the physical format will be released once we are all out of lockdown. The recording offers a richly cinematic fusion of many genres, including film noir, surf rock, swing jazz, metal and ambient soundscapes, he says.

“We overextended our politeness by taking so long to produce it,” says Kyle. “Because it would be so expensive to do, I had to learn to produce it and mix it myself. We started recording it about two years ago.”

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The delay, Kyle says, has been down to “mainly liaising with other humans.

“I wrote the music before the band arrived and then it was about finding members and getting them to come in and record their stuff. And then once it was in my hands, it was a case of trial and error until I was pleased with what we had. There was an immense satisfaction when I started to get to the point where it started to sound good. Once I had realised how to do it properly, I started getting some really good results.”

As for the music: “The closest genres I would say would be cinematic rock. It is quite soundtracky in flavour and also rocking in places. It is a five-piece band. We have got two guitars and bass and drums and I play keyboards and sound effects. We are instrumental. I do add some vocal effects, but with regards proper lyrics, I don’t do that. I am quite fussy about my singers. I have got high expectations and I can’t do it myself and write it and produce it.”

Besides, as the music developed, he felt it would have become too cluttered if he had then added vocals.

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“The music itself is quite odd. It will sound quite different to the other pieces, but there is that cinematic theme running through it. There is some metal in there, there is some swing jazz and there is a bit of surf rock. It is a bit of a melting pot of different genres.”

As for the lockdown: “I am getting more frustrated now as interest in the album is growing. We have had people asking for T-shirts but we can’t get any printed. A lot of people have been asking for CDs but we can’t do that. We had a big album launch planned, but we had to postpone that. We have decided instead to go for the two-wave release with the physical copies being released whenever we can get back to normal.”

But along the way, Kyle has picked up some useful lessons: “I have learnt a hell of a lot in the first few days after the release. You have got to get some reviews. We have had some limited radio play. I have been trying to get the rest of the band to do it but to a degree it has fallen back on me. I have made a rod for my own back, but it is all knowledge in the bank.”

It has also been a question of learning about social media: “I realise I have wasted a lot of money over the years just boosting posts. The way to do it is to get website clicks. That’s what we have started realising and trying to do. But you just don’t know how long it is going to be until we are back to normal. It is like the car’s engine has been flooded and we have got to take it apart and put it back together again. We will survive one way or another, but the world is going to change to something different.”

www.sonofugly.com

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