Aberfeldy were formed in May 2002 in Edinburgh, Scotland. Riley Briggs (singer/songwriter) met Ian Stoddart (drums), Ken McIntosh (bass) and Sarah McFadyen (fiddle/vocals) in the famous Edinburgh folk music venue The Royal Oak where he served his musical apprenticeship playing three nights a week for the great Scottish public.
Together they began working with producer Jim Sutherland (www.jimsutherland.uk.com) to record some of Riley's own material and were joined by Ruth Barrie (keyboard/vocals) after spotting her singing in the Bongo Club cafe. Jim had originally tried multi-tracking some of Riley's songs but felt the recordings lacked the special quality of Riley just sitting with his guitar. Jim hit upon a technique of recording around a single microphone that captured the real in-the-moment dynamic of the band, helping to achieve the fresh sound that perfectly sets off the five piece's beautiful boy-girl harmonies and gentle acoustic sensibilities.
Aberfeldy spent the next year honing their sound, setting up a weekly residency in the Forest Arts Cafe, playing regularly in Edinburgh and touring the North of Scotland. In the midst of their busy schedules the band were working hard to develop and record their music with Jim.
Demos of the songs began to attract considerable interest and the band received airplay on Radio One. In January 2004 the band were picked to play at Scottish International showcase Celtic Connections at the Glasgow Barrowlands. There the band were spotted by a radio plugger who sent their fledgling album straight to Geoff Travis at Rough Trade Records. A few days later Geoff flew up to meet Aberfeldy and the band were signed to the great independent UK label.
(Official Biography by Aberfeldy)
Website: http://www.aberfeldys.com
