Tell us a bit about God Help the Girl and its relationship to Belle and Sebastian (B&S)
God Help the Girl started as an outlet for me to write songs for other voices. I started hearing pop songs in my head with female vocalists. So I put the songs aside until I got time to record them.

When you conceived God Help the Girl, was film always part of the plan?
The ‘girl’ songs I was writing were coming from the same character, so when I got a chance, I sat down and started writing a story for her, and two other characters. That’s where it started.

When did you become interested in film making – is it something you’ve always wanted to do?
Around 2000 I started getting an urge to write a film. Stevie (guitar, B&S) and me used to talk about developing it for the group. I always wanted to base a story round the ‘Grosvenor Cafe’ which closed around that time. I couldn’t stand that it closed, so that was a surrogacy thing. I wanted to keep all the characters with me. But, I got busy with music again and never took it forward. It was at that time that I became entranced with film the way I used to be entranced with music, and took great comfort in watching favourite films over and over. So it was probably inevitable I’d get into it.

How did you get the film project up and running?
Barry Mendel, producer of Rushmore and the Royal Tenenbaums (directed by Wes Anderson) got in touch around 2007. I was already well into the script so it’s like he was reading my diary or my mind or something; he said if B&S were ever to make a film that he’d like to help. So that was it - easy. He became my business and creative partner.

Music’s a driving force in the film-making process for directors such as Quentin Tarantino – can you explain if there was a similar crossover for you?
I think the music is the absolute driving force in my film, the absolute reason for making it. Furthermore, it is a film ‘about’ music, about the creation and veneration of it. Though Tarantino uses music better than pretty much anyone, I’m sure story, dialogue and character come before music for him. Maybe not. You’d have to ask him!

Can you tell us about any creative challenges you found in film that you hadn’t encountered in music?
Eh, all of it! I loved writing dialogue, but that’s a long way from a finished script. That was hard. Casting, blocking, acting, lighting, shooting – all new to me. I’m slightly more at home in the edit.

Were your experiences as a musician transferrable?
The ability to guide a whole process from start to finish, to direct large numbers of people, to know that it was all going to be ‘ok’ - probably. That’s what I got from B&S.

Belle and Sebastian have a very distinctive visual style - you clearly have an interest in design and creating images with words, which comes across in much of what you do. What or who would you describe as your main influences in this area?
Ha! good question. When me and Andy Symington did the first LP, we knew it was going to be photo-based. I already had the picture, but we didn’t know what we were doing. So we got out his Blue Note Cover Art book Volume 1 and pored over that. Our effort came out looking like a Smiths record sleeve, which is not suprising. So I’d say, The Smiths and Blue Note.

I’m also tainted with the brush of having made a thousand club and gig flyers and posters in the 80s, so the limitations of cut and paste and photocopy is in me. So I’d say 80s indie posters, record sleeves and fanzines are right there. Then you can take that a step back to children’s book design and illustration in the ‘classic’ age, 1940 – 1970 perhaps?

Penguin books in general, arty magazines from the 60s – I love trawling though the piles in old bookstores. Junk shops – I usually go to ‘Retro’ off byres road when I’m doing a new record sleeve, just to get me going.

I love the way Scotland used to be portrayed in old guide books, just a flavour of Scotland in the past, all the kitsch and tartan, hiking, lassies dancing. Postcard Records loved that stuff, and I do too.

Edit the film… lots of music still to do for the film, stick the film out, then get the band back together next year.

Interview by Laura Laville