Biography

Beginning with his work in the '90s and 2000s with the dour duo Arab Strap, vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Aidan Moffat made a name for himself as a vital part of Glasgow's music scene thanks to his gruff, frequently spoken-word vocals and keen insights on the darker aspects of life and love. By the time the group disbanded in 2006, Moffat had established himself as a solo artist with his sample-driven project L. Pierre and as a versatile collaborator, teaming with Bill Wells on 2011's Scottish Album of the Year-winning Everything's Getting Older, longtime friend RM Hubbert on 2018's Here Lies the Body, and other projects that touched on jazz, poetry, and folk. Born and raised in Falkirk, Scotland, Moffat began listening to indie music while in high school, and spent the first half of the '90s shuffling between a couple bands, including the Angry Buddhists and Bay. He and Malcolm Middleton formed Arab Strap in 1995. Together, they released six studio albums through 2006 filled with alcohol-soaked tales of romantic relationships that tended to emphasize their lecherous aspects. In the early 2000s, Moffat began working with others and on his own. With Colin McPherson and Mogwai's Stuart Braithwaite, he formed the Sick Anchors, who released a self-titled EP in 2002. That year, he also debuted his solo alter ego Lucky Pierre with the samples- and electronics-heavy album Hypnogogia. Moffat switched the project's name to L. Pierre on 2005's Touchpool, and followed it with 2007's instrumental album Dip. Also in 2007, Moffat released a poetry-oriented album of mostly minute-long vignettes titled I Can Hear Your Heart under his full name Aidan John Moffat. A return to downcast songs, backed by a small band dubbed the Best-Ofs, came with 2009's How to Get to Heaven from Scotland. During the 2010s, Moffat's career became more eclectic. On 2011's Everything's Getting Older, he worked with jazz composer, multi-instrumentalist, and former Arab Strap collaborator Bill Wells. The album won the inaugural Scottish Album of the Year award. The following year, he appeared on another Scottish Album of the Year-winning album, RM Hubbert's Thirteen Lost & Found. In 2013, Moffat issued a pair of L. Pierre albums, The Island Come True and the digital release The Eternalist. Two years later, he reunited with Wells for The Most Important Place in the World. He then appeared in the 2016 documentary Where You're Meant to Be, in which he performed his own versions of traditional Scottish folk songs. Moffat bid farewell to L. Pierre with 2017's 1948-; named for the year the first 33 ⅓ rpm album was released, it featured samples of that album (a Mendelssohn concerto) and was released on vinyl without a sleeve so that surface noise and scratches would become part of the music. In 2018, Moffat teamed with Hubbert for the holiday album Ghost Stories for Christmas, and on Here Lies the Body, an album that set the arc of a couple's relationship to music, incorporating samba, synth pop, and jazz. ~ Heather Phares & Andy Kellman, Rovi