Modern Studies is a Scottish

chamber pop Chamber pop (also called baroque pop and sometimes conflated with orchestral pop or symphonic pop) is a music genre that combines rock music with the intricate use of strings, horns, piano, and vocal harmonies, and other components drawn from t ...

band based between

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

and

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

. The group has released four studio albums and a remix collaboration, all on

Fire Records Fire Records was an American independent record label, set up in 1959 by Bobby Robinson. Amongst others, it released records by Lightnin' Hopkins, Elmore James, Buster Brown and Arthur Crudup. At one point it was thought Fire had issued the l ...

History

The band was founded in 2015 by Emily Scott, who had been writing songs on an antique

harmonium The pump organ or reed organ is a type of organ that uses free reeds to generate sound, with air passing over vibrating thin metal strips mounted in a frame. Types include the pressure-based harmonium, the suction reed organ (which employs a va ...

in her home in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

. She arranged to give the instrument to a friend, Pete Harvey, who owned a recording studio called Pumpkinfield in

Perthshire Perthshire (Scottish English, locally: ; ), officially the County of Perth, is a Shires of Scotland, historic county and registration county in central Scotland. Geographically it extends from Strathmore, Angus and Perth & Kinross, Strathmore ...

, and together they began working on Scott's material with drummer Joe Smillie and multi-instrumentalist Rob St. John. Their debut studio album, ''Swell to Great'', was issued by Song, by Toad Records in 2016 and then reissued worldwide by

in October 2017. The album was named in

Mojo Mojo may refer to: * Mojo (African-American culture), a magical charm bag used in Hoodoo Arts, entertainment and media Film and television * ''Mojo'' (2017 film), a 2017 Indian Kannada drama film written and directed by Sreesha Belakvaadi * '' ...

magazine's Top 20 albums of the year list, and on the long-list for the

Scottish Album of the Year Award The Scottish Album of the Year (SAY) Award is an award given annually for an outstanding album produced by a Scottish artist. The award was launched in 2012 by thScottish Music Industry Association(SMIA) in partnership with Creative Scotland. The ...

. A follow-up, '' Welcome Strangers'', was released in 2018, and this album was remixed in collaboration with Tommy Perman and issued as ''Emergent Slow Arcs'' in 2019. In May 2020, Modern Studies released their third studio album, '' The Weight of the Sun''. The band have toured extensively across the UK, playing

Glastonbury Festival The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts (commonly referred to as simply Glastonbury Festival, known colloquially as Glasto) is a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts held near Pilton, Somerset, England, in most su ...

and

Celtic Connections The Celtic Connections festival started in 1994 in Glasgow, Scotland, and has since been held every January. Featuring over 300 concerts, ceilidhs, talks, free events, late night sessions and workshops, the festival focuses on the roots of trad ...

festivals amongst others, and staged their own orchestral audio-visual show, ‘SOUNDING’ at the 2017

Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featur ...

Band members

* Emily Scott – vocals, organ, piano, double bass * Rob St. John – vocals, guitar, synthesizer, harmonium, tape loops * Pete Harvey – cello, bass guitar, piano * Joe Smillie – drums, mellotron, vocals

Discography

* ''Swell to Great'' (Fire, 2016) * '' Welcome Strangers'' (Fire, 2018) * ''Emergent Slow Arcs'' with Tommy Perman (Fire, 2019) * '' The Weight of the Sun'' (Fire, 2020) * ''We Are There'' (Fire, 2022)

References

External links

*
Modern Studies
at

Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online music distribution platform founded in 2008 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with an office and record store in Oakland, California. Acquired by Epic ...

* 2015 establishments in England Scottish rock music groups Musical groups established in 2015 {{UK-band-stub