"Don't feel bad about remembering music can sometimes be this stupidly joyous" - NME
Aerial are a Scottish power-pop band comprising songwriters Colin Cummings, Mackie Mackintosh and Steven Henderson.
The band 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. They 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 in October 2000 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 (Teenage Fanclub, BMX Bandits) at Riverside Studios in Glasgow and released by Japanese label Syft Records in 2001. Following a series of line-up changes, the group disbanded later the same year.
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, recorded at Lightship95 in London by producer Ben Phillips (Newton Faulkener, Veronica Falls) was released in 2014 on Japanese label Thistime Records and Kool Kat Records in the US.
Why Don’t They Teach Heartbreak At School? picked up right where their debut left off, delivering 12 new tracks that proved the group had lost none of the energy, pop hooks and west coast harmonies that defined their sound the first time around. The record was released to positive reviews and featured as Record of Note on the Roddy Hart Show on BBC Scotland and was Goldmine Magazine’s 2014 album of the year. Aerial rounded off 2015 with their first shows at the Cavern Club in Liverpool, appearing at 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 in late 2023. A document of misspent youth, video-game obsession and what-might-have-been, Activities of Daily Living showcases the band back at their revved-up best.