RM Hubbert

Since the early 1990s RM Hubbert has remained a fixture within Glasgow’s music community. The Scottish guitarist and singer-songwriter began his career performing with the post-rock outfit El Hombre Trajeado before establishing himself as a solo artist whose distinctive, flamenco-derived guitar technique allowed him to convert experiences of grief and hardship into reflective, melodic material. His “Ampersand Trilogy” comprises the Scottish Album of the Year Award-winning Thirteen Lost & Found, released in 2012, and the 2013 follow-up Breaks & Bone, which earned a shortlist nomination. In 2018 he joined longtime associate Aidan Moffat for the album Here Lies the Body.

Hubbert started making music in 1993 and first drew notice with the Glaswegian post-rock group El Hombre Trajeado, whose three albums—Skipafone (1998), Saccade (2001), and Shlap (2004)—appeared before the band dissolved in 2005. After the breakup he devoted several years to studying diverse musical traditions, among them the flamenco guitar that later became central to his work, while also processing the deaths of his parents and his chronic depression. These influences shaped his self-released 2010 debut First & Last, an instrumental collection colored by samba and flamenco elements. The record secured a contract with Chemikal Underground Records, which reissued it in 2011 and then issued Thirteen Lost & Found in 2012. Produced by Franz Ferdinand’s Alex Kapranos, the album featured contributions from Alasdair Roberts, the Delgados’ Emma Pollock, and Arab Strap’s Aidan Moffat, and it received the 2013 Scottish Album of the Year Award. That same year Hubbert released Breaks & Bone, the final part of the “Ampersand Trilogy” and his first album to include his own vocals. More optimistic than his prior work, it too was shortlisted for the Scottish Album of the Year Award. Ampersand Extras appeared in 2014, gathering B-sides, rarities, and unreleased tracks from his solo catalog. On 2016’s Telling the Trees he returned to the collaborative approach of Thirteen Lost & Found, working with Eleanor Friedberger, Helen Marnie, Rachel Grimes, Spoon’s Jim Eno, and Mogwai’s Barry Burns on pieces that moved between folk and electro styles; the album earned another Scottish Album of the Year nomination. Hubbert rejoined Moffat for two 2018 projects: the holiday-themed Ghost Stories for Christmas and Here Lies the Body, the latter setting the beginning and end of a relationship against a backdrop of samba, synth pop, and jazz. The record also featured vocalist/cellist Siobahn Wilson, saxophonist John Burgess, and composer/multi-instrumentalist Bill Wells.