Sometimes the pre-Craigslist approach is still the best approach. When Oisean Burnett moved from Glasgow to London in 2024, he deployed homemade “Bandmates Wanted” posters to find collaborators. Two years later, Starter Car is a fixture on South London’s indie scene with its savory, lived-in stew of country, folk and ’90s alternative. Recorded and produced by Joe Futák (lilo, Piglet, Baggio), Afterlight (Tapete) is a surprisingly cultured debut, drawing on the music Burnett grew up with (Sparklehorse, Sufjan Stevens, Wilco) while neatly folding in contributions from Christie Gardner (lilo), Sophia Bartlett (Tugboat Captain) and Michael Rhea (Symbol Soup).
Burnett dons his shades to guide us through Afterlight.
—Hobart Rowland
1) “Throwing Down”
“A lot of songs on the album come from a disappointment in myself. I love to be hard on myself, and “Throwing Down” is no exception. I was noticing that any time my girlfriend wasn’t around, I’d stay out late and drink more than when she was. If someone else was throwing down, then I’d be, too.”
2) “Avert”
“I’m disappointed again. This time it’s the feeling of not wanting to attend social events. Sometimes you only want to be around one person. You don’t want to share their attention, and you sure don’t want to talk to 15 people. During recording, we wanted a really soft hi-hat sound, so (drummer) Maggie (McGuire) reached for two forks, which make the soft clicking sound on the track. It was all about capturing the heightened warmth of your own home when the time to leave draws closer.”
3) “Safety Net”
“The lyrical content of ‘Safety Net’ is heavy, but it’s also quite self-explanatory. Falling through the safety net is falling past the point of no return—no way back. I had the idea for a radio-static intro after re-listening to ‘Chaos Of The Galaxy/Happy Man’ by Sparklehorse, where a radio fuzzes between stations before the song fully kicks in. When I suggested it, our producer acted like I’d asked if he had a guitar amp, proudly pulling out his little transistor radio, which he hooked up so we could actually tune in to ‘Safety Net.’”
4) “Watered Down”
“Looks like the subject matter doesn’t get any lighter. I wrote ‘Watered Down’ after my grandmother and grandfather both died within months of each other. They were always a solid base in Glasgow, so losing them felt like a real shaking of the familial foundations. My dad sang backing vocals on the recording, and I wanted the fiddle and banjo to create a real melancholic feel.”
5) “Wisecrack”
“Finally, some positivity. ‘Wisecrack’ is about being silly and jokey in the ultimate comfort of home. This one took on a life of its own in the studio, with Dougal (James)’s piano playing and Sophia’s fiddle accompanied by weird feedback swells.”
6) “More Me”
“We’ve been playing this song for a while, and it’s always been one people hold on to at live shows. I was scared to record it because I love playing it live and was worried it wouldn’t translate. Thankfully, Joe’s studio had a warmth that allowed the vulnerability of the song to come through. ‘More Me’ really builds, and we recorded it on a hot day where, by the end of that last chorus, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house for sweat.”
7) “Dumb Luck”
“This almost didn’t make it to the album. It’s one of the oldest songs we recorded, and we played it at our first-ever show. When I still lived in Scotland, I used to walk quite long distances instead of catching the bus. ‘Dumb Luck’ is easy-breezy. It’s about just going for a walk to clear your head with the aim of realizing all you need is dumb luck. I thought walking loads would make me tired so I’d sleep better.”
8) “Know What To Say”
“We’re back to frustration stations. This time I’m frustrated by not having the words to articulate how I’m feeling—or sometimes to articulate at all. I rewrote the lyrics at a time when I was reading a lot about the war in Gaza, and it became clear to me that these worries about not knowing what to say were nothing compared to the challenges of people in other places.”
9) “Stranger”
“I wrote this about how it feels when your schedule doesn’t align with someone else’s. Despite living together, you might only see flashes of one another. With a friend, I wrote violin to accompany the stripped-back vocals and acoustic guitar. Aiming to capture the intimacy of the song, we recorded it live in the studio with just a couple of mics.”
10) “Kicking”
“After all the disappointment in myself and the tenderness of ‘Stranger,’ we come to ‘Kicking.’ Shortly before his death, my grandfather said he was ‘still kicking,’ which encapsulated his verve for life despite his body’s slowing. In the video (directed by Robyn Black), I represented this tenacious spirit by repeatedly falling down hills yet always getting back up. Inspired by Teenage Fanclub, we really cranked the guitars on this one, then Sophia came in and did some incredible improvised fiddle playing. As Joe said, ‘Kicking’ is the end of a movie. It’s also the end of the album.”
See Starter Car live.
