PUMAJAW
Pumajaw are a British musical duo of Pinkie Maclure and John Wills, who have worked together since 2000 and recorded 7 critically acclaimed albums.
Pinkie Maclure has worked as a singer and songwriter since 1984 releasing three solo albums on Beggar's Banquet, One Little Indian and Red Flame records in the 80s and 90s.
On her Beggars Banquet album, ‘Favourite,' Pinkie worked with John Wills who engineered and co produced the album. They soon found they had much common ground with their love of using found sounds and field recording alongside electronica and traditional instruments and began writing music together.
John Wills was one of the founder members of art noise bands Loop and the Hair and Skin Trading Company (Beggars Banquet). He has worked as a producer for Creation Records, Beggar’s Banquet and Wiiija amongst others and arranges and produces all the duo’s material.
In 2000 they released their first album, ‘From Memorial Crossing’ which created a stir in the music press winning them fans from Radio 3’s Verity Sharp (Late Junction) to Kevin Le Gendre (Jazzwise) who described Pumajaw as 'disarmingly beautiful'.
Radio 3 invited them to perform the album as a live broadcast from the Edinburgh Fringe.
Together John and Pinkie have released 7 albums and have been fortunate to travel around the world promoting them in live and radio performances from Moscow to Texas.
In a chance meeting with Jarvis Cocker in Venice they were able to pass their new single Jacky Daw to him which he described ‘as really rather wonderful' on his 6 music show.
In 2014 they decided to take a different approach to performance and developed a multimedia show for the Edinburgh Fringe called ‘Song Noir’ with the backing of Creative Scotland, Made in Scotland and Summerhall. John created one hour of video and arranged songs from Film Noir classics played alongside some of their own material. The show ran for two fringes as well as touring in Europe.
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They were delighted with the reception they had from the press which including The Scotsman putting Song Noir in the top 50 shows of the festival and theatre critic Joyce Macmillan describing the show as ‘World class’.
Pumajaw share a love of combining addictive melodies with exploratory sounds, reaching beyond conventional instrumentation, but never at the expense of the song. Their work references film soundtracks and is inspired by greats such as Scott Walker, Jacques Brel and Jimmy Webb.
'Rather wonderful' Jarvis Cocker, BBC6 music.
‘Maclure’s extraordinary voice would deliver the greatest Bond theme ever.' The Herald
‘The bewitching Pumajaw are one of Scotland’s most exotic animals’ The Scotsman
There are eight wonderful, original songs here together with the most atmospheric instrumental arrangements and a voice that is nothing less than thrillingly world class. This is adventurous music from one of the country’s deeply hidden artistic treasures.’ 4.5/5 UNCUT
'Like some terrifying infant, Pinkie is bewitching as she laments over ominous soundscapes made by spectral John Wills (This is Fake DIY)