Hailing from Edinburgh Mt. Doubt is the project of Leo Bargery which has caught the ears of many, including us at Scottish Fiction, over the past couple of months. With expansive and atmospheric sounds, Mt. Doubt holds plenty of promise for development. I caught up with Leo for a good ol' Scottish Fiction chat.
Hello! How the devil are you?
Hi there, I suppose I’m not too bad thanks
It's the question everyone hates, but could you illuminate our readers a little bit about your music and your influences?
I think it's impossible to have a truly unaffected experience of your own music so other people's opinions probably say more about what my music is than what I personally think of it. I'd say it's fairly dark, atmospheric pop mixed with a bit of alt-rock; I would feel uncomfortable aligning myself completely with a distinct genre because it seems a bit limiting to say "we play indie" or something you know, because where can you go from there?
In terms of influences, I'm influenced by lots of different things. Lyrically, I think Mark Linkous (Sparklehorse), Jesse Lacey (Brand New) and Morrissey have got to be up there. Musically, I have a lot of love for bands like The National, TV on the Radio, Mogwai, and The Twilight Sad but I try to listen to as much music as possible and hopefully that can only make my own music more interesting…
I'm also influenced by non-musical factors; books and films are just as important to me and without day to day interactions I probably wouldn’t have all that much to write about.
What's your song-writing / creative process like?
If you're creative the process never really stops, even if it’s quiet for a while I believe it's always on the brink of a spark. I find that I'm usually inspired by phrases and words. I like trying to say things in slightly unusual ways and so if I see or hear a phrasing I like or if I put together words in a way that really stands out to me - I often work off that. I usually have a lyrical idea or a direction I know I want to take and then I’ll just sit down and mess around with a guitar and from time to time everything slots together and a song gets set into motion. Right now, Mt. Doubt is just me so once I was in the studio I just wrote and arranged all the other parts and the songs worked themselves out.
To the best of my knowledge, you haven't played live yet. What could we expect to see from a live show, and when might that happen?
That's right. I’ll be launching my album early summer and will have a launch show around the same time which is exciting. I really want to bring the songs to life, if everything goes to plan I really want to put on a proper show. I’ve been in bands before where friends will come along and watch you and tell you afterwards that it was good but I want the people who come and see Mt. Doubt to, first and foremost, enjoy themselves and enjoy the music but to leave thinking that what they’ve just watched was really fucking amazing.
What else have you got planned for the rest of 2015?
I'm self-releasing my debut album and I’ll be playing live for the first time (details coming soon) in early summer. Before that I’ve got a few little things in the pipeline to get sorted and once the album is out I'll be back to recording again. My main focus for 2015 is just to get the name out and about and to get as many people as possible to hear about Mt. Doubt.
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