MY INSPIRATION: The Doubtful Bottle – Mutiny

North Yorkshire’s anthemic rock band The Doubtful Bottle unveil their new song, Mutiny, this month, and it’s a suitably apt name for a track which rattles along with energetic fervour. Here, John Gillies from the band tell us more about the inspiration behind the song.

“In late 2013 then indie folk band The Conspirators (now indie rock outfit The Doubtful Bottle) went into the recording studio looking for some inspiration, a change of direction, a way to express their energetic and powerful live performances. Yellow Fish studio, near Lewes, was the venue. A week before the studio had hosted Roger Daltrey (The Who) and Wilko Johnson (Dr Feelgood) for the recording of their album Going Back Home. Producer Jake Rousham was still full of inspiration from the week before and applied some masterful tricks to the latest session. The whole band was recorded onto 24 track 2 inch analogue tape. 2 guitar amps with a total of 9 microphones (just for the amps!) were carefully positioned to get that full and punchy sound. The session was recorded through the mixing desk which was used to mix Live Aid!

The Doubtful Bottle (as they later became) recorded 3 songs in the session – two of which became the band’s debut single A and B side. The third was a song called Mutiny which would not be used until much later on.

I remember writing the song when on holiday in France – we were banging the beat on the table and shouting out the basic words, thinking, ‘this has a hook to it’, and it stuck. It’s a bit of a revolution song. Like let’s mess this up – if it’s not working something needs to change. You’ve got to stand up for yourself. That’s exactly what Mutiny says.

Fast forward to 2023 and Mutiny, a modern indie rock anthem, is the latest in a line of singles to come out from The Doubtful Bottle, just sneaking in before the release of the band’s new album later this year.”