Teenage Fanclub on the remote Scottish island of Great Bernera when recording Do Not Dare To Dream. Picture Donald Milne
TEENAGE Fanclub head to Project House, Leeds, on Monday (9/11/2026) on their 15-date November tour to promote Do Not Dare To Dream.
“Last time in Leeds we played the Brudenell Social Club, and it’s good when you’ve been doing it for so long, and you’re going a back to cities you’ve been before, to play somewhere new there,” says co-founder and lead guitarist Raymond McGinlay.
Released on October 9 on Merge Records as the follow-up to 2023’s Nothing Lasts Forever, their 13th studio album was recorded at Black Bay Studio on the remote Scottish island of Great Bernera, the Glasgow band’s most remote recording location since their formation in 1989.
This setting helped the five-piece to focus on the work, while putting them in a place of awe, surrounded by the sound of crashing waves and the haunting presence of ancient ruins.
“It was a new studio to us,” says Raymond, who is still at the heart of Teenage Fanclub’s signature blend of melodic guitars, warm harmonies, and reflective songwriting, along with fellow songwriter Norman Blake, after 37 years. “We’re always on the lookout, when we’re making a new record, to find a new place that we’ve never been to before.
“We usually start with fragments of songs, allowing things to happen in the moment, reacting to the surroundings, and when we were looking for a studio, there was this one on an island off the far end of the Isle of Lewis. We looked at pictures and it looked interesting.
“It worked out for us, doing the album in late January and early February, when we thought it would be bleak, but actually it was really beautiful: lovely to walk around, with not many people there and the main inhabitants being sheep. Not many hours of daylight, but at least there was light in the studio.”
Production duties were shared between band members, the band’s studio engineer and the studio owner. “There was no producer as such; it was a collective endeavour,” says Raymond, who “feels lucky that you find people that you connect with”.
Teenage Fanclub in Black Bay Studio when recording 13th studio album Do Not Dare To Dream. Picture: Donald Milne
“From that point of view, experience tells you to let things happen without having too much ego or someone trying to impose an idea. We’re pretty good at working together, with me and Norman presenting ideas, and then it’s all quite instinctive with the band.”
McGinlay and Blake are “the ones sitting up at night, maybe three in the morning, trying to figure out lyrics”. Alongside them for the recording sessions are long-time members Euros Childs (keyboards), David McGowan (bass) and Francis Macdonald (drums).
“Euros starts contributing or David does what he feels like doing, Francis joins in on drums, and it just kind of evolves into songs,” says Raymond. “The input of everyone is important.” So, on this occasion, were synthesisers and a Domus church organ found by the band at Black Bay, the organ now heard prominently on many songs, most notably on Over And Over.
“We approach everything kind of the same way each time we make a record,” says Raymond. “Whether you intend things to be different, you just have to be conscious of trusting your instincts in doing our thing. We are the people we are now that we were then, but the subtlety of things changes year to year All you can do is offer something that comes from within yourself.”
Raymond continues: “Sometimes, if you’re going to show something of yourself, you show vulnerability, which exists in everyday life, and I find it’s best to reveal something of yourself, rather than constructing a persona.”
How was the album title chosen? “It’s difficult when it comes to…coming up with a name for an album,” says co-founder Norman. “Especially after you’ve made 12 of them.” In the end, his song I Do Not Dare To Dream was adapted to represent the overriding theme of pushing back on hollow optimism while still embracing a quietly hopeful outlook. “Those ‘dare to dream’ sentiments are kind of ridiculous,” reckons Norman. “I don’t think the world works that way.”
Raymond adds: “Norman came up with the title as a riposte to that soundbite optimism, those completely meaningless expressions.” Instead Teenage Fanclub advocate resilience when facing an increasingly uncertain world, where the need is to find clarity and comfort in the everyday, rather than giving in to despair.
“Now it’s the unknowingness of it that makes it more scary,” he says. “We’re no different to anyone else in presenting introspective reflections on creativity.
“In the place where we made the record, people would have been singing thousands of years ago,” says Teenage Fanclub’s Raymond McGinlay. Picture: Donald Milne
“We’re not that different to people before technology, people dealing with difficult circumstances, though most of us had been far less pessimistic before.” That said, Raymond declares: “We can still be cheerful and optimistic in the face of things not being great”.
Picking a favourite from Do Not Dare To Dream, Raymond says: “I really like Norman’s song Somewhere To Land, the last one of his we recorded, where he added mellotron when we got back to Glasgow.”
Reflecting on Teenage Fanclub’s longevity, Raymond says: “Yeah, it’s been a while since we started doing this thing we do, but to us it feels like no time at all. In the place [Great Bernera] where we made the record, people would have been singing thousands of years ago. Life is short, but music is eternal.
“What you do with your life, doing this mad thing for 37 years, it‘s a privilege, because most people who want to do this, be in a band, make records, play concerts, most people don’t manage to do that. I don’t think we’re better than others, but somehow we connect with our audience and that has allowed us to continue.
“We started the band in 1989, going into the studio wanting to make a record in our little bubble. Me and Norman had played in the band The Boy Hairdressers, which then fizzled out and we thought, let’s do something, as opposed to just talking about it. Let’s make an album and ask if others are interested in these songs, going from just doing something for yourself, to then having an audience. That’s something you can’t take for granted.”
Four decades have taught McGinlay and Blake that “when you make a record you never presume anyone will be interested”, but that interest has sustained. For proof, Do Not Dare To Dream has just been placed at number 48 in Uncut magazine’s Top 80 albums of 2026.
Futuresound presents Teenage Fanclub at Project House, Armley Road, Leeds, on November 9, doors 7pm. Box office: https://www.seetickets.com/event/teenage-fanclub/project-house/3481726.
Track listing for Do Not Dare To Dream:
There Was You; Tomorrow People; Over And Over; Be With You Tonight; The Same Air; I Do Not Dare To Dream; Take Time; Day In The Sun; Somewhere To Land and Young And Wise.
The cover artwork for Teenage Fanclub’s Do Not Dare To Dream, released on Merge Records last month