Tim Hughes gets his head around the psychedelic folk-rock loveliness of Scotland’s Trembling Bells

THERE’S nothing like a good-old break up to inspire great music. Just ask Alex Neilson.

The drummer and songwriter (an unusual combination in itself) of folk-rock band Trembling Bells was so cut up about the disintegration of a relationship that it inspired the best – and possibly most interesting – album of his career.

“It’s darker than our other records” he says.

“Suffering played quite a big part in its conception. I came out of a relationship and was consoling myself creatively and emotionally by reading a lot of Greek tragedy. The language is incredible. I immersed myself in that and then cherry-picked lines from it, distorting and personalising them.”

Their most recent outing, The Sovereign Self is the band’s fifth album and their first since 2012’s The Marble Downs, a collaboration with American songwriter Will Oldham – aka Bonnie Prince Billy.

And anyone familiar with the Scottish five-piece’s trade will not be surprised to learn that Sophocles is a key influence – along with the dramatist and screenwriter Dennis Potter.

It is named after a line from Potter, and anyone expecting straight-up folk is in for either a treat or a shock. Alex and band create a multi-faceted sound of peaks and troughs, dreamy interludes and crescendos. Dramatic, psychedelic and earthy, it is an emotional map – a Scotch broth of roots melodies and avant-garde freakery; with boozy ballads, traditional Pagan themes and spacey folk-rock and prog – all of which will strike a chime with fans of Oxfordshire’s own Fairport Convention, not least in the voice of singer and keys lass Lavinia Blackwall – who seems to channel the spirit of the late Sandy Denny.

The band formed eight years ago in Glasgow, emerging from that city’s rich folk scene.

They are united by shared interests and passions.

“We all like music on a forensic level,” says Alex.

“We’re all obsessive, pedantic, maladjusted, unemployable nerds.”

Alex, Lavinia, guitarist Mike Hastings and bassist Simon Shaw also enlisted the talents of guitar wizard Alasdair C Mitchell.

“Some songs are a little challenging”, says Alex. “Bringing Alasdair into the band means we have the interplay of two guitar parts.

“Musically, this album has been a lot more collaborative and democratic and as a result a lot of our other influences have come through - psychedelia, early-70s prog and rock. It’s heavier and darker. I find it physically and emotionally draining to sing these songs, because they are quite intense you have to put so much into them.”

The record also has a sense of place, whether that be Scotland, Cornwall, East London or points between – all significant to the Bells’ recent history.

“I have an irresistibly romantic attraction to places,” says Alex. “I want to glorify them and give an impression of the feeling that they evoke in me.”

“I’m interested in the way that Dylan Thomas and Walt Whitman engaged with their native land. They sang of the soil itself.

“I was always interested in the way that blues and country did the same for places in America, but it didn’t seem like there was an equivalent in Britain.

“Carbeth, Yorkshire, Sussex and Cornwall have a strong allure for me, so this is a way to eulogise and elevate these places that have a very personal significance for me into the realm of myth and mystery.”

There is something romantic and noble about their work – Alex admitting to being slightly at odds with the tawdry modern world. “I’m a little bit cautious because we

get called folk-rock quite a lot. But no, I don’t really relate to much of the modern world. I feel that there’s a lot to learn from 30,000 years of civilisation.”

The folk-rock connection is irresistible though. One of their biggest influences is fellow Scottish psych-folk pioneers the Incredible String Band. The 60s/70s band inform much of their work. They have even toured with ISB co-founder Mike Heron, performing tracks from his songbook.

“It was a profound pleasure to get inside that music,” says Alex. “Everyone in the Trembling Bells grew up with the Incredible String Band.

“I remember listening to them on the school bus and being petrified that anyone would hear what was in my ears. It was so

audaciously imaginative and disarmingly whimsical that it was almost embarrassing to listen to when you were 15, but it really came to shape the music I aspired to create.

“When we do the concerts, you can tell that it means a lot to the people in the audience and it means a lot to me to play it. It is music that is very cherishable because it's so idiosyncratic.”

One thing they also inherited from their psychedelically folkie forefathers is their great sense of ambition and reach.

Not content with releasing five albums and getting stuck into any number of side-projects, various of their number are also working on solo records, and, as unlikely as it sounds, there are plans for an album of reworked traditional folk songs with vocals from acerbic comedian Stewart Lee.

“We’re very ambitious creatively,” says Alex. “We’re always pushing ourselves deeper and deeper into the mystery.”

Trembling Bells play The Cellar, Oxford, on Sunday. Tickets seetickets.com

The Sovereign Self ​is out now