Since the release of their critically acclaimed albums In Awe Of Nothing and My Past Is A Quiet Beast, Mt. Doubt have received praise from the likes of The Scotsman, The National, The Skinny as well as BBC 6Music and BBC Radio Scotland to name but a few. They are also no strangers to the Scottish live circuit, having performed at T In the Park, Brew At The Bog and supported We Were Promised Jetpacks and Admiral Fallow amongst others.

Tourists is the first single to be taken from Mt. Doubt’s upcoming EP The Loneliness of the TV Watchers, out later this year.

You can catch Mt. Doubt live at the following dates:

• Friday 7th April – Beat Generator – Dundee – Tickets
• Saturday 8th April – Nice ‘N’ Sleazy’s – Glasgow – Tickets

Tourists is out on 31st March 2017 via Scottish Fiction.

In this interview spotlight, we chat with Mt. Doubt about the new project, influences, navigating the digital music era and more.

Full Q&A, links and a stream of Tourists below.

Let’s dive a little deeper into you, the artist and your music. What attracted you to this genre(s) or style(s)?

Mt. Doubt has been styled as a ‘Dark-Pop’ act and I think that’s as accurate a two-word summary of the sounds we make as it would be possible to think up. It was never intentional to strive for a specific sound and it wasn’t my desire to belong to any certain genre so I suppose our sound has come together quite accidentally. Naturally it’s indebted to a lot of the music I’ve listened to over the years from bands like The National to Sparklehorse to Frightened Rabbit… There’s certainly a depressive theme running through there!

How long have you been creating and sharing your music with the public?

I’ve been messing around with a guitar writing bits and pieces of songs since I was about 15 or 16 but I put out the first Mt. Doubt single, a track called ‘Feathers’, in January 2015! Since then we have released two full-length albums, ‘My Past is a Quiet Beast’ and ‘In Awe of Nothing’, and have lots more music coming!

Who or what influences your playing and/or writing? Also, what motivates you to keep going?

I’m not much of a guitarist so I tend to fumble my way through writing songs, I do look up the odd Death Cab for Cutie chord-change though; they have such a brilliant sound! I think, largely, my writing is inspired by songwriters like Morrissey or Nick Cave who I really admire. They have the ability to write lyrics that can make you really think or laugh out loud; they’ve definitely inspired me to try and write things in more complex and unexpected ways. In terms of motivation, I’m motivated by the fact that I love writing songs and playing music. It’s really all I want to do and I’m motivated by the absolute desire to make it work.

Were you trying to accomplish anything specific on this new project; creatively or otherwise?

This new single ‘Tourists’ is a bit of a change for us. Normally Mt. Doubt songs tend to be quite downbeat in their nature but ‘Tourists’ has a more tongue-in-cheek kind of side to it, it’s quite a punchy song and pretty short by our standards! I suppose it’s a bit of an experiment really, it doesn’t have any ‘dark’ lyrical themes and hopefully it might incite some dancing!

What was the last song you listened to?

‘Do You Still Love Me?’ by Ryan Adams from the new album ‘Prisoner’

Which do you prefer; Vinyl, CDs or MP3s?

I’m a big CD fan, though I think that’s just a matter of the timing of my birth. I have a collection of about 750 CDs (it’s all I spent my money on between the ages of 14-19) so I’m quite invested in making sure that continues to grow! I love records too and MP3 certainly has its place though I’ve only ever downloaded one album which was ‘Seasons’ by Future Islands!

How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify / Apple Music / Bandcamp or something else? Why?

I’ve never used Apple Music and it’s rare that I use Bandcamp even though I think it’s a really great platform, specifically for ‘smaller’ bands. So I suppose Spotify wins by default! I tend to listen primarily to music I own though…

Other than the digital era overwhelming us with access to an abundance of music, what are one or two of the biggest challenges you face when trying to attract listeners to your music?

People have become very used to music being free so it’s quite hard to actually convince people to pay £5 or £10 to come to a local band’s show or to buy their record, I think that’s the first (and largest) obstacle!

Do you gig, tour or perform? Do you ever live stream? Where can music lovers see you live?

We play regularly across Scotland and have plans to play further afield throughout the UK later in 2017! We have shows coming up in Dundee and Glasgow (in April) and will be supporting White Lies in Edinburgh on March 8th! We have never live streamed, not yet anyway…

Where is the best place to connect with you online? Discover more of your music?

I think probably through Spotify, Soundcloud, Youtube or Facebook! All the usual places!

Any last thoughts? Shout outs? Words of wisdom?

I’m not sure I have too much wisdom to impart… Thanks for reading this, and listening to Mt. Doubt, it means more that I expect people imagine.