Biography
In the future I’d like to be a singer-songwriter and performer across Scotland. The reason for wanting to become a song-writer is because I can express my feelings towards others in a meaningful way. I wrote a song about my friends before leaving school called “24 days and 3 seconds” it’s about how we are all going our separate ways but we will still be together as we’ve been through so much, it’s something I don’t want to lose. Being able to record this and send it to my friends was so touching for them to hear and it felt good that I could pass on the heart-felt emotion to the people I care about most. That’s what I really like about song-writing and I hope to continue writing songs like this one to reach out emotions onto other people. Ever since I was a kid I’ve been interested in music. At the age of ten I took up classical violin lessons, slowly turning to trad music and got my grade six at the age of sixteen. When I was thirteen years old I took up guitar, watching my cousin sing and play made me want to learn and after a years’ worth of lessons I decided to self-teach myself. For a year during 2013-2014 I took up piano lessons then self-teaching myself the instrument just like guitar. All through primary and academy I was in the choir and performed at all of my school concerts, this made me come to conclusion that singing was my area and that was what I enjoyed doing most. I had never been in a band except a Gaelic Harmony Group during my last two years at college, up till now when I met my band at college. As music is something I enjoy doing so much I chose to study an HNC music performance course with the UHI which I am currently doing now. In my music course there are many different modules: song-writing, band performance, solo performance, composition, music theory and creative industry projects. This is a yearlong course which helps you experience life in the music industry but also prepares you by helping you gain the skills to progress in your music. The band I am in formed at college, we are called “Almost Folk” we perform original songs that we compose together. The style of music is almost folk and that is why we called ourselves by that name. There are four members in the band, I am the lead singer, Kenna is on keys, Kirstin is on saxophone and Gordon is on acoustic guitar. Since forming five months ago we have gigged Glaghbeg, celtic connections, greenhouse, Madhatters, the shuffle and have upcoming gigs at the Strathpeffer pavilion and possibliy belladrum. Last year I was involved in the musicplus: a music organisation for young people aged between fourteen and nineteen years old to help them towards a career in music. This was what I was involved in for three months before starting college and where I met my college tutors. Through this organisation I got a mentor to help me with my chosen area in music in which I chose song-writing and recording. My mentor Peter helped me how to work with using soft wares such as logic and garage band. I learnt the process of recording a song and the structure of writing one. We recorded two songs that I had written before finishing the organisation, it was the step I needed to have the confidence in my abilities and progress in my musical career. I also got the chance to meet a well know singer-songwriter from Scotland, Rachel Sermanni along with the other music plus members, it was a pleasure meeting her and she gave us many tips on how to keep vocal chords warmed up and how to get over writers block. She told us about her time touring with Mumford and Sons and what it was like. From this meeting with her I came home with clearer thoughts on how to improve. My first year of college studying music has giving me an experience that I could’ve never have imagined having. I have learnt so much this year about the creative industry, how it works, also improved my vocal and performing abilities. I can’t thank enough my tutors and band mates for this. I’d really like to continue my studies with more years at college to further progress and to continue to perform at gigs. Music is definitely something that I want to do as a career as I can’t imagine myself doing anything else and am so happy to finally have progressed so much.