Soundtracks of Our Lives: Mt. Doubt

EDINBURGH’S Mt. Doubt is the musical vision of Leo Bargery. The band have been picking up regular airplay on BBC Scotland and 6Music; has shared a stage with names such as Idlewild and We Were Promised Jetpacks.

They recently featured on, and were one of the undoubted highlights of, the Wakefield festival compilation Long Division: New Addition Vol.2, which we reviewed here; and with songs like the track featured therein, the autumnal, romantic wonder of “Stairwell Songs”, you can see why Mt. Doubt is picking up such a groundswell of support.

We decided to ask Leo to open up his record box and asked him: what was the soundtrack to your life?

The song you remember most from childhood?

This is a definite toss-up between “Three Cigarettes In An Ashtray”, by Patsy Cline; “Volare”, by Dean Martin and “I’ll Sail This Ship Alone”, by The Beautiful South!

Your favourite track made by friends?

Oh this a tough one; there would be plenty of notable mentions but my favourite would probably be “Catherine Opens A Window”, by my friend Hamish Hawk. A supremely talented writer.

And by the band that should have been/should be bigger?

Well there are a million bands that deserve more attention really but I’m going to select a Belgian band called Isbells. Their 2019 record, Sosei, is sensational.

Your guilty pleasure?

Oh, I don’t feel too much musical guilt to be honest; there will forever be a nostalgic place in my heart for My Chemical Romance. I do like a good bit of easy-listening country and pop too though, so whether that’s Tim McGraw or Lady Gaga, I’m happy.

The record in your parents’ record collection that attracted attention?

Oh there were two actually! Bomber, by Motörhead (I listened to that title track on repeat, what an incredible song!) and Rumours, by Fleetwood Mac. Both of those records blew my mind in very different ways.

The record you’ll have at your funeral?

I’d be tempted to say Nick Cave’s “Into My Arms”, but “I don’t believe in an interventionist God” might be tempting fate at the curtain close … Maybe “Thanks for the Dance”, by Leonard Cohen! It has a hymnal, hopeful current.