A Month of Longest Days Still Life Painter

“We’re in the country, on the cusp of the seasons changing. It’s a bright, cool day and the air is crisp. From inside the house, we look out through vast windows onto a body of water that gently laps against the shore. The wind is whistling softly in the chimney. We’re listening to this record, loud, with our close friends. The coffee is hot.”

This is how Phil Smith (aka. Glasgow based songwriter Still Life Painter), imagines the ideal listening conditions for his self-produced debut album, A Month of Longest Days.A Month of Longest Days is a joyous exploration of Americana-infused indie rock tied together by love, loss and lap steel. A man of few words, he stands before you with open arms, offering up this music in the honest hope of finding connection.

The record wears its influences with pride: there’s flutters of Magnolia Electric Co., Lomelda, Trace Mountains, Buck Meek, Nick Drake, Slaughter Beach Dog. Mostly, it’s a reflection on the questions one asks as they approach their 30s: how to be a better friend and partner; how to be honest with yourself; how you want to spend the rest of your life. In other words, all the heavy hitters. It’s a hopeful record that captures the vulnerability of meandering into the unknown, through hazy summer days that feel like they’ll never end – until they do. Perhaps it makes sense, then, that these songs were carefully crafted between shifts at the ice cream shop in the humid Glasgow heat. When you live in a city filled with rain, the glimmers of sunshine really do feel like small moments to soak up entirely. Open the windows, open the doors, let the light in.

There’s a quiet beauty in the way Still Life Painter relates the mundane in life: cycling through the city in the rain, drawing the curtains, listening to birdsong, hearing an owl in the middle of the night. Smith wrote and produced the album, playing all the instruments himself – with the exception of drums, played by Callum Little. These were recorded at Little’s practice space in the moments of silence between the sludgy growls of a metal band rehearsing in the room next door. The guitars were recorded with the help of friend, collaborator and fellow songwriter, Conor Heafey, at his small home studio. Everything else was recorded in Smith’s bedroom and living room, cocooned inside a makeshift fortress of moving blankets and duvets.

The result is an album in the truest sense, a collection of carefully constructed songs that overflow with rich harmonies, intimate vocals and subtly catchy hooks. I’m not sure if Phil chose the name Still Life Painter for any particular reason, but one thing is clear: he paints a picture of our world in all its stillness and complexities with the richest of colours, textures and lines. Buy an old wooden frame, pre-loved and rough round the edges, and hang it with pride.