What is your current role
An artist, singer-songwriter, a producer – I produce myself.
Can you tell me about your journey and how your role has progressed
I’ve been singing, writing and playing guitar since I was a teenager and I used to busk, that’s how I started, I used to busk in my local town centre and then I started doing my own solo stuff. I was an acoustic singer-songwriter until I was about 20, 21 and I had recorded and opened for <redacted> and did some good gigs. And then I took a long break. My day job took off, so there were just different things happened.
I had big life changes, and I felt like I was missing it, and I felt like I had lost contact with all the people you know in events and all of these sorts of things. Hadn’t really played in all that time. So, in 2019 and I decided to get back to it and did a couple of gigs, just me and my guitar. I wanted to branch out into electronic music and produced a bit more and then covid happened. So, no opportunity to play anywhere but it gave me a great opportunity to get to grips with ways to do that, ways to have the music sound the way it was in my head all that time. During covid, I taught myself GarageBand and I recorded an album. After covid, I got a chance to play different places and it’s really progressed from there so I’m now at a point where I have been signed. I play at a lot of women in music gigs and had amazing opportunities the last couple of years. It just shows once you’re back into things, it just snowballs.
What are some positive aspects of getting older in the industry?
I would say experience, so just the passage of time, you do more things. Even though I took several years off, I was still in the entertainment industry. You just gain experience of the industry. I do a lot myself, so you just get more confident showing up to a gig and meeting somebody you’ve never met before and talking to the sound engineer, so you gain more experience and more confidence. I think you get a bit more confidence just in yourself in general, in who you are. I feel a lot more like myself now than in my twenties. I didn’t not feel like myself in my twenties but I’ve settled into my personality and who I am and what I’m about. I think that’s a real benefit. And I think especially when it can be a difficult industry to navigate, there’s a lot of challenges in place for women, for young people, for other groups of people, like I’m sure there’s untold challenges for people and prejudice. So, it can be a challenging space to navigate, and you have good experiences and less good experiences, and I think age just gives you a bit of… it maybe doesn’t, maybe other people don’t look at you in a way. You’re maybe not seen as a daft wee lassie if you’re not 18. Maybe it changes how other people meet you, in the same way you meet other people.
How has getting older influenced your creativity and your confidence with your work?
I think from the art itself, that’s always evolving, so I’m sure in five years’ time it will evolve again. It’s just another evolution which is always interesting. I just write, I don’t make a lot of conscious decisions about what I’m doing, if it feels right it has to be. It’s interesting to me as an artist to see what I’m going to do next, whereas maybe if I’d been younger and thought about it at all, I would have been doubting myself about whether that was the right thing. Don’t get me wrong, I still doubt myself, but I have other artist friends who tell me to trust my intuition and that it’s the right thing to do. I suppose age has just made me sit in the pocket a wee bit better about my own methods and how I do things. It’s always nice when you work with someone and they say you know what you’re doing its fine, but you need to believe it yourself. And I don’t always but there are times when I believe it, so I think maybe being older helps with that a wee bit.
Are there times you have felt your age is an asset or a limitation?
I don’t know how I’m perceived but I wonder if when someone is a bit older if you’re perceived differently or if you’re maybe taken more seriously or not. I don’t necessarily think that’s happening with me, I don’t feel as if people are treating me differently because I’m not 18 anymore. But I wonder if that does happen in instance where when people are younger, they’re maybe not taken as seriously, maybe dismissed a bit and folk listen to older people a bit more when they shouldn’t just take people at face value. Theres been times where I have been performing at a gig and other folk are on the bill, especially if they’re younger people, I try to make sure I take time to ask what they’re doing and give positive feedback and encouragement, I think it helps a lot. I don’t think my age has got in the way of anything. Maybe not reached the age yet where it will start to get in the way, but I don’t feel like I’ve been held back at all.
How do you feel about your work now in comparison to your 20s?
I think I enjoy it more. I do feel differently about the work. I’m getting more comfortable with the discomfort.
Do you believe that there is ageism with the Scottish music industry? And in what form does it appear?
I’ve no doubt that it does because I think it probably exists in all industries to an extent, whether its institutionalised or not I’m sure it does exist. Shirley Manson has spoken about ageism she’s experienced. So, there’s positive, affirmative action that exists, obviously there should be opportunities for younger artists, younger creatives there because they have less access to the resources I have for example so absolutely, I acknowledge my privilege. I’m sitting in the house that I pay for and with my day job. So there should be routes for people who are disadvantaged in any way to access things like funding and opportunities because I’m all for affirmative action. I wonder if people get perceived as not as relevant or not as fresh or not as hip or whatever and I do see it if I do play gigs and there’s other people on the bill, I’m almost guaranteed to be the oldest person on the bill.
SAGE 