"Don't feel bad about remembering music can sometimes be this stupidly joyous" - NME
Aerial emerged as part of the Scottish indie scene of the late 1990s and gained notoriety for their infectious smash-and-grab bursts of power-pop. Based around songwriters Colin Cummings and Mackie Mackintosh, the band soon came to the attention of London-based Fantastic Plastic Records and the band’s first recording, Signal E.P. was released in May 2000. The band received extensive airplay on BBC Radio 1’s Evening Session and London’s XFM before making the UK Indie Top 30 singles chart. The Star of the Show E.P. followed and the band continued to gig tirelessly including an appearance at T in the Park and a UK tour with label mates Astrid & Angelica. Support slots with the likes of Snow Patrol and The Posies followed.
Their debut album, Back Within Reach, was produced by Duncan Cameron (Travis, Teenage Fanclub) at Riverside Studios, Glasgow and released by Japanese label Syft Records in 2001.
Fast forward 10 years and Aerial, re-tuned and re-grouped, released their sophomore album Why Don’t They Teach Heartbreak At School?. The album, produced by Ben Phillips at Lightship95 in London (Newton Faulkener, Veronica Falls) was released in 2014 on Japanese label Thistime Records and Kool Kat Records in the US. The record was released to critical acclaim, featuring as Goldmine Magazine’s 2014 album of the year, Record of Note on the Roddy Hart Show on BBC Scotland and appeared in John M. Borack’s book Shake Some Action as one of the 200 greatest power pop albums of all time (as well as being cited as his album of the year for 2014). Aerial rounded off 2015 with UK shows including an appearance at the Cavern Club in Liverpool as part of the International Power Pop Overthrow festival.
In 2022, the band returned to Riverside Studios, some 20 years after the Back Within Reach sessions, to work on a new album with Duncan Cameron once again at the helm. The resulting effort, Activities of Daily Living, is to be released on Flake Sounds in April 2024 and delivers eleven new tracks of Aerial’s signature smash-and-grab power-pop. Confident and self-assured, this is the sound of a band back at their revved-up best.
Activities of Daily Living successfully captures the energy, pop hooks and West Coast harmonies for which the band are renowned. Lead single Hollywood Ghosts is an epic, vocal-laden and unashamedly radio-friendly hit in the making, while Pixelated Youth documents tales of video-game obsession (with more than a nod to the work of Shigero Miyamoto, the Nintendo mastermind). Throw in the Cobra-Kai-influenced parable of I Bet You Know Karate (“if you’re knocked down seven times stand up eight”) and you have an album that grabs your attention, both musically and lyrically.
An ambitious return, Activities of Daily Living proves Aerial have lost none of their sense of youthful exuberance.