Nights to Forget is the much-anticipated second album from Scottish Album of the Year Award nominated Glasgow-based Irish singer-songwriter Claire McKay, AKA Martha Ffion. Set for release on August 14, 2020 on 12” vinyl and via digital platforms, it’s a bold and exciting departure from her previous work, embracing Claire’s love of envelope-pushing contemporary pop, forgoing the storytelling of her debut album Sunday Best in favour of personal reflections on loss, letting go, looking forward and the futility of nostalgia. The album is preceded by the singles ‘After the Fact’ and ‘Want You To Know’, both of which are available to stream and share now.

Produced by Dave Frazer and recorded at his home studio in Glasgow, Nights to Forget finds Claire pondering on everything from politics, feminism and depression to David Attenborough, and channelling her love of artists from St. Vincent and Roisin Murphy to Anderson .Paak and Grimes, on a mission to make a record that she wanted to hear, rather than a record that felt like an obvious follow-on from its predecessor.

“Most of it was written the summer after Sunday Best came out,” explains Claire. “It was an uncharacteristically hot summer by Glasgow standards but I spent most of it holed up in my flat on Garageband. When I would venture out for a walk, I kept bumping into my friend, Dave Frazer and we’d end up chatting about music for ages. I told him about the kind of record I wanted to make – something more fresh and modern – and we decided to give it a go together. I wasn’t tied to any label or timeframe, so we ended up gradually rebuilding and reworking my demos over the course of a year. We mainly worked in his flat, after work or on weekends. Everything was given so much breathing space – it was nice to let each song properly develop in its own time rather than having the pressure of studio deadlines. Deciding when to say it was finished was the hard part.”