Modern Studies is a

chamber pop Chamber pop (or Chamber rock; 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 string section, strings, horn section, horns, piano, and voca ...

band based between

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

and

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

. 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 las ...

History

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

harmonium The pump organ is a type of free-reed organ that generates sound as air flows past a vibrating piece of thin metal in a frame. The piece of metal is called a reed. Specific types of pump organ include the reed organ, harmonium, and melodeon. T ...

in her home in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

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

Perthshire Perthshire (locally: ; gd, Siorrachd Pheairt), officially the County of Perth, is a historic county and registration county in central Scotland. Geographically it extends from Strathmore in the east, to the Pass of Drumochter in the north, ...

, 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 Song, by Toad is an independent record label and music blog based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was founded in 2008 by Matthew Young, and has released a number of critically acclaimed albums by acts including Meursault, Rob St John and Sparrow and ...

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 voodoo Arts, entertainment and media Film and television * MOJO HD, an American television network * ''Mojo'' (play), by Jez Butterworth, made into a 1997 film * '' ...

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 Cre ...

. 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 Glastonbury Festival (formally Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts and known colloquially as Glasto) is a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts that takes place in Pilton, Somerset, England. In addition to contemp ...

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 tra ...

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 Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, or Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest arts and media festival, which in 2019 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 dif ...

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 audio distribution platform founded in 2007 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with headquarters in Oakland, California, US. On March 2, 2022, Bandcamp ...

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