FOLK tales, a sense of adventure, and a Leith chippy have all been the unlikely inspiration for a new album written by Dunfermline’s Fay Fife.

She has spent the best part of two years building a sound for her band and newest venture, the Countess of Fife, which has seen two different line-ups since its inception before the pandemic.

And while the new release, Star of the Sea, written by Fay and bandmate Allan Mcdowall, has been welcomed with positive reviews, the Rezillos singer says many people don’t quite know what to make of it.

“People are saying, ‘We didn’t know how to categorise this’ and to me it’s strongly influenced by country and lots of other things so we describe it as alt-country but it uses a lot of other influences as well,” she told Press:ON.

“We had a live EP out, that was very well received, but that was prior to the pandemic and during the pandemic things just sort of went into a deep phase and fell apart to some degree.

“During the recording of the album, which occurred during some of the lighter moments of the lockdowns, we brought in new musicians who are now part of the band.”

She has added a host of musicians to the group, including Kirsten Adamson, whose dad was the late Stuart Adamson, of Big Country; Chris Agnew, and Willie Molleson, who she met for the first time when he joined them to play in the recording studio.

“He sat down to play drums and I just thought, he is so spot on for the band,” Fay explained.

“Kirsten Adamson, I’d known her before and we had been on the same bill at a festival and saw her sing, she’s a beautiful singer, and I thought she would just work.

“Our bass player (Agnew), he was the last to join our ranks, I had started calling around and this fantastic guy came up, he’s got a great pedigree and he just fits right away.”

The Countess of Fife had started as a personal writing project for Fay in collaboration with Allan but soon grew into something different from anything she had done before.

“The whole inception of the band was a way of doing something that’s really led by creativity and not doing something which you are expected to do,” she explained.

“We wanted to do something which is quite free in the writing really and Allan and I have a great songwriting partnership, I’m not afraid to do it on my own, but sometimes with other people as well.

“It coalesces around this idea, Star of the Sea was something which helped seafarers and fishermen if they were lost at sea and it’s something which leads to safety.

“I think it has a sense of adventure but also a sense of calmness and spirituality.

“The songs just fit around that idea in some way or other, there are choppy waters but hopefully heading somewhere that’s home or calmer.

“I was quite aspirational in a way with going somewhere positive.”

But it isn’t just old stories which have inspired the release, with ideas, and cover artwork, stemming from an unlikely source.

“It’s urban, it draws from Leith and Leith culture but also being out in the wilds,” Fay said.

“Star of the Sea used to be a chip shop in Leith, the one on the cover of the album is one which no longer exists, we reinvented it.

“It’s certainly very different from the Rezillos or the Revillos and people say that to me, they ask how it can be so different, but I think as the years have gone on, I’ve been much more into experimenting with music and doing my own thing.

“Before that, I was too busy bringing up my son to prioritise music but now I can and I just want to experiment and explore what I feel is coming out of me.

“I am always ready for experimenting but you are creating an identity as you go along, something that people recognise, there’s certainly songs now that are what we are about, but that stretch that and are very ethereal-sounding.”

Next up is series of live shows and a planned gig in Dunfermline next spring though currently the band, who all have other musical commitments and solo careers, have only played on stage together three times.

“Things are going to be shaping up for next year, things are bubbling away,” Fay added.

“We’ve done a lot of the work and we just want to play the songs now.

“I don’t think playing live is the most important thing but it is certainly as important as other things and it’s where you really connect with an audience, you never know quite what’s going to happen and that just makes it very exciting.

“My main emphasis at the moment is to produce really nice, lovely music, and make it sound good, it’s all about the music and a simple communication therein.

“You can feel a sense of interest building, when people hear the album they might be quite surprised if they haven’t been introduced to us before, it’s quite a different sound from what they’ll expect.”