SO MUCH FOR LOVE: FILMSTAR ARE JUST GETTING STARTED

SINGLE REVIEW | FILMSTAR – SO MUCH FOR LOVE by Bryden Churchmichael

Six months ago Filmstar didn’t exist. Now they’ve got BBC Introducing behind them, a debut EP that fans counted down to midnight for, and a sold-out show at Cowgate Block Party on their CV, their first ever gig. For a band operating without a label, building everything by hand, that’s not nothing. Cowgate Block Party is the kind of night that spreads across the venues Edinburgh’s scene calls home, multi-genre, proper turnout, the sort of event where the city’s music community actually shows up. Selling it out on your debut is a statement whether you mean it as one or not.

“So Much For Love“ is their first single since “Reality Bites“. Produced by Graeme Young, whose credits run from Biffy Clyro to Mogwai, the track arrives already knowing what it wants to be. It opens with a knock, then a grungy downstroke repeating under itself, duh duh duh duh, before everything piles in and stays there. For two and a half minutes the band hold one intensity, one gear, one volume. And then everything pulls back.

At 2:32 almost everything strips away. What’s left is Lauren Thompson’s voice sitting over light drums, the guitars gone. Before the instruments slowly warm back up underneath her. By the time “feel alive” hits at 2:45 they’re building again, and when the final chorus crashes back it carries the weight of everything that came before it. It works because of what the song’s actually about. Not an ex getting told. A friend. As Thompson puts it: “There’s so much grief that comes from a friendship collapsing, even in your twenties.” The song holds two things at once that don’t fit together, still wanting the best for someone and telling them to stay gone. There’s no genre convention for that. No ready-made playlist for watching someone you love self-destruct and knowing you can’t stay to watch.

Anyone paying attention to Edinburgh right now will hear a likeness to Puppy Teeth’s bubble grunge, crunchy guitars, heavy drums, melodic vocals cutting through the wall. But where Puppy Teeth sit dreamier, more shoegaze, Filmstar run hotter, citing Smashing Pumpkins and Alice in Chains alongside Paramore. It’s a corner of the Edinburgh guitar scene that’s producing something worth tracking, bands who understand that loud means more when you know when to stop.

Hug and Pint’s Endless Summer on July 2nd, King Tut’s Summer Nights on August 6th, Sneaky Pete’s on August 19th supporting Since 2000. Get in early.

Filmstar: https://linktr.ee/filmstar

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Bryden

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