Biography

With the backing of Scottish legends of the genre Stephen Pastel and Edwyn Collins, it's no shock that the Glasgow-based group Spinning Coin make music that could be categorized as indie pop. Their first recordings, like their 2017 album Permo, delved quietly into the knotty, melancholy end of the sound. By the time of their second record in 2020, Hyacinth, they adopted a sound that is more energetic and gleefully weird. The members of the group had all been playing in bands, writing songs, and making the scene before they got together to make fiercely ramshackle indie pop that reminded their future label head, Stephen Pastel, of a "feeling (he) had at the end of the Boy Hairdressers and the beginning of Teenage Fanclub." They formed in late 2014 ostensibly to back guitarist Sean Armstrong on a batch of his songs, but soon took the name Spinning Coin and became something more. Made up of Armstrong (guitar and vocals), Jack Mellin (guitar and vocals), Cal Donnelly (bass), and Chris White (drums), Spinning Coin began playing shows around their hometown and caught the ear of Fuzzkill Records, which released the band's self-titled five-song debut cassette in October of 2015. This recording, and their live shows, brought them to the attention of Geographic Music, a label run by the Pastels and sponsored by Domino. They home-recorded their first single, "Albany"/"Sides," released it in April of 2016, and soon got to work on a full-length album. Working with producer Stu Evans in Glasgow and Edwyn Collins at his studio in Helmsdale, the band added backing vocals from the Pastels' Katrina Mitchell and Tuff Love's Rachel Taylor. The album, Permo, was issued in November of 2017 by Geographic. Around that time, Spinning Coin added Taylor to the lineup as their keyboardist. Before the band were able to record another album, bassist Donelly left and Taylor and Armstrong relocated to Berlin. While on a summer tour of Europe, they checked into Black Box Studios in France to record with producer Peter Deimel, then worked on the songs at home in Glasgow and Berlin. Chief songwriters were again Armstrong and Mellin, though Taylor does get one song in, and the resulting album, Hyacinth, takes a step outside the jangle pop realm into the art pop wilderness. It was released in early 2020 by Geographic. ~ Tim Sendra, Rovi