It’s amazing the stuff you see when you get out of the city for a day. Open spaces, for example; birds of prey, epic views, rolling hills and clearer skies; and Malcolm Middleton in the loft of the Fisheries Museum in Anstruther.

It was Matthew from Song, by Toad who asked us to pitch up with him to Homegame and record a couple of sessions. And why not? The annual festival run by Fence Records takes place in picturesque Anstruther, in Fife over 3 days, and features most of the artists involved with Fence, as well as other pals and guests.

We met up with Malcolm on the Saturday afternoon, and took him down to the uber-quaint Scottish Fisheries Museum. In the dark loft amongst old fishing baskets, stuffed bunnies and a frankly disconcerting model of a man in a hat, Mr. Middleton was nice enough to do two tracks for us – both of which have still to be released.

For the first track, we got a version of “Made Up Your Mind”, the last track on his new album Waxing Gibbous, which is due for a June 1st release. It’s (relatively for Malcolm, anyway) musically chirpy and sweet, with trademark Middleton lyrics full of lost love and depression. It’s great. The loft was pretty dark, and the somber mood suits the subject matter as you would expect.

You can see an interview from the same session and some live footage at songbytoad.com/2009/05/malcolm-middleton-interview-from-homegame-2009/

See more at offthebeatentracks.tv

More about Malcolm Middleton at malcolmmiddleton.co.uk