No windows

"No Windows could be a generational talent.” - The Line Of Best Fit

"As ever, brilliant, mature songwriting from a duo who simply don’t miss."
- So Young

“epic – The FADER

“loaded with nostalgia while waltzing into the future.” – NME

"inquisitive alt-pop with a dogged DIY aesthetic" – CLASH

+ support from Gorilla vs Bear, Stereogum, Paste, DIY, Brooklyn Vegan & many more…

Today, Edinburgh duo No Windows continue their steep upward trajectory with the announcement of their much-anticipated new EP The Great Traitor. The new release follows their critically acclaimed 2024 EP Point Nemo, a packed out run of EU / UK tour dates - including being part of The Great Escape’s ‘First Fifty’ and supporting full Slow Pulp tour - and is accompanied by a new single titled “Return”.

Multi-instrumentalist Morgan Morris and lyricist Verity Slangen’s evocative blend of classic pop & folk has earned them widespread support from radio and press, as well as the coveted Sound of Young Scotland Award at the Scottish Album of the Year (SAY) Awards in 2023. In 2024, they signed to Fat Possum records at 18 and 19-years-old respectively, with just one self-released EP (Fishboy) to their name.

With every release to date, No Windows have continued to refine their atmospheric indie pop blend, combining warm Duster-style soundscapes with lo-fi experimentalism and nods to borderless indie-folk. The Great Traitor EP expands the duo’s sonic territory even further, leaving the more familiar indie traits behind in favour of lush, psychedelic arrangements that take their cues from 70s chamber pop (George Harrison, Leonard Cohen) and film score composer Jon Brion (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). Produced with Ali Chant (Dry Cleaning, Sorry, Yard Act), the recording process took them out of Morgan’s DIY bedroom set-up and into a studio, where they had access to a breadth of instruments that allowed for more exploration across the EPs six tracks.

Lead single “Return” picks up the closest to where Point Nemo left off. A slow burning mixture of 90s alt rock and pastoral indie that sounds like something Buffy would have swooned to at the Bronze, it’s written from the perspective of Verity at 16-years-old – understanding her autism, always feeling awkward and out of place at school. The track makes its way from dark and dissonant to sunny and delicate, like someone weaving through the woods and out into the open. “I can’t fit into your space / Mould me into the girl you want to see,” Verity sings with a fiery confidence that has come with age. “It feels quite angry,” she says of the track. “The way I sing it live, there's a lot of emotion behind it. If I had actually written it [back then], it probably would have been a much sadder, mellower song.”

The single is accompanied by a stunning new visual directed by CLUMP Collective. The dark and anxious video sees the duo embark on an unspoken, frenzied search through and around a cabin in the woods, unravelling a growing connection despite their failure to find what they are looking for, emulating the themes of the track.

Written after the release of Point Nemo, The Great Traitor marks a transitional period for No Windows, both as a band and as individuals. The songs came together while Morgan was in the process of deciding to drop out of university, while Verity had just started university and was adjusting to life there. For both of them, 2024 specifically “felt like the transition from adolescence to adulthood.” The EP reflects that in its blooming instrumentals and its emotional nuance. “When I wrote [the lyrics for] Point Nemo I was very much a teenager and very hormonal still. I think this EP is coming out of that a little bit,” Verity offers. “For me, it’s a mediation between being a younger person to being someone in my 20s who’s figuring things out a bit more.”

The result is a series of heartfelt tracks that capture transient feelings at their most acute, while at the same time arranging them within the cinematic landscape of memory; an immortalisation of significant life events that have, for No Windows, already come and gone. “Our music has always felt quite nostalgic to me,” says Verity. “I think The Great Traitor sounds like a snapshot in time. A picture, almost, of how we were in that moment.”