Throughout Refined Believer's 10 captivating tracks, OSKA illustrates her experience with losing faith in certain friendships and romantic relationships, only to connect with someone who reaffirms her conviction. "Something that I was going through in my life was trusting some people again," OSKA says of the title Refined Believer and its title track, which alludes to the singer inching back to a place of trust after a period of holding back. "I feel like I can believe in something bigger than myself again, which doesn't have to be something religious. It just means that I'm finding the ability to hope again."
The Secret Goldfish release their first album in 25 years in June 2025 - Empty Holster has been in process since 1996 when vocalist Katy Lironi started collating songs by her favourite songwriters Vic Godard, Davy Henderson and James Kirk (the idea for Empty Holster was a covers album of their songs).
The tracks have been recorded extremely sporadically over the past decades and were finally finished off at Green Door studio and mastered by Samuel Joseph Smith.
Empty Holster also features covers of songs by Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham, Port Sulphur, The Beach Boys, and a long-lost Goldfish collaboration with Adventures in Stereo's Jim Beattie, Elevator, which was missing for 15 years, presumed lost. Musical guests appearing on Empty Holster include Mick Slaven (The Bluebells), Campbell Owens (AztecCamera), James Kirk (Orange Juice), Vic Godard (Subway Sect), Francis Macdonald (Teenage Fanclub), and Katy and Douglas's daughter Amelia Lironi (QUAD90). The album is pressed on Goldfish Orange vinyl at Seabass Vinyl in Scotland.