have found themselves at the forefront of a new generation of folk musicians almost by accident. The Edinburgh five-piece are hardly traditionalists, having arrived at their charmingly peculiar blend of old-fashioned instrumentation and contemporary songwriting by way of jazz, rock, and a fair bit of trial and error. “We’re like first-gen folk,” laughs songwriter Ruairidh Wallace. “We kind of happened upon it and just do it in the way we think it should be done.”
It’s an approach that’s serving them rather well. Having sold out their first four headline shows before releasing a single note of recorded music, Curiosity Shop have now unveiled their debut EP, ‘Bound For The Sky’, via Fontana. Across five tracks clocking in at just under twenty minutes, the band weave intricate guitar arrangements, accordion, trad strings and close-knit vocal harmonies into something that feels at once familiar and yet still entirely their own. For Curiosity Shop, folk music needn’t be treated as something to preserve behind glass.
Curiously, if you’ll pardon the pun, the decision to hold off on releasing music came partly at the suggestion of fellow indie outfit Divorce, who the band met during a trip to Dublin. “They were like, ‘You guys are really good. Don’t release any music,’” Ruairidh recalls. “We were like, huh?” The advice, they later realised, was to find the right people to work with before rushing into anything. “We were kind of just doing it for fun,” he continues. “We didn’t really have an end goal.”
That changed when their eventual manager, who also works with Divorce, asked whether they were prepared to take Curiosity Shop seriously. The prospect of making music full-time initially seemed rather far-fetched. Accordionist Jan apparently thought the whole conversation was a little ridiculous. Yet, barely a year later, with a record deal and a growing live following, the idea doesn’t seem quite so improbable.
The band’s beginnings were similarly unassuming. Ruairidh and fellow songwriter Sonny Scott had known each other since school before reconnecting in Edinburgh, where the project gradually expanded into a five-piece. Jan’s arrival was particularly serendipitous: Sonny invited him to join after a camping trip near the Isle of Skye, despite Ruairidh having never actually heard him play. “I think Jan’s part is what makes it an actual band,” Sonny explains, describing how the accordion transformed what might otherwise have remained a songwriter-led project into something wider and more collaborative.
That collective spirit is perhaps most apparent on ‘Bound For The Sky’s opening track, ‘Crows’. Beginning with a cappella harmonies in a similar introductory manner to boygenius’ ‘Without You Without Them’, the song gradually unfolds into gently strummed guitars and strings, before returning to those same voices for its final closing moments. There’s something wonderfully unassuming about the arrangement, allowing the harmonies to do much of the heavy lifting. ‘Wandering Arrow’, meanwhile, is carried by intricate, delicately fingerpicked guitar, whilst the softer vocal passages of ‘About A House’ recall the understated tenderness of José González’s ‘Veneer’. It’s on closer ‘Rambling’, however, that the band lean most wholeheartedly into their more traditional folk inclinations. Joyous, hopeful and wonderfully uplifting, it’s arguably the EP’s strongest moment, and a fitting conclusion to a record so preoccupied with movement and finding one’s feet.
Despite the apparent ease of their arrangements, Curiosity Shop have developed a particular obsession with the tiniest musical details. Producer , of , even makes an uncredited vocal appearance on ‘Wandering Arrow’, joining the band for a particularly exuberant passage. Elsewhere, their ever-expanding collection of instruments adds a new charm to the whole thing. Bassist Louis, initially reluctant to trade his electric bass for the ever-so-slightly more cumbersome double bass, now plays the latter throughout their already-recorded second EP, whilst drummer Duncan has recently taken up the banjo.
For Ruairidh, folk music’s appeal lies partly in its freedom. Unlike musicians raised within families where traditional songs and techniques are passed through the generations, Curiosity Shop have pretty much discovered the genre for themselves. “The whole point is that you’re just picking up an instrument and writing a song and having fun,” he reasons. Their music, consequently, carries the free-spirited, adventurous feeling of five young musicians working out what they can do with the sounds they’ve come to love.
And they’re hardly alone in their fascination. Across the UK and Ireland, a growing crop of younger artists are finding fresh possibilities within folk and traditional music, from the darker and more raw energy of Dublin’s to Curiosity Shop’s own more melodic sensibilities. Ruairidh wonders whether the genre’s renewed appeal has something to do with the growing conflict and anxieties of the wider world. “I wonder if the reason people are turning back and looking behind them is because of all the complications these days,” he considers. “Maybe people are drawn to simpler things.”
Sonny, who grew up listening to his parents’ folk records, is simply pleased to see the genre enjoying another moment in the sun. “I think either way we’d probably still be doing what we’re doing,” he says. “Maybe less successfully so far.” Ruairidh, meanwhile, points out that folk has always had a habit of falling in and out of fashion. For Curiosity Shop, the timing may be fortunate, but the affection for the music is entirely their own.
That same unassuming enthusiasm extends to their live shows, which remain at the heart of the band’s own creative ethos. Having spent so long performing songs that audiences couldn’t listen to at home, they’re still getting used to people singing the lyrics back at them. One listener in Ireland even accidentally stumbled across ‘Crows’ after Googling the actual birds themselves. “Just people who exist independently of us, who are coming to see us, is awesome,” Sonny reflects. “Especially when you can see someone’s connecting with the songs. That’s the whole point, really.”
With a second EP already recorded and their first trip to the States penned for March, Curiosity Shop are looking much further afield than the Edinburgh circuit where they first found their feet. Yet, despite the rather ambitious title of their debut, there’s little sense of a predetermined destination they’re quite “bound for”.
“It’s not so much about knowing where you’re going,” Ruairidh suggests, “but just sort of taking it as it comes.” Not that a lack of direction has stopped them getting anywhere so far.
‘Bound For The Sky’ EP is out now. Catch Curiosity Shop on tour this Autumn, including a sold out headline show at London’s Folklore on November 18th.