A foursome based in Edinburgh, Spook School have been around the Scottish indie scene (whatever that is) for a couple of years now, gaining a reputation for lively C86-ish pop, which attracted London’s Fortuna Pop label (alumni: Herman Dune, Bearsuit, Comet Gain) sufficiently for them to put out a single, followed by debut album Dress Up. But just who are the boys and girls behind the music (and moustache)?

Who?

We are four silly people having silly fun.
We are Nye Todd on vocals and guitar, Adam Todd also on vocals and guitar, Anna Cory on vocals and the bass, and Niall McCamley on drums and nudity.

When?

We got together in 2011 jamming in the basement of Edinburgh’s Forest Cafe. It was a wonderfully strange practice room that included the odd performance poet trying to get us to be quiet. Nye and Adam had known each other since birth and seemed to get along. They found Anna and Niall in Edinburgh through a comedy society and voila, a strange band was formed. We then got very lucky with Fortuna POP! which we are still pinching ourselves about. Our arms are getting very sore.

Where?

We formed in Edinburgh and currently we are 50% in Edinburgh and 50% in London. Last year we were a little more scattered, Nye was in New York for 6 months and then Amsterdam whilst Anna was in Rennes living the French dream (apparently this involved visiting an Irish pub quite a lot). If you want to know where we are at any given moment and if Niall has lost his clothes @spookschool on twitter is your best resource.

What?

We are four friends enjoying the surreal adventure of being able to travel around and play songs for people. And then drink their beer and sleep on their floor. With tracks like ‘I’ll Be Honest’ we are trying to marry what Flight of the Conchords might call ‘issues’ with what is hopefully fun bounciness. Our debut album ‘Dress Up’ is hopefully all of that in a vinyl nutshell. It’s our attempt at fun pop music that also looks into ideas of gender. Nye identifies as trans* and this informs a lot of our lyrics. Our music is the music of not knowing what chords are called, being liberal with notions of tempo, seeing how high you can jump whilst holding a guitar and seeing how sweaty we can get.

Why?

Because it’s fun. It makes what could otherwise be interminably dull days pass suprisingly quickly. We’ve also got to meet and make lots of new friends who share our interests of drinking Buckfast and dancing to Tullycraft. The travelling is also a big plus, we’ve been to places we probably never would have got to visit otherwise and been shown around by people who live there. Ice cream in Dresden, moules frites in Lier, going to a Parisian pub quiz, those are memories we will hold onto. In the future we hope to make more music, play more shows, and get involved in more surreal and beautiful moments. And drinking more Buckfast at indie-pop discos…

Dress Up is out now, as CD or as a download (above). More on the band at thespookschool.com