Squiggles - News

SQUIGGLES / DEBUT EP / LOOK WHAT WE HAVE DONE

Edinburgh-based indie punks Squiggles are delighted to announce that their debut EP, Look What We Have Done, will be released on 22nd April 2022 via Alcopop! Records. To celebrate the news, the band have revealed a charmingly lo-fi video for lead single ‘This Is A Wake Up Call’ which is released 8th February 2022 on all good digital service providers. The new project from Niall McCamley, drummer of cult Scottish punks The Spook School—who lovingly pioneered and championed concepts of trans rights and self care in the indie punk scene through their melody-rich, joyously inclusive brand of bedroom punk—Squiggles is less a band and more of a community, dedicated to the empowering togetherness of music, and its ability to connect us to others.

Over the past two years, a harsh combination of lockdown and the disbandment of The Spook School in 2019 forced McCamley to exist on his own, and in his own skin, for the first time in a long time. Who was he and what was he doing with his life? The band had been a huge part of his adult experience and formed a large part of his identity, so who was Niall McCamley without The Spook School? “It was about trying to feel less alone,” explains McCamley of the new project. “This is meant to be fun, it’s meant to be silly, and yes it’s meant to be sad too. I guess the past 2 years have made me realise how much I value community, belonging, and the friends I’ve made so far on this journey, as well as being excited about the new friends I’ll meet on another adventure.” Having the community focus of Squiggles was important—a nod to the idea of the cult, but trying to return to the root reasons that McCamley fell in love with music to begin with. “It brought me together with so many people, it gave me community and belonging,” he enthuses. “This project wants to give that feeling to others. The most un-secretive secret society in existence! Membership cards, whispered passwords, the feeling of being part of something…” 

 Forthcoming debut EP Look What We Have Done is a collection of songs that play with countering the screaming regret of the past with the shouted celebration of discovery and completing something in the present. “One Squiggle is a lone, random line. But a collection of Squiggles can be anything—a painting, a poem, a blueprint,” says McCamley. “In making these songs I’ve got to live that,” he explains of the collaborative process behind the record. “Working with Adam from Randolph’s Leap, Chris, Sophie and Cam from Life Model, AC from The Spook School, and Grant from our riotous amateur football team, made these songs go from two dimensional ideas stuck in my brain to something altogether more real.” Following their debut live show opening the main stage at the beloved and dearly missed Indietracks Festival, Squiggles received early press support from Bandcamp editorial, The Skinny, Austin Town Hall, and spins from Nicola Meighan and Vic Galloway at BBC Scotland, and Jim Gellatly and Jake Crossland at Amazing Radio.