WeAreAllOutsiders club night returns on February the 1st, 2014, with special guest The Last September.
Catching up with Iain recently we managed to talk about the night, but firstly, about the Outsiders.

The debut album “WeAreAllOutsiders” was released in 2012 and Iain reflects positively about it, “I’m still really proud of the album, the whole process was both challenging and rewarding and I’m really pleased with what we managed to achieve.” The sense of achievement is added to by the sense of permanency a recording creates “It exists and it’s always there for anyone who wants to hear it anytime they want and that’s a pretty amazing feeling”, he later adds “That’s the beauty of a record cause after it’s finished you always have it.”
Along with the album release, numerous festival appearances and even supporting “The Quo”, 2012 was going to be a hard act to follow and as Iain indicates, that was never the intention; “2013 was a quieter year for us but that was the way we wanted to do it. We worked really hard and were lucky enough to play some amazing shows in 2012 and finishing and releasing the album was such a big deal for us so we thought 2013 would be a good time to progress musically.” There were clear advantages to the change of pace including avoiding the danger of over familiarity “We didn’t want to be playing the same set we had been playing for two years”. Another advantages was that it gave Iain the space to start creating new music “the opportunity and challenge of setting aside time to write really appealed to me but wasn’t something I wanted to do while we were actively promoting the album.”
The band continued to gig in 2013, “Although we didn’t play as many shows the ones we did play in 2013 were really enjoyable what with the Bowie tribute night, Hoots 10th birthday and playing with our friends Shutter at their last gig. It was nice to play fewer shows and concentrate on making the ones we did play really enjoyable for everyone.”

The last gig of the year was in December at Mad Hatters and saw a mix of older tunes and new material “It was really nice to put a lot of the new material together and see what people thought of it and yeah it felt like a good way to cap off the year but also kick start the new one.” With new material comes the obvious anxiety, “It’s always pretty nerve-racking to play new songs in front of an audience but the response was fantastic and people seemed to really enjoy the gig as a whole. It’s always amazing and overwhelming to me when people sing along. It felt pretty special.” Those that attended the gig would certainly have agreed that the gig as a whole was special.
Playing new material does appear to be invigorating for Iain, “It feels great to be playing new music, the response so far has been great and I think it fits well with the older material.” He explains that there has been a change in the sound of the band, “The addition of a full time keys player (Alasdair Duncan) has widened our sound and allowed us to really play with dynamics which is something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time and involving that sound in the writing process and not just the arrangement is something I’ve really enjoyed doing.”

The plan is to release an EP of new material in 2014, with Iain clearly keen to get started ” Very much looking forward to getting stuck into pre – production and the recording process again.”
More imminently is the return of the WeAreAllOutsiders club night in February a format that was last seen in 2012, Iain reflected on the experience “It was great to play every month and be faced with the challenge of playing a different set every time. We really enjoyed being able to play with some great bands as well as being able to put on own spin on some of our favourite songs.”
Special guests at the forthcoming night are Edinburgh based The Last September, for whom Iain has a lot of respect for, with the track “Pond” being the Outsiders intro track for a couple of years.”I have a long history with the band and actually lived with Pete (Deane) for a while during my time in Edinburgh. He’s a great songwriter and the band are excellent its going to be a privilege to have them up been looking forward to this for a long time.”
Will there be further WeAreAllOutsiders nights? Iain is not committing “I’m not sure if it would be the right time whilst focusing on making a new record but never say never.”
Iain McLaughlin & The Outsiders are joined by The Last September on February the 1st, 2014 at Mad Hatters.