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Musicians Traceyanne ­Campbell and Danny Coughlan are the kind of people it would be easy to lose hours with.

Their friendship is effortless, the laughter is easy, the egos negligible.

It’s just over two years since ­Tracyanne’s best friend, and Camera Obscura bandmate, Carey Lander died from cancer.

She left behind a desolate space in Tracyanne’s life, which Danny is helping occupy.

Now for the first time since Carey’s death, Tracyanne has recorded again – in a collaboration with Danny, who previously recorded as Crybaby.

Their “melodic, murdery” album, Tracyanne and Danny, contains a tribute to Carey in the track Alabama.

“When I’m an old lady I’ll still miss you like crazy,” sings Tracyanne.

She said: “Losing Carey was massive. It still really has an impact.

“My whole life was completely changed. One day Carey was there, every day I saw her, and then she was gone. That was mind blowing. It was losing my identity in a sense because my identity was wrapped up in her.

“She was part of my job, she helped with my child, we went shopping, she came for Sunday dinner. Then she was gone and I am wandering down the street and everything reminds me of her.”

(Image: Getty)

Tracyanne is from Glasgow, while London-born Danny is based in Bristol. They were introduced by mutual friends in the business in 2013.

He opened some Camera Obscura shows in the UK and the pair shared admiration and song ideas.

But tentative plans to work together were set aside while Camera Obscura wrote, recorded, released and promoted their fifth album Desire Lines.

Carey died form a rare form of bone cancer, in October 2015, aged 33, four years after diagnosis.

She had guts and fire, refusing to leave the world quietly, enduring chemotherapy and an operation which, but for the surgeon’s skills, could have cost her a leg.

Traceyanne says the keyboard player and vocalist is one of the highlights of Desire Lines, an album Carey insisted they finish, despite the band ­struggling to find the stomach for it.

Tracyanne added: “I was ­trying to write and some songs took ages because it just wasn’t my priority, Carey was. There were hospital trips.

“It was hard. There were times when she seemed a bit better. There was a light at the end of the tunnel but then the hope went.”

Camera Obscura were popular here but even bigger in the United States and when Carey died, tributes came from the likes of Hollywood director Judd Apatow and actor Zooey Deschanel.

Since then, Camera Obscura just haven’t had the heart to record, with an unspoken need to press pause.

(Image: Malcolm Cochrane Photography)

Tracyanne said: “We are still processing such a big thing. We still keep in touch, see each other and talk but it is still painful.”

But Tracyanne knows Carey would have been proud of how they have slowly pulled themselves together.

Having son Gene, four, with her musician husband Tim Davidson, also “made wallowing ­impossible”. And Tracyanne has found solace in this “amazing outlet” with Danny, which also provided a chance to stand on her own two feet without the group.

She said: “I have been so lucky to find someone like Dan who has amazing song writing capabilities and is incredibly patient. We share a childishness which is joyous.

“Our friendship is not a ­replacement but Carey left a space as big as it possibly could be and now I have a best pal again. I think she would have been so glad I got off my arse and didn’t mope about. I think she would have loved the music.”

The album was recorded at Clashnarrow, a studio in the ­Highlands owned by Edwyn Collins, and its remote location gave an added “cinematic” feel of wilderness to the album.

The Agatha Christie sense of setting is where the description “murdery” comes in.

Their manager Francis Macdonald had suggested Edwyn’s studio having recorded there with his band Teenage Fanclub.

Edwyn and his wife Grace opened their door readily and graciously.

(Image: Ross Gilmore/Getty Images)

Danny said: “We had an amazing time. It was a bit like going to see your aunt and uncle on a long summer holiday from school and making a record at the same time. They are a great couple. They are a double act.

“Edwyn is very charismatic but he is also a lot of fun. When we were doing vocals we could hear his booming laugh in our cans. We did have to edit out a lot of his laughter.”

Edwyn features on Alabama and Grace sings on O’Keeffe.

Edwyn was a huge support and suggested they work with Carwyn Ellis of Colorama and Sean Read from Dexys Midnight Runners.

Danny said: “It all came ­together in such a perfect way.”

The album, carefree and honest, yet melancholy and dark, feels like being swept along in a changeable breeze.

Later in the year they will tour the US, and Tracyanne and Danny know they will struggle to leave their ­families, so will only do two weeks.

Tracyanne said: “I know lots of men in bands go away for months on end. I feel that’s just not an option for me.

“If I go away and miss Gene like mad and feel I would rather be at home doing the ironing and the school run, then I’ll need to think again.”

They are “terrified” of performing but take comfort in sharing the stage.

Danny said: “I have a lot of doubt and I don’t have as much experience so we helped each other.”

Tracyanne said: “I am quite an anxious performer but it is mind over matter. I want to have a word with myself, tell myself this is a great opportunity and just enjoy it.”

Tracyanne and Danny will play Saint Luke’s in Glasgow on May 31 and the album is released on Merge on May 25.