As long as we’re milling around the British Isles for new faces and new talent, taking a brief detour over to BBC Scotland and a session for their Introducing series – a session from Glasgow Punk/Upstarts Doss and recorded about a week ago.
Just ran across this article from the online magazine The Skinny by Tallah Bash where she interviews Sorley Mackay (Doss) about the band/project/political statement and the new single “The Mullets Are Moving In” – read on:
We love it when something exciting lands in our inbox, and at the end of January, an early listen to The Mullets Are Moving In by Glasgow wordsmith Doss provided more than just a little excitement as we felt compelled to take off our headphones and make everyone in the office listen to it. This vital piece of music takes aim at the increased gentrification of Glasgow areas like Finnieston and Dennistoun through tongue-in-cheek lyricism, with the mulleted hipster providing some comic relief amid a housing and cost of living crisis that is sadly all too real.
While Doss may call to mind straight-talking artists like Sleaford Mods and IDLES, he stays true to his Scottish roots with his own brand of electronic-post-punk-spoken-word; whatever you want to call it, it’s nothing short of exhilarating, and makes Doss stand out as an exciting prospect in the Scottish musical canon. With all that in mind we felt it was important to speak to the man himself, so following the release of The Mullets Are Moving In we shine a spotlight on Doss to find out more.
We’re relatively new to the world of Doss, and we really like what we hear. Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
Wits happenin? My name is Sorley Mackay, aka Doss. I’ve been makin’ tunes since I was about 15, totally self-taught. I had an old 8-track that I would make a tune a day on. I’d make songs about everything, playing all the instruments; a lot of it was mince, but it all aided me in laying a solid foundation on how to compose and structure tunes. None of them saw the light of day. It was probably a mad fear of riddy culture that stopped me from ever releasing anything. It wasn’t until Doss, when I was 22, that I started really pushing it.
Doss is a project that I started during lockdown. I’ve telt this story that many times now, I’m unsure if it’s true, haha, but as I recall, Doss started after I snapped my wrist skateboarding. Being a left-handed musician (left one snapped), I had no means to create music anymore, just ma shitey right hand. I was isolated, depressed and angry. So I started just making tunes on a midi keyboard, programming simple beats on top of whatever was on my mind, being truly honest and expressing how I felt at the time. It’s worked out so far, haha, silver linings and all that jazz.
Not gonna run the whole piece, but rather head over there, read the rest of the article – read their other articles (a well written publication, by the way) and subscribe – I try my level best to stay informed – you should too.
In the meantime . . .
