An artist capable of seamlessly harnessing jovial and moody overtones with unbridled relatability, Quinny’s fusion of innovation and fresh sentimentality is on full display throughout his forthcoming debut album; the aptly titled Outer Monologue. Opening with the airy melancholic beauty of Raining Monarchs, Outer Monologue traverses pulsating calls to action (Up the Dollar), wistful indie folk (Settlers), raw and plaintive rumination (An Act of Contrition and Astral Plane), Beatles-esque lush melodics (Darkness at the Door), crisp nostalgic odes (Friends and No Place to Die), as well as jukebox-ready swoon (Found & Lost), all helmed by Quinny’s captivating Scottish lilt lining his vocals while the additional acoustic version of Settlers brings in Marie Collins, Hannah Daman and Graham McCusker performing alongside Quinny. And while the overall album has been many years in the making for Quinny, nodding to his core influences of The Beatles, Biffy Clyro, Blink-182 and The Flaming Lips, as well as more recent nods to the likes of The Killers, Rufus Wainwright and Pixies, the end result of Outer Monologue is something that has been entirely worth the wait – and it’s one ready to resonate with new and old fans alike. “It’s been a long time coming,” says Quinny of his upcoming debut album release. “It’s sort of unbelievable that I managed to commit the time and money to it. I remember a lecturer of mine when I was 20 telling me it was time I wrote an album… so it’s overdue! I often can’t spot the themes of my songs until after the fact. Now that all of the creative part of the work is done, I can realise that the whole thing is me trying to look at things from other people’s perspectives, but I always end up just writing from my own. I can’t escape my own take!”.
A talented singer and songwriter hailing from Scotland, renowned for his tongue-in-cheek Christmas sonic creations, as well as frequently having strangers mistaking him for Ed Sheeran in public, Quinny’s musical endeavours has seen him fuse his burgeoning musical flair over the years with his four influential B’s, namely Biffy Clyro, Blink-182, The Beatles and Bombay Bicycle Club. With tours in the UK and North America under his belt, the multifaceted creative relocated to Melbourne in early 2020, with his newfound hometown sparking creative excitement that is now set to culminate in 2024 with the release of his debut album – and Quinny is certainly not bidding farewell to Australia any time soon. “I’m here for a while!” says Quinny. “I’m currently starting the hunt for somewhere to buy with my girlfriend. We met in London, did long distance once her visa ran out. I then moved here in 2020, got stuck… and never left.”
Alongside headlining shows at The Gaso, Last Chance, Retreat and Fitzroy Pinnacle since moving to Melbourne, Quinny also previously won the 2020 Darebin Songwriters’ People’s Choice Award shortly after moving down under, scoring the nod for his single Found & Lost that will also feature on the upcoming album Outer Monologue. Described by Tenement TV as “an enthralling mix of the raucous and sentimental with witty lyricism and poppy charm”, Quinny had also spent the past few years releasing older material and flippant Christmas songs, with One Foot In The Grave’s Richard Wilson making an appearance in one of Quinny’s infamous Christmas videos.
To celebrate the release of Outer Monologue, Quinny will host a special album listening party on Saturday October 19, with the free event set to take place at The Gem in Collingwood, before christening the album live in action this December. “I’ll play the album in full for the first time in December, followed by a set of my wonky Christmas tunes,” Quinny shares. “It’ll be high energy, and I’ll try not to derail the sombre mood of the songs by talking too much – though that seems to be half of what people come for now!”
HERE’S QUINNY’S TRACK X TRACK ON ’OUTER MONOLOGUE’ THE NEW ALBUM OUT TODAY
1. Raining Monarchs
I owe a lot of credit to this song to my friend Estelle Conley – both consciously and subconsciously ripped off one of her tunes when coming up with it. I knew I had been inspired but I was pretty shocked when I realised both songs were about the world’s obsession with content creation and fame. My brother Martin Quinn (Star Trek, Derry Girls) stars in a great music video for this, wandering through the Scottish Highlands. The guitar I used for the rhythm on this track was this lovely hollow body that was about 70 years old. It belonged to a musician Cammy Gilles, who had died exactly a year to the day before we recorded the song. Robin Evans (producer at Tpot Studios) is friends with his daughter Siobhan who kindly lent us it.
2. Everything You Want
I went into the studio with a song that sounded like Tom Petty and came out with one that sounded like the 1975. It was a journey but so much fun to put together with my friends Kieran Logan (Kassidy) and Graham McCusker (Marouli). We did lead vocals, bass, keys and drums live initially, though I redid the vocal later. Dan Drennan (Noise Club) added the excellent guitar parts and then Nathan Cable through in some additional acoustic guitar and sounds while doing the mixing. There’s a fun ensemble video directed by Eilidh Loan for this one which you should check out! I’ve managed to get some airplay on BBC with this tune, which has been nice.
3. Up the Dollar
I thought/hoped the message of ‘Up the Dollar’ would go out of fashion, but it’s as relevant now as when I wrote it in 2020. It was my attempt at writing a song that would appeal to the alt-right demographic, just as an experiment since so much art is left leaning. It came out more or less like a joke, but it still needs a bit of context before I perform it – some of the lyrics could go down the wrong way without any explanation. There’s a cool stock footage video of this tune created by The Quilter which will be out at some point this year.
4. Settlers
This was originally the lead single of an EP which became this album – it was written predominantly in Buxton, Maine (USA) with my friends Hannah Daman and Marie Collins (The Vegan Leather) before I took it into the studio. It’s a song broadly about being let down – be it family, friends, society, whatever. We have a video for this one too which again stars Martin Quinn plus his mate Stephen Buchanan (Some Laugh & What’s the Script podcasts), which also features some nice, Scottish mountain ranges. This was my first song to be played on BBC Radio – took me a while, but I was played twice on the same night. They say radio play is like buses…
5. An Act of Contrition
For this song, I was really thinking about loss and being away from home. I wanted it to sound a bit like ‘Diary of Always’ from Biffy Clyro’s second album and I think we achieved the mood and feel of it quite well – though it was a long day recording it. I think we spent about 5 or 6 hours getting the feel just right. Robin Evans (producer – Dodgy & The View) was very patient with us though! We did guitar, keys and drums live then Robin reached out to a friend Theo Barnard who came by the studio to lay down some double bass. He and his partner Pep Emmerichs spend half the year in Glasgow and half in Melbourne, so we’ve become quite good friends! They play in a few Americana bands (‘Stereo Naked’, Rain of Animals’ and ‘Good Guy Hank’) all of which are very worth checking out.
6. Darkness at the Door
This was the last song I wrote for the album, composed once I’d returned home from recording in Scotland. I decided it would be a great opportunity to get some of my Aussie collaborators on the album and enlisted Rowena Wise to help me produce it. It’s a song about how inevitably you’re going to have to confront your problems, no matter how hard you ignore them. I love the backing vocals on this one, featuring my pals Anna O’Connor, Estelle Conley and Zoe Rinkel, plus my girlfriend (and arguably best pal) Maddy Fitzgerald. The chord at the end was an afterthought, but it’s pretty stupid. It’s a key change for one chord.
7. Friends
The intro to this song is one of my favourite things we recorded. On one of the last days of recording, my old mate Martin Tormey jumped into the live room with a bunch of toys and an idea, which became the bossa nova percussion symphony the song starts with. The music for this one was written in collaboration with a producer, musician and friend of mine Bovine which contributed to the genre-traveling nature of the track. This song featured in a BBC Comedy short called ‘Cable Tied’, which is worth checking out if you have access to BBC iPlayer.
8. No Place to Die
I’m never too sure what this song is about, but there’s definitely something in there about being away from home. I even name drop the River Clyde in Glasgow. Graham really contributed to the sound of this through an early demo we did (in a different key) and Nathan was incredible at filling out the sound as for a while there was just something missing in between the guitars and the bass.
9. Found & Lost
Recorded in 2019 at Hermitage Works in London by Nathan Ridley, this is the oldest recording on the album, and 1 of 2 tracks not recorded at Tpot Studios in Scotland. There’s a lovely score by Luke Maher (who also plays keys) which is performed by Anna O’Connor and Ri Hawthorn. I love the doo-wop bassline played by Tom Chapman in verse 2 as well. It’s pretty rare for me to not do backing vocals on a full band track, but this one has no BVs – I don’t know what I was thinking. The song is about the breakdown of a relationship. I only realised later that this song was born out of my fear of my new (at the time) relationship with Maddy, a relationship which has taken me across the world to live in the 6 years we have been together. You just never know…
10. Settlers (Acoustic)
I love the full band version of ‘Settlers’ but after hearing the mix, Marie and Hannah were just sort of getting lost in there, so we opted for this alternative, stripped back version. This one feels a lot more emotional to me, and I really like Hannah and Marie singing their verses rather than me doing the whole thing.
11. Astral Plane
On this one, we had a similar lengthy day as we did with ‘An Act of Contrition’, tweaking away at our performances for hours until we got it just right. We did guitar, vocals, and drums at the same time, but I redid the vocal after Nathan told me to listen to Bill Ryder-Jones’ latest album ‘Iechyd Da’. I wanted to get as close and quiet with the mic as he did. Robin and I stayed up til about 4am getting the bass down, there’s an odd ascending bassline that goes up a whole tone each time. It reminds me of ‘Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic’ by The Police, and I’m fond of how it keeps going up and up and up at the end too. When Theo was putting down some double bass for Contrition, he played around with some harmonics which I then asked him to do 4 tracks of for this song. It sounded so funny in the studio because it’s all so random, but it’s come out really well. This was on my very last day of recording, so I reckon the guys thought I’d lost the plot.
QUINNY – UPCOMING SHOWS:
SAT 19 OCT | THE GEM (UPSTAIRS), COLLINGWOOD, VIC | ALL AGES
Album listening party – Free entry
THU 19 DEC | SHOTKICKERS, THORNBURY, VIC | 18+
Tickets available from Moshtix
QUINNY’S LINKTREE