Doug has been the songwriter, singer and multi-instrumentalist with Scottish lo-fi shamblers and part-time Fence Collective associates Northern Alliance for nine years, in that time releasing four critically acclaimed albums as well as a mini-album by the fictional band The Ossians.

As is their habit, Northern Alliance recently entered an extended period of hibernation and Doug decided to bash on alone for now, this debut EP being the result. The tunes were written on acoustic guitar but fleshed out to a full-band sound, Doug playing all the instruments, as well as engineering and producing the EP himself.

The songs are about parenthood, homesickness, the creative process and having a car crash with Bjork. Compared to Northern Alliance, the music is a smidgen more melodic and a tad less sleepy. There are smatterings of indie, rock, lo-fi, folk and country, but essentially this is what pop music sounds like in Doug’s head, for better or worse.

Doug is also an acclaimed writer with three novels – Smokeheads, The Ossians and Tombstoning – published, as well as being a successful arts journalist for the last decade. He is writer in residence at Strathclyde University and has a PhD in nuclear physics for his sins.

Praise for Northern Alliance:

‘a mesmerising sonic masterpiece’ The Daily Record

‘a near perfect dreamlike album. Blissful listening’ The Skinny

‘Northern Alliance merge the dissolute melancholy of Arab Strap with the smudged alt folk of Sparklehorse… superb’ Scotland on Sunday

‘Gloriously ramshackle, heartbroken and drunkenly swaying, but that’s exactly where their charm lies’ Kerrang

‘This trio are a thing of real texture and beauty’ The List

‘Genuinely affecting with a heart as heavy as the sun’ Metro