[Editor’s Note:Â Since 2003, Glasgow, UK-based singer-songwriter Paul Kelly has been creating pop music as The Martial Arts. The group released its latest album In There Like Swimwear on August 9. Today, we’re excited to share an exclusive essay from Kelly about his long journey towards releasing his band’s first album in 18 years.]
Your Sinclair was the debut album from The Martial Arts, and was released by Swedish label Groover Recordings in September 2006. The follow-up, In There Like Swimwear, was released by London-based label Where It’s At Is Where You Are, and at the time of writing (September 2024) has just come out. That’s a fairly big gap. 18 years, to be precise. So why has it taken so long between albums 1 and 2? Is it the power pop Chinese Democracy? Has it been plagued by the same issues that caused the likes of My Bloody Valentine, Elastica and The Stone Roses to leave agonizingly long gaps between albums? Thankfully not, but here’s an overview of what went on, or for long stretches, didn’t.
In 2005, Groover invited me to record in Stockholm with Shout Out Louds’ producer Ronald Bood, and we began recording in a studio previously owned by Abba’s Benny and Bjorn, and was noteworthy for being where Europe recorded the drums for “The Final Countdown,” before moving to Ronald’s own studio, which was kitted out with impressive gear and a generous choice of borrowed guitars. As someone with only basic demo skills, this was an incredible step up. The results were fantastic.
The trouble was, by the time I’d accumulated another album’s worth of new material, the live band version of The Martial Arts had been through a number of stressful line-up changes, and eventually the label folded. If there was going to be a second album, it was entirely down to me to make it happen. I very much wanted to do so, but wasn’t awash with confidence about doing so and having it live up to the quality of the debut. So I waited until I felt I was beginning to figure things out, which took a few years of working as a musician with others’ projects – How To Swim, BMX Bandits, The Primary 5, Carla J Easton, Raveloe.  Watching how others’ recorded allowed me to pick up some tips and encouraged me that I could perhaps do it myself.
I can play most things you tend to need on an album, but not drums. I figured it would be wise to recruit a variety of my drumming friends to take up the stool, as it would reduce the amount of work and time required from one person. John Nicol (Ette, The Hidden Masters), Stuart Kidd (The Wellgreen, The Soup Dragons) and Ben Robb (Tokamak) helped me out massively, as did studio drummer Joe Montague. I took my basic tracks in to Glasgow’s Green Door studio with Samuel Smith at the controls and overdubbed most of the guitars that you hear on the record. This was worthwhile as they own an impressive arsenal of amplifies and microphones far beyond what I have at home.
The true reason why it took so long for a second album to appear was that it took me over a decade after the debut’s release to even get started. It seemed for the longest time like too daunting a task to even approach, despite wanting to. Once I began, it wasn’t initially clear what recordings were going to be on the album itself, as newer material was now regularly being demoed. I decided that it would be wisest to release some of these initial recordings as EPs, in order to test the water and to get the older songs out of the way first. The first was I Used To Be The Martial Arts, followed later by Getting Stranger By The Month, which largely mopped up the songs that would have been on a second album had it appeared in the years immediately following the debut. It began to become clear that the album would work best containing my newer songs, although a couple of oldies “Empty Out Here” and “Exploding Crushing Inevitable” made their way to the final tracklisting.
There are aren’t any elaborate anecdotes concerning the album’s creation, as it was mainly put together by me alone at home, with occasional guest contributions. Shortly after I began, I was persuaded to return to college for two years to undertake a tediously time-consuming full-time course which obviously slowed recording progress down, and once that was completed there was the small matter of the global pandemic to throw a further spanner in the works. Choosing to record a festive EP, Christmas With The Martial Arts, may also have occupied a bit of time. For a while I was in no real hurry to release my album as I didn’t want to give it to a now-notoriously artist-unfriendly record label who released the EPs without enthusiasm, care or friendliness. Fortunately, the Christmas release attracted the attention of Where It’s At Is Where You Are’s John Jervis, who was more than happy to try and give my recent EPs a proper re-release campaign, and of course take care of the small matter of putting out the album.
As of last month, the album is now available to buy on vinyl or stream. The world hasn’t changed much as a result, but it’s at the very least been very therapeutic to put out there, at long last. I’m very happy with it and it is satisfying to be able to fully sign off on it after not even being quite able to bring myself to get started for many years. What’s next then? Well, I’m several songs deep in the making of the next album. I don’t think it’s going to take quite as long this time. We shall see though.
You can listen to and purchase The Martial Arts’ album In There Like Swimwear and more at the band’s Bandcamp page.
Paul Kelly
Contributor
The Martial Arts is Paul Kelly, who for over 15 years has been a mainstay of the Scottish music scene. He was a full-time member of BMX Bandits for five years and is a long-time collaborator and bandmate of the SAY Award-nominated artist Carla J Easton (The Vaselines / Poster Paints / TeenCanteen). He has performed with Raveloe, TeenCanteen, Kim Richey, The Primary 5, Dr. Cosmo’s Tape Lab, How to Swim and The Hector Collectors.
