Why would you not have some viola on your album?

Dynamic, melodic session viola with a John Cale-inspired angle for records that need that something else. I provide unconventional, song-focused arrangements and performances, drawing on a wealth of experience recording for artists like Viv Albertine, Smoke Fairies, and Slow Club. My approach blends a melodic base with creative use of pedals and experimental textures, or simple acoustic traditional folky layers, ensuring the viola adds a distinct sonic identity. I offer decent-quality remote recording services from my home studio, providing clean or processed stems for your project’s needs. With a career spanning numerous BBC 6 Music sessions and stages from The Glad to the Royal Festival Hall, I bring a touring experienced ear to every session. I'm a friendly collaborator who is quick to find the right mood for a track. Whether you need a haunting line or a wall of distorted drones, I’m always focused on serving the song and making the process as smooth as possible.

Blind Yeo at The Ivy House

 

TICKETS

Cornwall’s premier cosmic-folk collective, Blind Yeo, bring their psychedelic carnival to South London’s Ivy House on May 31st. Fresh from a blistering KEXP session and heavy 6 Music rotation, this shifting motorik beast is part Neu!-esque propulsion, part off-grid ritual. Expect jagged synth-runs, West African ngoni vibrations, and a live experience that Lauren Laverne rightly swoons over. It’s restless, it’s transcendental, and it’s happening. Do not blink.

With support from Brighton's genre-bending jazz-psych band Thimble.

BAD FRIDAY 2026

WINDMILL BRIXTON

https://linktr.ee/sonictonicpromo

Forget the heritage acts and the overpriced stadium lager. Bad Friday returns: Eight bands. One ticket. Food included. An all-dayer built on high-velocity, DIY ethics…and the smell of charcoal.

YAANG are Manchester’s premier pop-art provocateurs. They aren't "post-punk"—they’re fully carbonated, caffeinated, and non-genre compliant. Expect motorik synths, drum machines, and chaotic energy that moves from gliding 80s power ballads to airport barfights in a single heartbeat.

COWBOYY: South Coast art-pop architects. Part math-rock, part jazz, entirely confusing to those who like their music predictable.

PIGEON DOG: North London grunge. Gritty, filthy, and bursting with spiky riffs that tackle gender dysphoria and dissociation with a sneer.

NATIONAL PLAYBOYS: Edinburgh’s post-punk 5-piece. High-impact energy meeting synth-driven hooks.

ASBESTOS SALESMAN: Southend’s "post-slop" duo. Recorded in a shed, sounding like Squid meeting Blur in a trough of toxic positivity.

NAOMI IN BLUE: British-Chilean Americana. A striking blend of folk-soul and heavy-synth power, anchored by a voice that stops rooms.

JUST KIDS: An indie-pop duo where Springsteen meets Fugazi. Emotional, relatable, and dripping in second-hand smoke.

SASHES: South London’s 17-foot-tall (combined) three-piece. Scuzzy riffs, domestic rebellion, and a live presence that leaves you exhilarated and uneasy.

It’s an adventure in angular pop and beautiful noise. Eat the food. Hear the future. See you at the front.

Bad Friday / Love Letters / Firestations

Not sure how this is the first blog post of the year but that's where we're at. 

Our Bad Friday all-dayer has been announced and this year features an incredible mix of bands from Bristol, Belfast, Brighton, Liverpool, Cambridge and Hastings - details below, be a part of it! 

I also played some viola on James Pickering's new band Love Letters' new EP which is out now! It's full of life.

Firestations have a new album on the way but it's not the album that we recorded at Otterhead in January it's actually a Mike solo record, something he craftily crafted on his own whilst away in Scotland last Summer and it was made with half broken instruments and field recordings and is quite a beautiful thing. 

Bad Friday is a bbq all-dayer featuring eight electrifying bands - from Belfast's garage punk trio Jock, channeling the energy of riot grrrl icons, to the feminist garage-rock of The Baby Seals, and the math-rock-made-sexy sounds of Brighton's SLAG. Also joining the bill are the alt-rock energy of alright (okay), the raucous alt-rock of Bristol’s Deadheading, the gothic darkwave pop of Border Widow (featuring ex-members of Big Joanie), the powerful storytelling of Dogviolet, and the fuzzy, nostalgic indie rock of woon.

18 April, Windmill Brixton

Dice or WeGotTickets

Wild Winter 10 year anniversary gigs

I'm not usually a fan of the looming irritant that is the festive period, however when it involves gigs (like the Slow Club Xmas gigs I was lucky enough to be a part of way back) it lightens the load and this year there are gigs! Smoke Fairies Xmas gigs. 

Firestations have been added to the Jill Lorean gig at the Old Library which is cool, Jill's new album is incredible, you should listen to it right now, and come along to the gigs.

And here's a playlist of some hot new tunes

Jill Lorean at the Old Library

Sonic Tonic proudly presents Jill Lorean at the Old Library, New Cross - 7th Dec

Tickets £8 plus booking from WeGotTickets & Dice

bit.ly/sonictonictickets

Doors: 19.30

On debut album This Rock Jill Lorean captured her musical sketches in a three-day burst of

inspiration – mics hung from the ceiling, cracks showing, a document of that exact time and place. It’s follow-up, the sprawling Peace Cult, finds the same trio of Jill Lorean, Andy Monaghan (Frightened Rabbit) and Pete Kelly working with far more space and control, Jill’s fragmented ideas brought together over time, with very deliberate care and attention, with a generous focus on the finer details. 

Formed of eleven new songs, Peace Cult is once again released via Monohands Records, and it makes for a bold new step in Jill Lorean’s career,one that has seen her develop from early success with her band Sparrow & The Workshop, through various projects including Three Queens In Mourning (with Alex Neilson and Alasdair Roberts), Scottish collective Hen Hoose, as well as a rich body of theatre and soundtrack work.

Wych Elm at Goldsmiths

 

Tickets are on sale now!

Laura J Martin at the Old Library

 

Tickets are on sale now! 

Laura J Martin returns with her forthcoming fourth solo album Prepared following the collaborative project 'Wyndow' written with Lavinia Blackwall of Trembling Bells,  released in 2021.  Her previous solo album, On The Never Never, was recorded in Nashville with members of Lambchop, Silver Jews and Jesus Lizard and for Prepared the sonic canvas changes again.  Building her own studio after moving back to Liverpool, Laura found herself drawn to drum machines that wouldn’t stay in time, and a piano with a tuning mind of its own. Prepared is in Laura's words "my composted scrapbook of the last couple of years. I followed where the sounds took me, the sonic train left the station and led me on its merry way.”

A mercurial and bewitching live performer who interweaves layers of vocals, flute, mandolin and electronics; Laura has toured regularly across the UK and Europe and supported acts such as PJ Harvey, Teenage Fanclub, Cate Le Bon and performed and collaborated extensively with Euros Childs. Consistently played and supported by BBC Radio 6 Music DJs such as Marc Riley, Craig Charles, Cerys Matthews, Lauren Laverne, Gideon Coe and Stuart Maconie; 

“An understated marvel” Uncut

“Beautiful and intelligent stuff” The Quietus

"An extremely unique sound, I love the combinations of textures she puts together" 

BBC Radio 6 Music, Lauren Laverne

Bad Friday

 

Carried in Sound

Carried in Sound, the 6th (maybe the 8th?) album by Smoke Fairies was released in 17th November 2023. The album making process was very much a DIY aesthetic, they would phone me up every so often and say they'd worked on some tracks and would like me to come over to record some viola... and drink some beer. It was a beautiful thing to be involved with and the album made it to number 16 in the actual real charts!