Conscious Pilot
Following the two EPs „Epoxy Plains“ and „Wipe Clean“, which were released in 2024, the debut album from the Glasgow quartet and currently the only British band on DevilDuck is finally here… Good things take time, but we are very happy that „Human Poultry“ is finished and will be released on May 8th.
„Human Poultry“ is an observation of the situations, emotions and characters the band encountered during their first two years together in Glasgow. It questions how we spend our time and how that decision is influenced by external factors.
Born out of personal experiences and perspectives on topics such as employment, crime, religion, technology, sport and art, each of the themes addressed speaks to the feeling of being slowly diluted or condensed by one’s surroundings, and the powerlessness to resist it. As the band came together as a complete formation in the ‘Workshop’ (drummer Chris McCrory’s studio in the city centre and the group’s rehearsal room), the sound of the album reflects both the uniqueness of the band’s cohesion and the pulse of the city of Glasgow.
The first single, ‚Internet Support‘, was influenced by a violent confrontation with a burglar, who turned out to be bassist Jack Sharp, who had climbed through the window after losing his keys. Laycock’s lyrics deal with farce, contradictions and modernity, seen through somewhat shitty glasses. The title track satisfies the urge to offset an unshakable feeling of helplessness by poking fun at the pathetic nature of self-pity, self-blame and self-doubt. It is about being slowly prepped and consumed by everything around you, accepting this consciously, trying not to hate yourself for not doing enough, overthinking, and ultimately just getting through the day. The song, though, doesn’t quite self-gaslight. Initially written about Laycock‘s memory of the feeling of being fired, ‚Human Poultry‘ is at war with itself; the need to vent frustration sits at odds with the reflex to mask and repress with attempted humor. ‚Horatio Burns‘ is a biography about a fictional film director, who’s desperate attempts to make a financially viable living from the industry while
Each song on „Human Poultry“ takes an emotion or feeling from the real world and puts it in a different frame. The other songs change the style of that frame, for example by turning something sad into something funny..
Conscious Pilot are Joe Laycock (vocals & guitar), Emmy Leishman (guitar & vocals), Jack Sharp (bass & vocals) and drummer Chris McCrory, who recorded and mixed the album together with Seth Evans (Black Midi, Shame, Geordie Greep) and Adele Phillips (Fontaines DC) at Rak Studios in London – Felix Davis (Geese, The Vaccines) then put his masterful touch on it. The artwork is by Scottish painter Keiti Forbes. After playing at The Great Escape in 2024 and various other shows around that time, they went on their first European tour in 2025, but have only played one show in Germany so far, as part of the Reeperbahn Festival.
