Idlewild, those onetime punk pups, are 30 years old this year and will be marking the occasion, not with some greatest hits tour, but a new album, called simply Idlewild. There is a sense of the definitive about self-titling an album. The Smiths, The Clash, The Stone Roses and Foo Fighters came straight out the gates with eponymous offerings. Led Zeppelin loved the idea so much they released four consecutive examples of the form. Idlewild join the likes of Blur and Metallica in releasing their self-titled opus later in their career.

‘We’re a bit late to the party,’ says frontman Roddy Woomble, who admits that part of the reasoning was simply that his bandmates didn’t like any of the titles he suggested, ‘but also it really did feel like we were referencing ourselves a bit more than we would have done in the past.’

The catalyst for their tenth album was touring to mark the 20th anniversary of The Remote Part. Back in 2002, their third full-length album sealed the Edinburgh band’s reputation as purveyors of thoughtful indie anthems and one of the most quietly influential Scottish bands of the last several decades. Idlewild are generally not an outfit who embrace nostalgia but Woomble notes that ‘sometimes it takes a concert and a reaction from the crowd to realise that you’ve done good work’. Coming together again post-pandemic, the tour ‘re-energised us to make music together as a band. It was actually a fairly quick process, not rushed but there was a real focus there.’

The five-piece convened in various locations, including on Woomble’s island home of Iona, using the old library building as a base. ‘Andrew Carnegie donated the money to build it in the 20s and people can leave books and take books out, but you have to go and get the library key,’ says Woomble. ‘It’s a good space because everyone is there together and it’s also socially really fun because you have to make that effort to get there. Islands are always like that; the minute you leave the mainland and arrive on the island you feel like you’ve left something behind. There’s definitely a magic, especially that second boat. It’s that island-off-an-island aspect.’

The album was then recorded, lickety-split, in guitarist Rod Jones’ studio in Edinburgh and manifests, to Woomble’s mind, a return to the quintessential Idlewild sound. It follows the more esoteric likes of Everything Ever Written and Interview Music, their two other releases since returning from hiatus in 2013 with ‘new’ members Luciano Rossi and Andrew Mitchell joining the founding triad of Woomble, Jones and drummer Colin Newton.

But what might that signature sound be? ‘It’s a combination of personalities first and foremost, that’s what I realise now,’ says Woomble. ‘Even though we argue among each other like teenagers, we do have something between us. I’m thinking more so Rod, Colin and I because we’ve been in a band for 30 years so there’s a different dynamic because we’ve got that history. And from a musical point of view, it’s fairly simple; we’re not over-complicating things, although there’s always that idea of “could there be another chorus?” We always have chorus one and chorus two and quite often chorus one becomes the verse and chorus two remains the chorus.’

Woomble points to Chicago veterans Wilco as his favoured blueprint for progressing gracefully as a band. ‘Some of their records aren’t as popular as other ones but they just carry on, working towards something, finding something new to say. I think that’s one thing that people like about us; that we carry on being creative. It’s a body of work, a life’s work of being creative together.’

Idlewild are touring the UK until Monday 5 January 2026; Idlewild is released by V2 Records on Friday 3 October.