Welcome to the Lost Map Podcast. Welcome to the Lost Map Podcast everyone. I'm your host, Pictish Trail. You've just listened to the beautiful new single, Laddr, by both hands, Synthapot duo from Edinburgh, whose new album, Daebu Album, be like a mountain in a moonlit way, is coming out next month.
And this is the final single that we're releasing in the run up to the album coming out. It's called Laddr. It's also available as part of this month's Post Map Club, and comes with an exclusive remix by Isa Gordon. That's what you've just heard.
And now what you're about to hear is my co-host, Lord Artie. Get ready, guys. It's me. How are you doing, Johnny?
I feel like I sort of nailed that intro. I often do this bit where we play a song at the show and I forget to reference it until we've chatted for about 10 minutes. Yes, the segments are getting harder and harder to do. So, yes, it's good to address that up front.
Podcasting in easy. Do you know what? There's no, I mean, there's no instruction book for it. There's no instruction book that I've read for it.
It's not easy. I mean, can you tell? I mean, there's certainly no instruction book for us setting up the pod. It takes us, well, it takes me about 20 minutes to kind of get the audio wall sounding removable average.
So it takes a lot of work to send this to you guys. We're not going to put in extra time in research just to make this podcast sound more professional, but we will spend a good 20 minutes trying to work out what we did last month. And replicate. Yeah, I mean, we had no major complaints last month.
So, in fact, I heard that it was last month, the one before you were down in Wales and you had lots of compliments about the podcast. So, thank you to our friends in Wales. Hold on. What was that?
When was I in Wales? Gosh, I think it might be a while ago. But you were saying that you were a challenge of people in, I don't want to get it wrong. Oh, here we go.
Yeah. I don't think I've been to Wales this year. So I'm going to say that right now, but can't. Oh, I thought you, OK, where did I pull this from?
I was going to go as well. She put out a gig. Maybe that was it. Could it be that?
Do you know what? My memory is so bad. I can't remember. People do come up to the merch desk and they chat to me after gigs and say how much they're enjoying the podcast.
So that is always very welcome to hear that deal listener. Thank you so much for if you have approached me and I have been drunk and I have been in the state where I couldn't possibly remember you by name, but you have given us a compliment about the pod. It's very well and very graciously received. Thank you.
Thank you. And he will pass it on to me at the time and then obviously has forgotten. And I will get the details slightly wrong, but it doesn't mean that we don't appreciate it. Do you feel respected as a listener?
Podcast listeners? I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure.
I'm sure you can't reply right now. But reply to us in Wales or not in Wales or wherever is easiest for you. I'm in Wales loads of this, actually. I'm playing in rexen on the 14th of August and I'm playing in Swansea the day before on the 13th of August.
And then I'm in the Green Man festival about week after that. Maybe I'm in town travel. Maybe that's what happened. We're gonna take travel to rexen.
Got some compliments. Came back. I forgot about it. This is good.
You're preempting the compliments. So if you see me at the merch desk in Swansea Rexam or at the Green Man festival, please come out to to me telling me how much you enjoy the podcast, so that I can travel back in time. back in time. Gorgeous.
I open into the podcast. We were going to be doing today's podcast and personally I'm down in Edinburgh at the moment I'm in the Lost Map office which is in the back room of Good Vibe's record shop in Leith and Laura is just a 45 minute drive away in Falkirk. Is somebody feeling too rough? Possibly drive today possibly.
I was feeling very good yesterday. Someone say I was in my prime after about 10 beers. I went through to Glasgow yesterday afternoon and was there for Craig Angus from the band Savage Mansion and former champ and a bunch of other bands in Glasgow. He started a new label called Hand of God which is a fantastic label and he did an old air at this random pub in the East End.
I say random, I can't remember the name of it. It's weirdly enough it's called Lynch's but it has a different name. The burnt old bar, the old burnt bar. Oh, it looked cool.
That outdoor space I imagine in the back looked incredible. It was great. Yeah, it's really good. You've got to be outside of your garden and it's sheltered.
It rained but it rained for like 10 minutes in between acts and the rest of the day was really sunny so it was perfect. So I'm Martha Fion perform at it. The return of Martha Fion is really lovely to see Claire accompanied by Andy from Savage Mansion and former champ on guitar going through some Martha Fion classics. Oh, I've been enjoyed it.
And that actually just quite nicely into a little segment that I like to call. Who else is playing at Howlin Fringe? We're putting on our own set of Wasn't All Dares but we're putting on our own little showcase of music in August at Leith Cricket Club. You might have heard of the event we've chat about it before on the podcast.
We're doing a series of Wednesdays at Leith Cricket Club under the banner Howlin Fringe. Because of Essoson. Because of Essoson. We did have an event called Howlin Fringe about 12 years ago which we've resuscitated for this purpose and on one of the Wednesdays Wednesday 19th August, Pictus Trail has me, I will be performing with his, my full band and will be supported by none other than Martha Fion.
Yay, it's good to have her back. It'll be great to see the full band as well. Yeah, I'm excited to be playing. It's a sort of warm up of sorts for Green Man, which is a few days later.
Cricket Club is like one of my favourite places in the world. I'm not saying that just because it's only a five minute walk from the Lost Map office. It's a really cosy fun venue. And yeah, we've got some other shows that are happening there as well.
On the 12th of August, we've got Suckle, a sort of rock band. I don't know how to describe them. Heavy, mouthey, Gobby, Rock Band from the North of England, Yorkshire. Gobrock.
Gobrock from Yorkshire. The York. Sorry, Yorkshire. How offensive.
Suckle performing alongside Salka. Pusing. Very confusing, but still very much happening. Nevertheless, a reality.
We've just announced for that show the opening act of the evening will be a duo called The Chop, who consists of Gemma Fleet and Andrew Doyk, who some of you might be familiar with from just a whole heap of bands that they're part of in Glasgow. They're part of Dancer. Doyk plays a night shift. I think the pair of them have played in the order of the toad.
Doyk also makes me think of the name Robert Satello, but they've got this new project called The Chop. It's really great. It's like, I don't know how to describe it. It's like, do you know the band Young Marble Giants?
Okay. I think they were Welsh and released one album in the 80s that is like drum machine, bass guitar and vocals is really minimal and it's really good indie pop. I don't know how to describe it. indie pop really doesn't quite, I'm trying to describe Young Marble Giants instead of describing The Chop, but they have a similar feel and similar vibe to them.
Yeah, really fun and I'm excited to see them live. We're doing that show in collaboration with our friends Play Nice, who are a promoter in Edinburgh. And yeah, another act we can announce is Eyes of Others, who's going to be supporting Free Love on Wednesday the 26th of August, our third and final Wednesday. I didn't do them in order.
No, absolutely not. But I liked it. I mean, we're trying to travel in. We're going to get the green here where half of us are slightly hungover.
Half, I mean, how are you doing? The other half just woke up a little nap. Okay. Well, yes.
So we're almost a feel person. Look at us now. So it's all right that I've scattered all over the shop in terms of announcing the new additions to the Howland French lineup. But yeah, Eyes of Others is going to be performing with Free Love.
Eyes of Others is the work of John Dryden, who is Edinburgh based electronic pop musician. And I said Dryden. I meant, Dryden. His name's John Dryden.
Very much like the Canadian Ivel Graham as well. So that could cause some confusion. That could cause some confusion. When people are like, why are you singing it?
They didn't sing really good. I love it. Who Eyes of Others does? Oh, he's got an amazing voice.
I went to see him recently supporting Gary Worry in Edinburgh at Sneaky Pete's. And which was a great show. It was a really good night. And yeah, Eyes of Others opened his music's fantastic.
He was in album on Heavenly Records a couple of years ago. There's Elmo's a sort of Arthur Russell stuff in there, very like daydreamy electronic pop. There's also like the sort of weird distorted edge to it that sounds a bit like suicide. The band.
Not the concept. The concept of suicide. No, yeah, really beautiful, really funny and fun and cool at the same time. Which is not an easy trick.
Well, I think for the last one, I've decided to go and see a screening of The Ballad of Wallace Island. Oh, yes. Up at the film house with a Q&A from Tim Key. And then jump on a bus or tram, God willing, down to the cricket club afterwards.
So that should be a fun day. I've not actually seen that film yet, but you recommended it I think a few months ago. Have you actually not seen The Ballad of Wallace Island? No, yeah.
It's amazing. I've seen right on my street, isn't it? It's very good. It's quite close to the bone for me, a guy living on an island trying to put on a music event.
There are other spoilers, as much as the gang's, otherwise. This is why I'm enjoying it as part of my last map. Night out. There you go.
So yeah, that's on what Wednesday 26th of August. Yes. Well, I'll finish in time for you to get a bus to come down. Yeah, I think it starts at five.
So perfect. Yeah, yeah. I'll bring Tim down as well. Please do.
That would be really nice actually. What do you know what? I believe Josie Long, our good friend and comedian will be DJing on Wednesday 26th of August at April 27th. And we're going to have comedians DJing compare the other two events.
And the intention is still very much for that to happen, but the people we've contacted haven't got back in Dutch. Yeah, so there might be another announcement to come. But that's all your howlin' fringe announcement. So you're getting to snow.
Let me tell you. Deal with that. Okay. Well, without further ado, let's move on to the rest of today's episodes.
I feel like it's enough howlin' fringe chat. If you do want to pick up a ticket for howlin' fringe, you can confusingly go to howlin'fling.com, which is where we sell tickets. Maybe I've made this whole process incredibly convoluted and it's possible why we haven't sold out the tickets yet. If you go to howlin'fling.com, you can pick up tickets at a range of different prices, just whatever you can afford.
We've got three different tiers of pricing for the tickets. People can purchase whatever price they can afford. Howlin'fling.com and there'll be a ticket link in the show notes of today's episode. Okay, speaking of today's episode, we're going to be running through the post-map club mailbag later on in the program.
But first up, let's take a little trip over to Glasgow and listen to our good friend Lucas class and chat about his brand new album, Butte. It's the latest record, well, depending on how you're counting them, possibly the fifth album by Selka, who is a singer-songwriter, based in Glasgow, performs with a band. In fact, it's performing with his band on the 12th of August, but has recorded his brand new album completely on his tot and we want to find out more about it. So here's Lucas to tell you the inside story of Butte.
Hi, this is Lucas, aka Selka, and I am coming to you from my flat in Glasgow. It's Tuesday morning as I'm recording this, so I haven't done too much today. My girlfriend is ill in the other room, so I've been looking after her the last couple days and we've been just watching stuff and playing a bit of Nintendo and I've just been catching up on some little bits of life after me. Thanks, stop.
My new album, called Butte, was written on the Hyla Butte. I went there in 2024 in February for, I think it was four days, just over a weekend. I booked this place in a little place called Port Bonetine, which is just like a little bit around the corner from Roth's Day, which is like the main town in Butte. I had a bunch of songs that I had nearly finished writing, but I needed to finish all the lyrics and I was just kind of procrastinating, finding hard to finish all of them.
So I decided to do this little trip to just kind of have no distractions and just finish all of the songs. I chose Butte because it was kind of the easiest place to get to through public transport that was kind of suitably also quite remote and quiet and like a little bit off-grid. I kind of spent every day there getting up quite early. I would go for a big walk in the morning.
I would just kind of pick a different direction every day and just kind of explore without a real plan of where I was going. And yeah, I just kind of got to know the local area that I was in. And then I would get back about lunchtime and make some food. And then I'd spend the rest of the day just writing.
I had this nice window overlooking the bay. So I would kind of sit there and just look at the sea and just try my guitar and write the songs basically. I'd sometimes go to the pub in the evening. There was like a wee pub in the village I was staying in that was weirdly very bright on these pubs where they just have the big lights on the whole time.
I just kind of went there and read my book a bit. I haven't really done a writing trip like that before. From my last album, Distractions, which I did more with a band, we did a weekend away in studio in Lachwina, just outside of Glasgow. Yeah, that was more of a pre-production type thing to just kind of get all the songs ready for recording and well-practiced.
But yeah, I haven't really done a trip like that where it's been silly to finish a project. But I really enjoyed it. And we'd definitely do it again. I'd like to maybe do it another time for a longer retreat and just go away and really write a bunch of songs just from scratch and yeah, just kind of let the environment influence the songs a bit more.
I recorded the album at My Old Commercial Studio in Glasgow. I did all of the drums, guitars, bass and vocals over the period of about two weeks. And the original plan was to just do demos and that's what quite often happens is you start to like the demos and then yeah, the demos kind of became the final songs. Yeah, it was quite a slow process building up the album over the last couple of years.
I kind of wasn't in a rush to finish it. So yeah, I kind of came back to it every few months and kind of mixed it a little bit and then I would add bits and bobs. So yeah, the initial recordings were done in sort of the summer of 2024. And then a few months later I did some mixing and I added some kind of midi synth parts, just on Ableton.
And then I decided that I wanted to rerecord those bits. A few months later my friend Calum's got a couple of nice analog synths. So we just kind of ran the midi parts through the synths and rerecorded those bits which kind of added a lot of nice texture. And then yeah, another few months later I got my friend Keke, my bandmate who plays keys and vocals to do all of the backing vocals.
And yeah, throughout that whole time I was also just kind of dropping and changing a lot, playing songs, reordering songs and thinking a lot about how the album flows from one song to the next. I always knew I wanted to have it be very immersive and have kind of field recordings and samples in between. So I kind of added those over time as well. Some of them are recordings that I've made on a little voice recorder just walking around like in the woods or just like around Glasgow and other ones are just stuff I found online.
I always like to have there be a strong kind of narrative through the albums I'm making and make sure that there's a dramatic kind of callbacks within the lyrics and within the sounds that you're hearing and the samples. For example, in the song of a place you've got kind of the sound of walking through the woods and there's birdsong and stuff and there's kind of accidentally a little bird song that kind of mimics the guitar intro or like in all bets off you've got that kind of a line that lead me to water but don't let me think and I used a little water sample in there like a little water splash. Just like little bits and thoughts like that just kind of ideas that crop up after months of hearing the songs. So yeah, I say the hardest part about making the album was just making editing choices and which songs to cut.
For a while there was like a few extra songs. There was originally like 14 songs that were well down to about 9. But yeah, I was mixing a bunch of songs which weren't really working out. So a few of them got cut.
But yeah, I always end up with relatively short albums. I think the perfect length is always about half an hour. So I end up cutting my albums down to sort of 9 or 10 songs usually. Here's Halloween.
I wanted to write a song that was dedicated to Halloween. Halloween season because it's one of my favourite times of the year. And I have always liked the film Donnie Darko. That was a big influence on me growing up.
It's kind of one of my favourite Halloween films. So I think references from that started to creep into the lyrics. There's a part in the chorus about the plane engine falling through the roof. It's a song about two people kind of struggling to communicate with each other and kind of using the metaphor of Halloween masks and disguises as kind of hiding your true emotions.
There's bits about insomnia and that's a big theme in the film. And yeah, I was kind of struggling with my sleep about the time as well. Which kind of came into it. Yeah, I also used a sample from the film from a deleted scene where Donnie's reading a poem.
That's the sample in the middle section of the film. Yeah, I just wanted to make it sound kind of dark and spooky. I used kind of an eerie synth sound and oh yeah, there was kind of a bit of kind of feedback at the start. Which actually was like a sample from another band that I was playing in.
Just a little voice note of a practice. I just liked the kind of squealing feedback and stuff at the start, which I put in there, which you would kind of think is just part of the actual recording. But yeah, it's just another wee kind of voice note that I've been. The song is replaced.
This song kind of tells my story of the time that I had on the island. A lot of the other songs I had already sort of had concepts before going in that I was just finishing off. But this one I left quite open. So a lot of the lyrics kind of just describe literally what I was doing first verse.
It's kind of just about the fairy journey over. The second verse is about a walk that I did. And then yeah, it's kind of capturing my headspace at the time a little bit as well. It was kind of the middle of winter and I was just, I feel like the darkness and everything was having the fact on me and making me quite withdrawn.
And I just imagined what it'd be like if yeah, the island kind of changed me in some way. And I kind of came back in the spring as like a new person. Yeah, I used a sample in the song from a recording I took when I was walking in the woods. And there's some birdsong at the start, which kind of mimics the guitar line.
Just by accident, which I quite like. The song carrot kind of came from an interaction I had on Butte. It was at the end of a walk that I did and I ended up in a pub. Yeah, I hadn't really talked to anyone most of the weekend.
But there was this couple, kind of older couple that sat near me and we got chatting. And it turned out they were from Glasgow and they'd retired to Dubuet. And they were just telling me a bit about their old lives in Glasgow, what they did. And we chatted about what places are different and more of the same.
The woman kind of had dementia and she was repeating a lot of her questions and things to me. But I think what was just like our memories were all intact. I've heard youth and everything. So I think that kind of influenced the song a little bit, which is from the perspective of someone just looking back on their life through fragments of memories and kind of weighing all up.
It kind of made me think about my future and where I'm headed. And just imagining if that was my future, it's kind of retiring to the island of the West Coast. Now that I've released this album, I can definitely start thinking about doing some new projects. I've got a bunch of instrumental acoustic songs, which I've been meaning to record.
So that might be my next thing. I was quite inspired by using more field recordings and atmospheres in my music. So I want to experiment with that a little more on my next project. I'm soon to be starting a master's course at Glasgow School of Art doing sound production.
So that's going to be my main focus for the next year really. But I'm excited to see what that leads me to doing and how that influences my creative output. So I've got a few gigs coming up in the next few months. In August, we are in Dankhelt on the second.
That is a solo show that I'm doing. And then we're in Edinburgh on the 12th of August, where the Helen Fringe, that's with Suckle and the Chop. And then in October, we're going to be down in London for a show on the 3rd of October at the old library. And you can get tickets for all those through my link tree on Instagram.
We'll see you there. That was replaced by Salka, is a track taken from his brand new album, Butte, which is out now on very limited edition LP and CD and cassette tape from Lost Map Records and No Soap. What a great album it is. Thank you to Lucas for doing that.
Guide to the album. I would suggest that you should purchase a copy pretty quick because this is a very limited edition run, especially on vinyl. We just made a hundred copies. And yeah, they have been selling over the past month.
You can only pick them up from our web shop, our bandcamp, from Good Vibes Records and Leith. And I believe there's a few copies that are over in some great rewards at record shopping Glasgow. That's about it. It's a very limited edition run.
We've not been able to distribute it far and wide. Yeah, I wonder what you can even make it to the Howlin French events. I mean, act fast. Maybe they'll be some on the day after you bought your tickets by HowlinFling.com for Howlin French.
Nice. What a good callback. You're doing really well. Thank you.
So yeah, even if no one in Wales compliments us on the podcast, I'm complimenting you on your podcast. Thank you. And you are part well, don't you? I'm not.
Yeah, I would say yes. I mean, I don't know. I don't know. I'm part Irish down the line somewhere.
I don't think I have any Welsh ancestry in my lineage, but I bloody hope so. You could have done a Welsh accent there, but I'm glad you didn't. Thank you. Let's go.
I'll get to if you are listening. We love you. We love you. Nice to get to.
It looks like you're having an incredible summer. It's been for animals that have been in the world. It looks like you're having an amazing time. If you do want to have a little nice price on the old Salka album, if you remember Puss Map Club, you get a 15% discount on anything on our web shop.
That's quite a decent discount. It's not 10%. That's incredible. That's incredible.
That's kind of what is it? Sorry. If you get a discount. If you're a member of Puss Map Club.
Well, 15%. Just a member of what? Puss Map Club. Sorry.
You're like a puss. Puss Map Club. Puss Map Club. Puss Map Club.
Puss Map Club. Puss Map Club. Puss Map Club. So, very nice.
There we go. Just as I was saying, we're creating such a professional podcast. I go and use that expletive. Puss Map Club is our membership club.
The membership club that LOS Map very much relies on these days in order to keep running, in order to keep the professionalism of this podcast up to scratch. We rely on new Puss Map Club members to make it happen. If you're not a member, you should become a member. You'd be supporting your favorite record label.
I presume we're your favorite record label because you're listening to this. You've made it this far into a podcast about LOS Map. We must be a little hate-listen. But if you hate-listen, then why don't you subscribe?
What is the point in living if you can't hate a little? Yeah. Keep supporting us over there for you to be like, did you hear that? Exactly.
If you want to slag us off to your friends, we have to be around for you to slag us off. Exactly. So we need your support. For us to continue doing what we're doing.
We'll give you something in return. If you remember Puss Map Club, you get three postcards of audio joy every month. That is good. That is good.
Which is like a little postcard with a download code where you can download brand new exclusive music from the LOS Map Collective. It often comes with bonus remixes or e-sides or live sessions. You also get, as we've just mentioned, a 15% discount on everything on our web shop and you get 10% discount on anything in our Bandcamp. I don't know if there's a Bandcamp Friday this month.
I think there might be. Should we do some quick fact checking? I'll tell some people about the other benefits. If you subscribe, you also get a membership badge.
You get a newsletter from me every month where I try and not have a nervous breakdown and describe the music that you're about to listen to. You just make the whole thing happen and we desperately need your support in order to make the thing happen. It's not expensive. It starts from just £3 a month.
It goes up to £10 a month if you want it to. There's other little benefits that come along with that. But for the most part, everyone gets the same thing. Later on today's show, we're going to have a little chat about potentially another tier opening.
We'll get to that in a wee bit. Can you verify whether there's a Bandcamp Friday this month? The adjudicated have just come back and confirmed that there will be a Bandcamp Friday on the 7th of August. I was going to be like, oh, not sure what day.
Friday the 7th of August. So there's a pause for June and July. They'll be back for August, September, October, November and importantly, December. If you're a post-map club member, then you'll get some lovely discounts.
I think Bandcamp Fridays will normally have a look around the office and put on extra bits and bobs as well. If you're not on our mailing list already, sign up. Bandcamp Friday is open to everyone, but you just get that extra discount. If you're a post-map club member.
Surely that is convinced you all to join. At the very least, keep listening and sign up for the bale and list. Both of those things are free. But for just three pounds a month, you could be a part of the club.
Did you mention the badges? I wasn't feeling paying attention when I was speaking to the adjudicators. I mentioned the sweeter badges. Why didn't mention was that the more you pay as a member of the larger your badge.
Although we have had people who pay the top tier actually request a smaller badge. That's also possible. That's also to do that. We'll do it for 10 pounds a month.
We'll do whatever you want. That is true. For 10, put a month. I'll do whatever you want.
I'll do whatever you want. Actually, no. I'll just pay that to Johnny. For 10, hold on.
Well, what I want is for you all to listen to the fantastic music that we're releasing. This month, you've already heard a brand new track from both hands. Like I was saying earlier in the show, that track Ladder, forthcoming single from the forthcoming debut album by Both Hands, is accompanied by a remix, an exclusive remix not available anywhere else. That's what exclusive means by Isogorden, a fellow Lost Map compatriot.
It's a really beautiful remix incorporating. Ices chopped up, Hayley leaves his vocal in a really interesting way and has added some very ethereal sounding guitar. It's really cool. That was the first postcard in this month's mailout.
The second postcard is here's another exclusive for you. It's first track to be taken from the forthcoming album and the return of Rick Redbeard. Oh. Rick Redbeard, Rick Antoneys, you might know him, was the lead singer of the Phantom Band.
And we released a project in his palt avi a few years ago called Afterland, a very successful and popular project that we sold out of all of our copies of when we released it back in 2024. Yeah, that's when it was two years ago. Rick Redbeard has been working on a brand new solo record in that time. I say solo record, although he has involved his fellow afterlands members on a few tracks, on their Invents and Bobs and as is Jillows Sullivan.
But this first track that you're about to hear is a track called Fine Remains and is taken from Rick's forthcoming album. I'm not going to give away the title of the album just yet. Oh, keep it correct. It's a little bit later this month.
Maybe the postcard members give you the first to know. Yes, they undoubtedly will be. Oh. And they will also be able to pre-order a copy using their 15% discount.
But enough of that, to order, let's have a listen to Rick Redbeard and Fine Remains. Take a while and take it in, then we'll go. No where else we've ever known, held us all. When the days return to love, lose our fur, something inside will change and show us all.
We once were, winter is done, the rest has been engulfed as dollars, and when the snow is falling, we'll sleep again. There's a little taster there of Fine Remains by Rick Redbeard, taken from his forthcoming solo album. And yeah, we'll be more news on that later on this month. But you can listen to that track in full if you are a member of Post Map Club.
And the one thing we've not done so far is just realized to say that you can join Post Map Club by going to the URL, www, full stop, lost map, full stop, com forward slash club. That's loss map dot com forward slash club. And yeah, you'll get all the information there on how to subscribe to the various tiers. And then I want to talk to you about the tiers, because I've been in tiers this month.
Oh, laughter. Um, sort of laughter. I was laughing at my accounts. And then I realized...
Oh, I'm so rich. And I was like, oh, I'll tell you what, I might have to add in an extra tier for Post Map Club. And we want to talk to you, dear listener, about that. We're thinking about expanding Post Map Club to incorporate another tier or another set of tiers, potentially.
And what that might look like specifically, we've got so much music coming your way over the next, over the next year, we're already planning about a year in advance. There's so much stuff coming. And it's all excellent. It's like, yeah, some of the best stuff we've ever released, really exciting.
Some of the biggest releases that we've ever released that we're planning. But it's also a little bit nerve-wracking planning that far ahead and thinking, okay, we're gonna have to sell a lot of records. And over the past year, we've done some more limited edition runs on some of our vinyl releases, such as the Salka album and the Ishak Arkestra album, which will be chime more than a wee second. And we had to do such limited runs with our good friends at Seabass Vinyl, who live in the very close to us in East Lothian, and where we press all our vinyl.
But the small runs, obviously, are more expensive to make per unit. And because of that, we have to reflect that in what we charge. We try our best to keep prices as low as possible, and things like Post Map Club and the discounts that come with Post Map Club that sort of allow us to get the music to you as cheaply as we can make it happen, as affordably as we can make it happen, I should say. Because we do need some cash to keep things running.
But I'm kind of becoming increasingly aware that it has meant that a lot of records that we've released this year have been priced at £30, which we'd like to address and try and work out a way of being able to make more copies of something, which we didn't reduce the cost per unit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so something we've sort of resisted up until now, but are now kind of wondering about is extending Post Map Club, so that includes a vinyl subscription. And that could possibly be a different vinyl release sent to your door every month.
And yeah, we're wondering what you all think of that. And to address that, we're going to set up a little survey that we're going to send out to you all this month. If you're a member of our mailing list, which is free to join, just go to lossmap.com. If you're a member of our mailing list, you'll get sent a link to a survey at some point later on this month, probably in the first week or so of August.
And yes, there'll be questions for you to answer there about your vinyl buying habits and whether or not you're a member of Post Map Club or whether a vinyl subscription is something that you would potentially be interested in and what form it might take. And also just kind of opening the floor to some ideas from you, the listener and music fan as to what you think a good vinyl subscription or a good extra tier of Post Map Club could look like. Because we've got ideas, haven't we, Laura? We've got some ideas.
We spoke about it. We had a good fortune of having an IRL dinner last week, which was lovely. It was very nice. We did chat a bit of business then.
Yeah, a lot of the few ideas will be going over some ideas of what I could look like or yeah, give us a little reminder. Well, or don't. First of all, I'll have the spring rolls. Oh, yeah, it's a Vietnamese restaurant on Duke Street in Edinburgh.
I can't remember the name of it. It was amazing. We're going to get to keep it. No, it's on Duke Street Street.
It's not a big street. You'll definitely find it. And then if you survive, go for Vietnamese food. Yeah, so just thinking about, so at the moment we've got £10 being the top tier for what people would pay every month as Post Map Club.
And I think that there may be some people who are into the idea but are more album people than single people possibly, even though there's a bit reductive to Post Map Club, but let's not get into it so much more than that. So I think that that could be a really nice thing of people like the idea of having things curated for them. So there's examples where book shops do this, so maybe £20, £25 a month. You know you're going to guarantee to get something that's been carefully selected for you.
It's not going to be individualised. Everyone will get the same thing that month unless you really opt out of it because it's like I've already got a copy of this because I'm a super fan or whatever. So I think it sounds like a really nice thing and I think that we're getting into more of a digitalised world. People do want to be able to see something tangible.
Totally. No, I completely feel that. It's something that I'm interested in. We're thinking maybe making available for CDs as well potentially and we sort of discussed ideas of maybe doing gift packages so that people could order a subscription as a gift for a loved one or one of the Lost Map haters.
This would be a great package for Lost Map Hater. Oh, a hate meal. Bit of hate meal. If you got an enemy and do they hate Lost Map, well we've got the perfect subscription for you.
Amazing. So we're thinking we could do that. Maybe there'd be a six month trial package or there could be a full year package. So yeah, we just want to get your thoughts on it as to what it could look like, what it might look like.
And how much maybe you'd be willing to pay? It could be of interest as well, you know, times are tight. Do we know? Oh boy, do we know?
It would be really, it would be like quality stuff that we're sending. Yeah, it's always. And we do have a great idea or something we won't talk about, but for some around Christmas time and in the new year that we may send out to anyone who's part of this new tier. I don't know if you want to trust limits to that, but yeah, we went on a tangent.
We went on a tangent and it is amazing. So just hold your horses. Laura came up with this amazing gift idea to go out to all subscribers if they sign up to this new tier and I think it's potentially one of the greatest ideas. We're not going to give it away yet.
We want to hear your ideas first and your thoughts first. Yeah, can your idea beat mine? Because right now, don't it. But ultimately, all of this is about bringing you the fan music at a more affordable rate and something that is something that you can have to increase your loss map collection.
Because I'm an avid record buyer and I know how expensive it can be. We no longer live in the days where you could pop into a shop like Fought or whatever and buy up in someone's entire back catalog for FiveQuid a piece on CD. It's like music buying and purchasing and collecting has become a lot more expensive, but it's become a lot more of an investment, hasn't it? Something that I think people realise that the cost of making music and the cost of even horror board marketing music and kind of allowing people to listen to the music that's been made is expensive and it isn't being covered by the cost of streams.
It's something that as cool as streaming is and it's great as it's been for accessibility and music and all that sort of stuff. I'm not an anti-streaming person. I certainly used to be, but I'm not an anti-streaming person per se, but I'm also fully aware that it's not going anywhere near covering the bills. And so it's meant that some records have to be quite expensive and I kind of, you know, just from an ethical standpoint, I kind of want to address that as much as possible because we want to make the music accessible, we want to make it something that everyone can afford.
And yeah, and this is potentially a way of doing that by asking you to pay loads of money to us, everyone. Not loads of money, it'd be considerably cheaper than it would be, but purchasing the records individually as it is a person. So yeah, something to think about. And yes, it's a little incentive.
Everyone who takes part in the survey will get a £5 discount from the loss map webshop and we'll choose a winner at random on next month's show when we discuss some of the results and the winner will receive a £50 voucher. Ooh. How's about that, then? So cool.
Yeah, our fees are fun, right? Everyone likes to just... I actually love a survey. Oh, I did one earlier.
That's great. And I had one of my favourite things. I don't know if we're going to have one in this survey, like an open text box. We can just share your thoughts.
Anything else? You know what a survey did you do? What did you rant about? Oh, I went and ran.
It was just a training weekend, another weekend about how to get more involved in organizing within unions, which was a good one. So I was just going to name someone who's a loss map fan who was there, but I realised they might not want me to say that they were there. So I just stopped myself. So someone was wearing a Pictist Trail cap when I got in.
Oh. So the Man of Solidarity Pictist Trail... Anyway, I had to do a survey about that. And it's tricky for everything and like, yeah, great.
One to five and then it's like, oh, also this could be an interesting insight into XI, but yeah. Well, we'll make sure that there's an open text box. Hey! I'm going to give you so much feedback, John.
Oh, God. OK, well, yes, there'll be more information on that coming to you in an email later on this month. We'll close today's episode with a track taken from an album that had a very limited release earlier on this year by Ishak Arkestra. The album was out of combat and we sold out of our copies within the first day of selling it.
If only we could press more. Well, actually we did press more and that was we were able to press more and yes, they're now currently available on sale on the Loss Map Web Shop. But not loads. Not loads.
Not loads. But it's a very nice label. And they're going to be kind of fast. And Post Map Club members this month will receive a postcard which will contain a download code for this remix which you're about to hear by acid techno Swedish artist Rolando Simmons who has done a proper acid workout on Ishak's track, Rice Raid.
When I first heard it, it really reminded me of the Chirangit Singh album, Ten Raggas to a disco beat. I don't know if you're familiar with that album, Laura, but it's a seminal electronic record from 1982, Indian Raggas that have all been transposed to a various assortment of Roland synthesizers. And that's a pretty key to this. It sounds incredible.
It's really great. It's such an amazing record that and this remix that Rolando Simmons has done of Ishak Arquistra is fantastic and Isaac Ishak himself sent me a message saying that actually the original track was based on one of the Raggas on Chirangit Singh's album. So, it's a very enjoyable listen. So prepare yourself for some proper acid.
It gets very squelchy this remix. Get your wellied on. It's going to get squelchy. Oh, God.
Oh, it doesn't get squelchy at this month's Green Man Festival. Hopefully see some of you there. Come over and say hello, tell me what you really think about the podcast. Only if you're well.
Only if you're well. And hopefully see some of you at Howlin French. Please come along. It's going to be a really nice set of summer parties this month on the 12th, the 19th and the 26th of August.
Okay. That's all from me, Pictish Trail. Thank you, Laura. Oh, thanks, Johnny.
Being here and sorry. Your emotional support person. Yeah. I'm sorry I could make it over to your host today.
That's fine. I'm fine. Fulkirk will always be here for you, Johnny, and for everyone listening. Fulkirk is here for you.
Open invitation, folks. We'll leave Laura's address in the show. Lost map haters should not read it. It's the beer that they leave a dog shit in a cardboard box.
In a shoe box. Big love to Joe Cormac who had to edit out a few choice words earlier on. All right. Love you guys.
Catch you soon. Here's Ishak Arquistra with a remix by Rolando Simmons of Rice Raid. Bye.