Who better to sing you a genteel bedtime story than master of dark arts David Shrigley and king of glib, Arab Strap co-founder Malcolm Middleton?
Story Time, a graphic and scatological tale of animals and morality which concludes with the jovially phrased mantra “we hate life”, is the first taste of the duo’s musical pairing, which started in 2007 and took another seven years to gestate. “It’s the song that started it all,” Middleton recalls. “Funny, disturbing, and then a bit more disturbing. It’s a beautiful song, not just a cheap shock,” he says.
The track will feature on Music and Words, a collaboration which arrived after Shrigley created the artwork for Middleton’s A Brighter Beat album. It features the vocals of comic actor Gavin Mitchell, Californian friend Scott Vermeire, actor Bridget McCann and David Shrigley himself.
“I loved all the music Malcolm made,” says Shrigley. “We have similar sensibilities; we’re both into darkness, pathos, despair; existential things. It was just what I wanted, even though I didn’t really know what I wanted.”
Out on 15 December, there will be a limited vinyl run of 1,000 12-inch records, each with individual artwork by David Shrigley, which you can see above.
