Life Without Buildings

Formed in Glasgow in 1999, Life Without Buildings comprised vocalist Sue Tompkins, guitarist Robert Johnston, bassist Chris Evans and drummer Will Bradley — a quartet that emerged from the artistic milieu of the Glasgow School of Art. The band’s sound sat at the intersection of post‑punk, indie rock, art rock, new wave and math rock, featuring tense but mobile music built on angular guitars, a dry rhythmic backbone and songs often driven by Tompkins’s singular vocal delivery, somewhere between spoken word, repetition, fragments of phrases and skewed vocal lines. The group took shape when Johnston, Evans and Bradley — who had initially considered a more electronic direction — invited Tompkins after seeing her perform in an art context in Glasgow. In 2001 Life Without Buildings released their sole studio album, Any Other City, from which The Leanover quickly became associated with the band’s identity. During this period they also shared stages with the early‑2000s indie generation, without fully blending into it. The split came in 2002, when Sue Tompkins withdrew to focus on her visual‑art practice. A live recording, Live at the Annandale Hotel, was released later in 2007.