The Countess of Fife, the solo project from the iconic Fay Fife have recently launched a Kickstarter campaign for their second album, the follow up to their well-received and critically acclaimed debut the Star of the Sea. The current campaign, for the album A Woman of Certain Wisdom ends on November 22nd, with plenty of tempting packages to attract the discerning music fan.
HELP FAY FIFE MAKE A NEW ALBUM : A WOMAN OF CERTAIN WISDOM by Fay Fife — Kickstarter
I met up with Fay recently in Coffee Saints in Edinburgh to catch up with her (and Harris – her beautiful Golden Retriever, who enjoyed his pup cup) on all things Countess of Fife and navigating the music industry in the 21st Century.
The Origins
GQ: Let’s go back to the beginning of the Countess of Fife, obviously The Rezillos are still a thing, with live dates already scheduled for 2025, so how did the idea of the Countess first come about?
Fay Fife: I really wanted to do my own thing, I was already doing things in other ways doing the Shamanic thing with Martin (Metcalfe of Goodbye Mr MacKenzie/The Filthy Tongues) and Kid Congo (Powers of The Pink Monkey Birds and Cramps fame) but I had some other songs that I’d written, and I wanted to do something that was a bit different anyway. I got a new keyboard and the minute I started playing it, I started getting ideas for other songs, I thought I’d like to an alternative country thing. I was writing songs mostly on my own, sometimes with Allan McDowall, once with Martin. The early band was very small scale. It was just a songwriting thing, but then we started doing free shows for refugee benefits, something I wanted to do anyway, and it and it helped with developing the songs and the music. I definitely didn’t feel like getting into the organising gigs or doing anything like that at the time.
Then when I was doing a music workshop for young women to do with the exhibition Rip it Up, one of the young lassies didn’t turn up for the recording so I had to get a drummer in, she brought her partner, a bass player, and I already had a guitarist Allan, then we started playing wee places in Leith Walk and playing support for Martin (Goodbye Mr MacKenzie’s return to Glasgow at The Garage in 2019.)
We’d written so many songs we had enough to make an album and it just took off in a different direction, it became more of a professional project, before that I was writing songs without having any idea of where this could go or what would be viable for us.
When we did the album the line up of the band changed, it just evolved, we got Willy Mollison in, and he’s been my drummer ever since. Chris Agnew played on the album, but he was too busy, and gradually we got Al Gare involved, he’s a fantastic player.
Allan McDowall faded out for lots of reasons, and it was really difficult to find the right person to fit, but now we’ve got Brian (McFie) who I think is great and Kirsten (Adamson) sang on the album as well.
Since then those musicians have become a regular fixture of the live line up now. When it comes to the bit, even if I had no musicians, I’d still have done it myself anyway.
GQ: The first time I saw you live was as support at that Goodbye Mr Mackenzie you mentioned, their comeback show in Glasgow that was an amazing night. And as you said yourself, it was a different style of music for you. I thought immediately from that show, the Countess songs allowed your voice to soar to different places, to hear the light and shade.
Making Star of the Sea
GQ: We’ll talk about the Kickstarter for your new album shortly, but how did it go for the first album?
FF: The first one was different because we got a Creative Scotland grant as well so that that really helped. I think also because it was the first album, people were more interested in supporting it.
But really, I think the second album is harder because people probably think, wrongly, that there is loads of money kicking around, and think why aren’t you just recording that from gig money? But that’s not possible because the the live gig money just pays for the people who play, pays for rehearsals and things like that. It just pays for the basic running of the band.
I am using some money from records, for example there’s something going on up on Bandcamp and all the money from that is going to to is going into the Kickstarter as well.
With the Kickstarter thing, of course, it means a lot of people are buying in advance, so when it comes out, there’s less people to buy, so it’s all about getting the balance right.
GQ: What you have been saying has made me reflect on the music industry of the past, obviously you’ve been around with The Rezillos, so you’ve seen the times when music industry scouts and execs were coming out and throwing money at bands and giving them advances. But now it’s almost like the complete opposite end of the scale where it’s like you’ve got to put all your own effort and hard work into getting the money together.
And the flipside of it doesn’t help that either, the actual consuming of music these days with streaming which might be great for the music fan to access, but it’s not necessarily as good monetarily for the bands, so you’ve got sell merchandise to to make a difference. But then I suppose there isn’t the paying back of huge advances coming off initial profits form record sales.
Then there’s the gig side of things, unless you’re a massive band like, let’s say Oasis because they were in the news recently and using dynamic pricing to sell ridiculously priced tickets, while smaller bands and smaller venues are struggling, and as you said, a lot of bands that lose money on their gigs because they’re paying to play a lot of the time so Unless you are selling loads of merchandise it’s not really commercially viable to be in a band.
A long question I know, what is your take on it?
FF: Have you come across the Post Punk Monk, he does a blog in America, he wrote a bit about the Countess, he’s a fan and he was saying he was talking about the Kickstarter where I’m trying raise just over £10,000, he mentioned how amazing that was as £10,000 would have been the budget just for the coffee and the teas back in the 80s, it would have been the basic entertainment budget.
But I don’t want to moan about it, I’m doing music, I love doing it and I will make this thing work somehow. I’m hoping somebody will decide to cover one of my songs (laughs) and I’ll be able to live off that, that would be the dream.
In terms of gigs, you have to get the right balance, The Countess do stripped down shows sometimes. In fact, we’re doing a stripped-down show on the 14th of December in The Aurrie (Lower Largo). that’s like a small place and you can only play in a semi acoustic way anyway. It’s just me Brian, and Kirsten on that one. But then we also did Rebellion festival, we did two shows there, one was just the three of us and the other one at night in the bigger venue with the whole band, so we’re flexible and that’s a great strength because that helps us survive and play all sorts of venues and events.
Rebellion was an interesting thing, when it was mooted, I thought it would be really nice thing to do, but I didn’t know if they’d like us it. But actually, they took us to their hearts, and that was very encouraging. I think when people hear the Countess of Fife, most of them get it. They realise it is really different from the other stuff I do, but they pick up on the on the songs, and they pick up on the musicianship and they love the harmonies. So, people “get it” in a different way. And The Countess music does have an edge, it’s not just nice melodies, it’s got a sort of edgy feel.
GQ: I’ve heard you compared to everyone from a Celtic Ronnie Sector to The Cramps
FF: Yeah, The Cramps have been an influence on me, garage music, and trashy music in general. I love trashy music, so it is probably an influence that’s gone on unconsciously.
GQ: I came through to Edinburgh a few years ago to see Fur Dixon and you appeared on stage with her as well.
FF: Yeah, there’s a connection there and I’m good pals with Kid too, in fact, I’m supposed to be writing a song with him. We have done things before, so there is definitely a connection there.
GQ: Star of the Sea has been around for a while now, and it’s been repressed as it sold out, that must be a nice feeling, what are your reflections on that album now?
FF: I do think it’s really good album and I’m very proud of it. I was glad that on the repress I managed to put the last song Angel in my Pocket on the record. It didn’t make it onto the first pressing, so the album feels complete to me now.
GQ: That’s a huge positive for me too, I love that song, why was it let off the first pressing of the album?
FF: The making of the album was not without its traumas and then the pandemic got in the way as well. Its amazing the whole thing survived actually, we had a few problems, and a lot of the original musicians just fell away over time under the spotlight of recording. So, there were difficulties, but aside from that I think it had a really coherent sound, even when we did Angel in my Pocket a lot later, its sound is dead on. I think it’s got a really good production and a sophistication to it, an edginess and that’s what I’m going for and also the songs are very important to me. I still really like it.
There are some songs that are my favourites. Wandering Star is my favourite song from what I’ve done so far, although there are one’s coming up now that that I think are definitely as good as that. That and I think Trapped are my two favourite ones on the album. Live, from that time, Let This Night be Over, has really developed, we changed the key which did something different to it then Brian McFie came in too and developed the guitar part. So now that’s one of my faves but it’s not so fully developed on the album.
I had to really push things production wise, I could write a book about this – maybe I will! After the whole thing finished, I wasn’t finished. I had to keep going to redo things or change things. I didn’t redo Angel in My Pocket because that just seemed a step too far. I was worried at the time that I wouldn’t get a cohesive sound, now I think that I wasn’t right, but anyway. There was quite a bit of money involved, still very limited compared the past, but I knew I wanted strings on Wandering Star and really pushed for that, I worked hard with Chris on that and was really pleased that I pushed it to the end because I think that I think the album sounds great.
Actually. another one that was problematic was Trapped. There was a problem with the way it sounded when we got to the studio and we had to persevere until I was happy it sounded right You’ve got to stay with it, I could have said, we’ll just go with what was there but I’m glad I didn’t. I knew how I wanted it to sound.
Half of it was mixed at Castle Sounds, the other half of it, I worked on post-production and mixing at Sunnyside near Jedburgh with my friend Dave Coyle. He tours a lot with the Wedding Present, he’s a great sound engineer, doing live and studio work. We started collaborating a long time ago, we did the first Countess live EP. To cut a long story short we did a lot of work on that track post-production, some very delicate and in-depth things, really subtle tiny things but they made a huge difference.
The Wrecking Crew are a big influence on me, amazing production, and the delicate stuff that goes on with the amazing harmonies and things like that. The Beach Boys especially, down to the small details, but you’ve got to know when to stop. Part of the wisdom of it all is trying to know when to stop when it’s the right thing to do.
There are always things that could be better. For the first album now, yes, I would have included Angel in My Pocket, but hindsight is great. I’m learning that you need to know when to stop as I get more and more into production.
Kickstarter… surviving the music industry in 2024
GQ: So obviously that album, so it’s been it’s been really successful, it’s been enjoyed by many and critically acclaimed as well. So with the new album Kickstarter started now, how much work does it take to get something like that done?
FF: The Kickstarter? It’s horrendous. I mean, honestly, if there was any other way, I would have done it. I think this is the last one I’ll ever do. Looking forward, I’ve got to try and get more coming in from an online merchandise shop and things that I don’t have at the moment, but I need to have the infrastructure to support that. Lorna is fantastic, she does the merch for me, it’s very small scale though, it’s not big enough to support trying to get the money for the album.
Kickstarter was difficult the first time around, but it’s more difficult this time, I think. possibly people have the perception that there’s more money going around my side from the first album than there is, but also, it’s just really difficult financially for people at the moment.
GQ: It’s also something you’ve got to continually push, you can’t just put it out there and leave it, you’ve got to be continually reminding people that it’s there. I find that social media is really difficult now because most of the platforms, unless you pay money, posts disappear down the feeds. If you’re trying to promote something, and Facebook, for example, isn’t making money out of it, they’re not going to bother pushing your posts up the feeds and just fill your feed with revenue building crappy ads.
FF: I know from artist and musician friends, serious artists, that they are really struggling. There is just not enough money going around and as a result artists aren’t being supported.
GQ: I’ve seen bands that have advertised live dates and, as you said it’s difficult just now for people, so maybe they don’t buy tickets in advance, they’ll decide on the night if they’re gonna go or not. I’ve seen bands have to cancel dates because they’ve not got enough ticket presales. It’s difficult across the board for venues & artists. Maybe it’s OK for the bands that can fill the Hydro but there’s not enough support for grassroots. What would you do if you could pull the strings?
FF: I would do something actually. In France and some other European countries, as a musician you can get, a stipend, like a monthly bursary that you get based on what might be, for example, your highest paying gig in a year, that would be a living wage. I think you need that to support musicians otherwise people are just going to have to give up because they can’t survive. I mean, I haven’t always done music, when I had my wee boy, I didn’t do music for some of that time, not completely, but it’s just it’s just very difficult for people these days.
GQ: I think there’s probably very few bands that can do music as a living now. It’s like a side hobby, you’ve got to have a job to survive. I know that’s probably always been the case.
FF: No, I don’t think it’s always been the case I think it’s worse for musicians now.
I mean I made a choice when my son was born to do something different, also, for my personal development. I do think there should be a system like in France, which would be good here. I think there’s this sense now that you need to scramble around and ask people for money, but as well as that I know from the live shows that people really like our music. It’s a difficult balance.
GQ: I have talked about my mental health before, and I sometimes think if it wasn’t for the feeling I get when I’m watching live music, I’d probably have gone completely off the rails years ago. I don’t think governments put enough emphasis on the arts and the positive impact it has on people. It makes a massive difference to people.
FF: And I wonder if there’s still a snobbery, like this type of music is seen as low culture and unimportant compared to high culture, opera, classical and such. But you’re right, and believe me, Neil, it’s also important for the artists, I mean, it keeps me sane. It’s natural for all of us to create and experience music in a communal way, it’s got to be the nearest thing to some sort of a tribal experience. Listening to music together and feeling that commonality and the connection you get with an audience. Sometimes it’s amazing.
The connection I get with the Countess is very different from other experiences I have it can be quite an intense feeling.
A Woman of Certain Wisdom
GQ: What stage are you at with the songs for the new record?
FF: We’ve got about three quarters of them written, maybe 80% and the other ones are in my mind. They’re not quite there yet as “a thing.” I’m really pushing myself to get it completed now. In December we’re going to be recording maybe the first 6 songs on the album and then later maybe do four or five more songs and choose the best 10 from them. Some songs have been around for a bit more time and some are newer, but there’s some that just up here (points to head.) There are enough songs either out there or up here to finish it, but there’s a lot of work to do, and the ones that are just up here and even even the ones that are done, there’s there’s still some of them need to be rehearsed and arranged fully. That’s going to be the ones that we’re recording in December, we’ll do the rehearsals in November. I’m quite excited.
GQ: What is your songwriting process?
FF: It can vary, I quite often wake up in the middle of the night and have lyrics coming to me, they’re just there. They just come to me, I’ve usually got my phone there, so I’ll note them all down, I have sometimes got reams of unconscious ramblings, all lyric ideas. If I was going to write the whole song myself, I would use the lyrics and play around and get something going, but I like working with guitarists, they bring something to it that I wouldn’t bring because I’m not a guitarist, although I can “think” guitar parts they bring something to it that I wouldn’t. Here’s an example. this is one that’s come up recently. It’s called Worn Out and Unloved I had the lyrics, and they were so over the top and dark but kind of like they’re so dark that there’s almost a dark humour to them. Martin Metcalfe and I work a lot together, so I said, I’ve got these new lyrics, what do you think? So, I read them out and he loved them. Before that, I had shared them with Brian McFie, and we wrote the song in about 10 minutes. The lyrics are really over the top, it just came very naturally. I just sang it, and he played. It was very spontaneous.
GQ: You said that there was quite a dark feeling in the lyrics, does that impact the way that the song sounds? The melody you come up with and that Brian played?
FF: Not always, that one doesn’t actually sound that dark, it draws on very old country, Hank Williams, and the like. And it’s really raw, I’m going do it in a real stripped-down way. It’s only going to be guitar, singing and maybe a tiny bit of keyboards. It doesn’t sound that dark, but it’s got a different edge to it.
That one is done, that was a joy, and it came together so quickly, actually I might try to record that with Brian before the recording sessions in Fife.
Then there’s one that’s probably one of my favourites now in the new set of songs. One that I wrote with Martin, and I think it’s called How Long Will You Stick Around? but I’m not sure. It came from a concept Martin had based on a personal experience, he just came out with “I was just thinking…” out came one sentence and that was it, one sentence and we were there. I write fast with Martin, we get things going very quickly, we started riffing on a verse, then the bridge came up instantly, and then the chorus came, it was done in about two hours, although after that it’s all about refining.
GQ: Do you ever get to the studio to record what you’ve rehearsed and then change things?
FF: Yes, definitely. I think you’ve got to have this thing of keeping things fluid but at same time, holding on to a structure. There’s always changes you can make. And over the years I’ve come to the realise, there’s always a different version of songs, they can change live.
I did a song Taste the Rain, originally it was called Live Again. Willie said, I think you should call it Taste the Rain, I was resisting that, but I thought I’d do it to please Willie. I like to get right down to the nitty gritty with emotional things, so I thought Live Again was a good title because It’s about renewal. Then I did the vocals and then I decided to slightly change them after hearing them back. There are always things to change, but you must come to a final version at some point.
GQ: You briefly mentioned the EP earlier, one that has different versions of some of the new songs on it. What’s the idea behind the EP?
FF: The Countess of Fife is on Last Night From Glasgow and they very kindly give us some studio time in a studio in Airdrie, it wasn’t enough time to do an album, and we hadn’t fully settled with Brian at that time, so we weren’t ready to do the album anyway, but there were some songs that were new, we wanted to do them, and I thought, if they’re good enough, they’ll go on the album.
We couldn’t really complete them with complete certainty, the way that I wanted to do them and as I say, I will fight to finish things the way I think they should be. You can do things in a very simple way and if that’s the right for the song, you do it. But if it’s not quite there and you need other things like fiddle and strings and all the rest of it, I’ll fight tooth and nail to get it, even if I’m fighting with myself. Some things that were really good came out of that recording, like that song Live Again, which has now changed names. That was a brand new song and what happened was, Brian had just really come into the fold, I played the song to him and he’s such a great guitarist, very atmospheric, he picked up on in straight away, so we just went into the studio in Airdrie, I just played piano and he played his guitar, it was a very simple thing and then I did the vocals in one take, that was definitely a good thing that came out of that session.
And then the other thing is we recorded the backing tracks to Hard Woman to Love, but then I’ve added loads of things on it later, so the mix that’s on the EP is completely different. I’ve added very subtle things to make it sound better, but at that time it was still too new, and Brian wasn’t really ensconced in the band to get it as fully in the pocket as it might be.
Also. Kiss the Rain. I want to do that with the whole band so that’s not completely arranged yet, it’s still got some work to be done with the whole band, we’ve only done that two or three times. Brian and I have done it a lot more together.
Dark Side of the Night was recorded in a very simple way, and it just works. I wasn’t sure I liked it or not, but now I like it. And Call Me the Witch everybody loves that song live, I know it’s connecting with people, strangely it’s not my favourite song, I do like it but it’s not my favourite. I said on Bandcamp, something like it’s a sentimental journey around the dark side of the County of Fife.
So, for the EP, when I say early versions, it’s not demos, it’s early versions of the songs because they’ve all developed since then. In a sense, the EP is a bit like the live EP we did, it’s putting the songs out there, to see what people think.
I think it’s going come out in January.
Look out for a review of the EP coming soon on the Ginger Quiff…
GQ: Does it ever surprise you how people take to songs, you mentioned Call Me the Witch, not necessarily being your favourite but going down so well with audiences.
FF: Yes, sometimes. Call Me the Witch came together in a very unusual way, you know.
Ages ago, The Countess of Fife used to do one cover which was Barton Hollow, a very gritty, earthy thing and the audience loved it, but I didn’t want to do it because I don’t think we’re about doing covers, maybe doing one or two that may occur to me, but we’re not really about that.
But the audience wanted it, so I had an idea and I talked to Al Gare about it, Al knows a lot of things, he’s a songwriter himself so, we had a wee bit of a jam, I think Willie was there too, to try and get something really earthy just to get a feeling going, we improvised, there was a great vibe and just like that, most of the lyrics and the melody started to form. Then Kirsten started providing some backing vocals, which became part of the core thing, the music came from an improvisation, so it’s the one song on the album that, the lyrics are written by me, but the music is written by several people because we all put our ideas in it. We’ll do that again. It was a nice thing to do. An interesting thing to do, I think on the EP the guitar at the start of it is slightly noisier than I wanted it to be, these are the pernickety things that I’ll sort out later.
I still think whatever way the music is, if it’s coming from an inner place. It connects with people. I’ve walked many times in the weirdest, strangest places in Fife. I know where all the persecuted witches were, and I’ve walked there many times. There is still a lot of leftover Pagan things like Wishing Trees and beliefs and the like, and that’s all fed into it. It’s coming from my gut, and as a person who’s always been a bit of an outsider, I know if I was around then I’d have been one of them, I’d have been burning up a storm.
GQ: A bit of a tenuous link, but where do you think the music industry is now in terms of women in music?
FF: Although there may be some very noticeable people at the top of the tree like Beyoncé and Taylor Swift if you look at it closely, women are still in the vast minority, It’s still largely a boys game and it’s still largely misogynistic.
I would say it I won’t take It, but sometimes I have no choice because it’s just so enveloping, and it’s so part of the culture. But I will stop and tell people. I will say no way.
Like the assumptions that are often made, I was talking about a recording I was working on and producing, and I was questioned… are you? The automatic assumption was that a man was doing it.
GQ: Do you think things are getting better?
FF: I wonder. I’m not young now, so I can’t tell what it’s like to be in the whole scene and culture so much now from the inside. I think the ideas about gender have progressed, so maybe maybe it is better, but there’s still a big macho thing to do with music. Boys and bands.
GQ: You mentioned the EP potentially released in January, what’s the aim for the release of the album?
FF: It’s got to be artistically to a very high standard. That’s my main aim.
That’s got to come from the songs, I know that some of them are really good and catchy songs, but deep too. There’s another one Big Sister, Little Sister, it’s a real dancey one that’s really good. I know that the material is good. I need to make sure that the last few that need to get completed or the one or two that are just ideas get finished.
There’s a song idea I’ve got called New Phone. New Car, New Man. I’ve had this Idea bubbling around in my head ever since I went to a Highland Games in Dunkeld with a friend. It’s just an idea but I know it’s going to be good.
I hope it will be well received because the quality will be good. I would like it to at least replicate the success of the first one, i.e. get into the chart, it’s a big thing for me, a big thing for anybody.
One of the reasons I chose to do a Kickstarter is because it helps with the sales of the record. You know it helps with the chart position as well because if you have say 75 people, or 60 people or even 50 people that buy an album in advance that goes into first week sales and counts for the chart.
I’m sure it was the Kickstarter the first time that actually helped that happen. It encourages people to buy it and those who have pledged are rooting for it, so it does a really fundamental thing in that way, so for that I’m pleased that I’ve it.
The schedule is to do the first recording in December. I hope it will be mixed by me and Dave December/January, then we’re going to be recording the next lot of them just after in February. Hopefully, we’ll have had a chance to to play a few more of the newer songs by then.
Anyway, so recording the second half of the album hopefully by the end of February, maybe into March then all going to production. I hope that it’s going to be out by the end of next year, it’s also dependent on Last Night From Glasgow’s schedule too.
Gigs…
GQ: You’ve talked about live gigs, have you any favourite venues to play?
FF: I love playing in the Voodoo Rooms, and I’ve only played it once with the Countess, but I love Oran Mor, both of these are great for the Countess of Fife for the size of venue that you need as a sit-down venue, they’re really good.
Both of those venues had really good sound and comfortable for the audience. As an audience member myself, I go to a lot of gigs, I don’t like to be uncomfortable. I like it to be an experience where I can sit down and have a drink and watch the band and relax, those two are like that. I think as well that reflects the audience in general for The Countess that is a bit older, and there’s nothing wrong with that all power to them, we all like music and and it’s no longer a young man’s game either, neither young nor a man’s game.
GQ: You said you like to go to a lot of gigs yourself, are there any newer bands you’re particularly enjoying at the moment?
FF: I like Scorpio Leisure.
GQ: Also one of my favourite new bands, and when you mentioned Malcolm Ross earlier on, it triggered that thought, because he’s now been playing live with them as well as recording on their songs. He’s now played a few live dates with them.
FF: It’s so funny. I think they’re a band that are a bit divisive, they split people down the middle. They are doing something that is strong and unique, a bit different. They’re the band I like seeing that are new. I don’t have any favourites as such, I just like to see a lot of different music. The only thing I don’t like is heavy metal. Kirsten’s own band is very good too obviously.
And with that, we started talking about gigs we were going to and playing that night, Fay playing in Edinburgh and I in Glasgow, and I switched off the recording.
Before we parted ways though Fay floated the idea of having a celebration gig somewhere in Leith to celebrate the Kickstarter after it reaches target for all the supporters and pledgers… if you needed any more incentive to support.
The link to the Kickstarter is here, get on it, you’re running out of time…
The Countess of Fife (Facebook)
Music | The Countess of Fife bandcamp