Super Looper

You won't find Looper on any Classic Love Moods Volume 2 compilations, but they write some of the best and most beautiful love songs around.

'Impossible Things No. 2' from their debut album Up A Tree narrates the gorgeous real life story of how Stuart and his wife and fellow Looper Karn met through long meandering letters over the course of seven years. What could easily disintegrate into bad sixth form poetry becomes an unflinchingly honest and intimate tale.
Their follow up album The Geometrid finely tunes Looper's penchant for knocking out killer cute tunes that can still make a dancefloor dizzy, with the lead single 'Mondo '77' a centrepiece for indie discos this summer.
"It's become a live highlight of sorts," enthuses Stuart. "Karn has done a video for each song, and some of them are really funny. For 'Mondo 77' Karn has Francis' voice (BMX Bandits, Teenage Fanclub) on a sampler and plays around with it."
Stuart has many fond memories of Looper's last Irish tour with Jeepster label mates Salako, so much so that The Geometrid's most upful track 'Money Hair' was born here.
"We were all in a pub in Dublin and a bouncer was trying to clear the place and kept shouting come ahead (Pardon? Ed). We thought that he was shouting money hair , so it became a kind of a stupid catchphrase for the rest of the tour."
As well as being an elusive species of moth, The Geometrid refers to Looper's very own online cyberstation, where you can visit the Looper listening booth and numerous other virtual features. "We've got the shop on now and an art gallery. My sister is the curator of the gallery. On the rest of the spacestation, there are more soundclips and soundbites. It seems to be getting a lot of hits from America. The last time we were there it was a tour with The Flaming Lips last March and April which was fantastic. There was a big tornado and lightning and the road was covered in frogs, so Bug Rain and Uncle Ray (both on The Geometrid) came from that.
As so many Looper songs seem to be written on the road, does Stuart ever get tired of constant Looper commitments?
"Whether we are touring or not we seem to be always writing. We re getting ideas together for the next album already. Sure we take a few weeks off here and there, but I love Looper."
Has your prolific workrate become more feasible since you (very amicably) left Belle and Sebastian?
"Yeah, I think so. We're not having to think about other things. When I was in Belle and Sebastian and came home from a Looper tour, I'd immediately have to think about other things. It came to the point where it got very exhausting. Now I enjoy shows much more than I used to. "