The Spook School

Edinburgh, Scotland's the Spook School formed as a quartet whose indie pop merges the melodic immediacy of C-86 acts such as Shop Assistants with the Buzzcocks' punk drive, while centering lyrics that confront sexuality and gender head-on. Nye Todd on guitar and vocals, his brother Adam Todd also on guitar and vocals, Anna Cory handling bass and vocals, and Niall McCamley on drums first captured material together while studying at the University of Edinburgh. Those bedroom sessions at Adam's place yielded the lo-fi cassette I Don't Know, You Don't Know, We All Don't Know the Spook School, issued in 2012. A subsequent Cloudberry Records single that year drew the attention of Fortuna POP!, which signed the band and put out their debut album Dress Up in 2013. The record's vigor and abundance of hooks quickly built a growing audience and secured the group a spot at 2014's N.Y.C. Popfest. Their mutual appreciation for sketch comedy also resulted that year in an invitation to score the second season of BBC Three's Badults. The follow-up album delved more deeply into questions of gender identity; Nye's ongoing testosterone therapy produced gradual shifts in his vocal tone that were documented across the sessions. Fortuna POP! released Try to Be Hopeful in October 2015. The band's next recorded outing came via the split LP Continental Drift, issued jointly by Fortuna POP! and Slumberland alongside contributions from the Mercury Girls, Wildhoney, and Tigercats. After issuing the holiday single "Someone to Spend Christmas With" in 2017 on their fresh U.K. imprint Alcopop! Records, the Spook School returned in early 2018 with the album Could It Be Different?, which examined abusive relationships, gender concerns, Brexit, and the broader difficulty of sustaining life in contemporary society.