Breaking Point

Glasgow-based sibling duo Natalie and Sean McGhee talk identity, self-acceptance and impeccable timing ahead of the release of their new album as Comfort

Words: Arusa Qureshi

It’s not a revelation to say that things feel particularly broken at the moment. From the spread of exclusionary politics and right wing hatred to the literal destruction of the planet and rise of a capitalist-tinged survival of the fittest, it can all get a bit much. But with everything feeling so ludicrously and laughably bad so much of the time, you can’t help but ask: What next? Where do we go from here?

“It’s a question that I’ve felt was really relevant with the sociopolitical landscape of Britain and Scotland,” Comfort’s Natalie McGhee explains, referring to the question at the heart of the band’s new LP What’s Bad Enough? “It was also a personal question because I’ve stru led a lot throughout my life with mental health and I think a lot of us, in a lot of the things we experience can put it off because we’re taught if it’s not a crisis, it’s not a problem – you can just grin and bear it. With this album, I wanted to explore all the facets of the wider culture and myself as a person: what is bad enough? It’s already at a breaking point and it still doesn’t feel extreme enough to justify the mass uproar that we should be having.”

Since the release of Not Passing in 2019, the duo have toured extensively, developing their sound as well as their punk, no-holds-barred ethos. In their off-kilter soundscapes and empowering, abrasive vocals, they’ve settled on something that is confrontational but engaging; cheeky but full of a rebellious and provocative energy that is easy to get behind.

“I guess it’s really angry in a lot of ways,” Natalie says of the new album, “but also defiant because it’s about knowing that you are worth more than that. And it’s about the stru le of accepting your worth. It’s about accepting that if you’ve got breath in your lungs, you are worth it. And that should be enough.”

What’s Bad Enough? traverses numerous themes that feel eerily timely and relevant, from trans rights to growing intolerance. But as Sean notes, it sadly epitomises how little has changed. “It’s funny, because we recorded it almost two years ago now,” he says. “Loads of people, with Real Woman especially, were like, ‘did you time this to come out right now with the gender reform controversy?’ But no, we recorded it years ago, it’s just that these issues are persisting, and they’ve gotten worse.”

In the self-produced music video for Real Woman, Natalie dances boldly around Glasgow, singing biting lyrics like ‘Your prejudice is not my problem / What world are you living in? / Gender a car before a person’. At one point, she humorously lifts her top up to reveal JK Rowling’s face covering her nipples. “It felt like one of the more accessible ones, because it is angry, but it’s also quite cheeky,”

Natalie explains. “And we also just knew that we could make a banging video for it. We quite early had the idea for the JK Rowling-covered nipples. It just felt natural because it’s a strong statement and says a lot about who we are as a band.”

“It kind of encapsulates the jump from our last record too, which was basically like a demo that we did really DIY,” Sean adds. “This was obviously in a proper studio, and it’s embracing a lot of more pop and hip-hop influences, which are big influences on the band.”

As well as adopting these influences in a much bi er way, What’s Bad Enough? signals the duo’s leap in confidence and overall drive towards a version of self-acceptance. For Natalie, this comes in the form of being able to explore the more beautiful side of things, as well as the negative. “I don’t want to just be a one-dimensional writer that only writes about one thing, because life is just not like that. I can be very self-doubting and hard on myself. So you just sort of come around more to the idea that you’re not terrible at what you do and then that leads you to having the courage to experiment more.”

Sean admits that it’s taken them a few years to get to this point but the journey is something they’re proud of and this sense of freedom and rejection of others’ standards permeates clearly throughout What’s Bad Enough? And on the future of Comfort?

“We’re hoping to get straight back in the studio as soon as possible – keep building things, keep playing further away from home,” he says.

“Yeah just keep playing, keep writing and regardless of the outcome, just to not let anything affect that passion we have for expressing ourselves,” Natalie continues. “I truly believe creativity is a function of being alive. It’s such a privilege to keep doing it with someone you really care about. It’s about having as close to a banger of a life as you can in what is the absolute rubble of society right now, and helping people, helping each other. Hopefully, our music just continues to reach out and make people feel less alone.”

What’s Bad Enough? is released on 5 May via FatCat Records

Comfort play Conroy’s Basement, Dundee, 12 May; The Old Hairdressers, Glasgow, 13 May; Leith Depot, Edinburgh, 14 May linktr.ee/comfortglasgow

It wouldn’t be a POP! issue without a problem page – in the first of a new column, newly anointed agony aunt Anahit Behrooz offers some advice to our readers

My boyfriend and I are generally very happy and have a great relationship. However he is not ‘online’ and doesn’t get any of the memes or cultural refs I send to him/talk about. AITA for wanting him to be more online so we can talk about niche Twitter beefs?

Firstly I’d like to thank you, anon, for staying true to the brief of this page, which is Extremely Petty Shit. But Extremely Petty Shit that matters! Someone’s texting style and their investment in contemporary cultural discourse is something I think about a lot, to the extent that I have brought it up multiple times with multiple friends, and they have multiple times kindly told me to grow up. So, I get it.

I don’t think you’re an arsehole for wanting him to be online, although arguably online is where all the Bad Stuff™ is so like, maybe a bit. But like I said, I get it! The internet, and being chronically online, is a language, and language is what creates connection – it’s where our humour and mutual recognition come from and how we create a shared psychic space with someone, which is all intimacy really is.

At the same time though, being lo ed off in this day and age is a mental health choice more than anything. And, however much you want your partner to understand the specific sociolinguistic ways that Elon Musk is a huge loser, it is unfortunately a boundary that needs to be respected. But honestly maybe you could just tell them? Build it into your relationship, like Prometheus bringing fire from Mount Olympus This is admittedly dangerously close to one of those advice columns where they’re like, “if he’s bad in bed just tell him what to do and it’ll actually be super sexy”. However, as there is simply nothing sexy about Twitter discourse, I think the comparison stops there x

It sometimes feels lonely with my partner. Though we are in the same room, it feels like I’m alone. He usually comes from work and is tired and then just watches TV. He doesn’t really want to do anything outside our home. I get he is tired, but if it happens often it makes me not like him so much.

Oh man. I’m going to compare your situation to a book (I reference this book all the time, to the extent that maybe it’s the only book I’ve ever read?) just because my heart is breaking a little and I need to deflect. I don’t know if you’ve read Olivia Laing’s The Lonely City but she talks about the deceptive idea of loneliness as something happening in solitude, whereas it very often happens within busyness – whether the intimacy of a relationship or the crowds of a city. And it’s so hard because when we’re in those situations we expect it the least, and it hurts so much more.

I guess in terms of practical advice, I feel you maybe need to identify what it is that hurts you. Do you worry what it says about his tendency towards insularity? Do you feel he’s ignoring your needs – for closeness, for conversation? Are you bored and want to be out more? The latter is maybe the easiest fix (the idea that our partners can tend to all our emotional needs is a myth –maybe you need to rely on your friends for that part of your life?) but the other two… there is a potential incompatibility there, either in how you want to live your lives, or the ways he is willing to attend to yours. Unfortunately, nothing to be done other than to have a very gentle but firm conversation, and to always, always bear in mind that you’re not silly for finding your desire – whether for someone or for a kind of life – important

How to heal from someone who was giving indications of wanting a serious relationship, but then left?

Lol yep, shoot me. Not to be like this happened to my buddy Eric (me) but this happens to my buddy Eric (me) a lot.

This is maybe the easiest question to answer because there is a very practical solution – mute them on everything! I mean literally everything!!! The artificiality of social media, where we have access to people we normally wouldn’t have access to after a painful rupture, is fucked up and bad! I know it’s hard and it feels like you’re the one creating a final break, but honestly? They did that and you’re just trying to move on with your life. Why is their stupid little green circle appearing in your flat at half-past-midnight when you’re trying to go to sleep? No thank you!

These practicalities aside, I would also be very careful about the narratives you build for yourself out of this. It’s easy when faced with this kind of rejection to spin it into a reflection of yourself (cause and effect: they left so maybe they left because of you) or a lack of trust in your ability to read things (did you make it all up in your head?). Ultimately, however, the only relationship you have to live with forever is the one with yourself, and internalising these awful narratives because someone was chaotic and inconsiderate is really harmful. They might leave but that shit sticks around. That’s what my buddy Eric says anyway x

Do you have a problem Anahit could help with? Email pettyshit@theskinny.co.uk or check out our Instastories for fully anonymised submissions