Front-man, singer, guitarist, bass player, songwriter

Style: Scottish Country Blues

K.  The first time I contacted you I just had just watched a video on YouTube.  It was “Two Fingers Of Whisky'' recorded in Strathaven Mill.

S:  Yeah that was a lot of fun, I really enjoyed that session, thank you so much!

K:  Particularly with the Scottish accent.  I don't really understand why so many people in Scotland sing with an American accent.  It was nice to hear. 

S: Yeah, I used to sing in a slight American accent and then I thought it wasn’t me. I started thinking about all my heroes; Ian Dury, Bowie, Bon Scott and coming to the conclusion. They’re definitely killing it with their natural voice. They ain’t putting it on and neither am I. There’s a thin line that you can’t cross though. You don't want to be singing “super Scottish” because sometimes it just sounds put on. You just want it to sound as natural as possible. 

K:  I understand what you're saying. Natural without going too… “Proclaimers”.

Listening to some of your stuff there is a real kind of Country feel to it.  But then I saw you play the same tunes again on YouTube with a fiddle player and it and it sounded like a Scottish folk tune.

Same tune, completely different vibe. 

S:  Yeah, a lot changes in a year! Even when you can’t take songs on the road or play them in bars they still change and mature with age. Proving that the record isn’t the final form. I love a lot of Dylan stuff and he has a multitude of different versions when playing his songs. Different tunings, different keys, different melodies, different chords! Oftentimes more interesting than the record. Constant progression is something that really appeals to me in a writing sense and it’s something I’m very bad for doing in The Black Denims. 

K:  So, The Black Denims. Is that your main band? 

S:  That's my main band. That's my baby!

K:  How did that band come about and how long has it been going?

S:  Well, going all the way back, I met the original drummer (Michael McGee) when I was in music college as we were in the same drum class under the tutelage of the insane, Allan James. We quickly bonded over rhythm and Allan’s class gave us the inspiration to play more and more after every lesson. Though, even behind the drums, I felt like I had more to offer than be at the back of the stage. So after a while, I picked up the guitar, tried to bash out some songs and the rest is history.

It was originally a punk blues two-piece that would slowly form into a three-piece. We found our long time bass player, Iain Gordon-Smith, who was a welcome addition to the group and we started doing gigs around the Glasgow circuit. Before we knew where we were, we were recording a 14 track album. There were about 9 or so people on that record. Its jam packed full of horns, guitar solos and fast tempos. All of which haven’t seen the light of day. Whenever I show it to anybody, I’m told it's rad and that I should put it out, but I get cold feet every time. No matter how hard I try I can’t connect with the voice of 18 year old me!

K:  Was this still The Black Denims when you were 18?  How long has the band been going then?

S:  Well it's been on and off for probably about six years, but we debuted the country sound in June of last year.

K:  And you played with Tom McGuire and Brassholes?

S:  I was playing bass for them for about four years whilst The Black Denims were on hold. Absolutely loved every minute with them! Fantastic musicianship, work ethic and theoretical knowledge beyond my wildest dreams. Still very close with them and love when they have new releases out and saying that, we’ve shared time together that holds a special place in our hearts and watching Tom execute the front-man thing so effortlessly got my interest back for kicking my leg out in front of my own band again. So during lock-down I decided to do just that and reignite the fire behind my own creativity. And I am so fortunate to say that I have an excellent group of talented people that help me express myself in the easiest possible way!

We’ve recorded some of the material we’ve written in lock-down and look to record again next month. As far as releasing music goes however, I feel like there's two sides of the coin. You either continue releasing music in lock-down with the hope that the gigs will come back… or you're not releasing any music at all in the hope that you hit the ground running at the first opening.

When music comes back though, I’m really crossing my fingers for some "new punk” movement to start. It's going to be really interesting to hear how music sounds post-pandemic. Lock-down, for creatives, has given us a ceiling-less possibilities and expelled any boundaries within genre that we naturally give ourselves as artists. Pay attention to subject matter, the tone, the production and the speed of the music. That will be the sound of the new wave(!) and we have an artistic responsibility to be pioneers of it.

K:  I had a look through your feed, Facebook and stuff, and I see you have some connection with Beth Jerem?

S:  Yeah, she asked if I could put some bass on her debut single “Your Kind of Love”.  We work really closely together.  The Black Denims have got an acoustic band and an electric band. The acoustic band do the country stuff and the electric band do a bit more modern, muddy, heavier sound. She’s a part of the heavy side.  She's an amazing resource to have.  She is the actual musician of the band. Every band’s got to have one! Somebody that can read dots and has a classical influence, perfect.  Her vocal ability is far out and her teaching ability is second to none as well. When she’s not with the Scottish Opera she’s rocking out with us nincompoops.

K:  Tell me a wee bit so tell me about your relationship with the blues so far and your influences.  I mean, I hear New Orleans, Country Blues and I even hear Scottish Folk. 

S:  My influences would stem from the old Delta Blues guys. For me the blues is an acoustic storytelling format. It has heartache, pain, joy and melancholy. You hear so vividly the pain in the recordings from the 20’s-40’s because more often than not, it’s just one guy, one guitar and a microphone. There is power in minimalism. And the raw, unpolished, unfiltered aspect of the genre is what keeps so many generations coming back and revering it.
As far as individuals go, I love Skip James so much. He used to play different tunings; I mean they all used to be in open tunings, but he used to play in open d minor.  There's so much darkness in there. An interesting thing about him is he used to play guitar the same way as he played piano.  And he is so unique on both instruments. Quite a crazy thought to think that around the 20’s there was just a whole generation of people who would pick up guitars and sing stories about gambling, women and death. There wasn’t a lot going on then but they managed to pave the way for music as we know it today. Crazy.

Robert Johnson is another who has a massive influence too. The way he sings, the way he plays guitar and the poetry behind the words he writes. Second to none.
And then as far as piano goes, and general vibe there is James Booker.  Dr John quotes him as a "the best black, gay, one-eyed junkie piano genius New Orleans has ever produced.” He’s not wrong. Deep diving on this guy for the first time is akin to that of opening your presents on Christmas morning as a wee guy! He's got this amazing way of playing a New Orleans piano.  He's got a 10 to 12 key stretch in his hands which is very seldom duplicated naturally. He used to play in difficult keys for piano, specifically so people couldn’t copy his playing. Even if they could they didn’t come nearly close. He does this thing with his voice where he makes this wah-wah effect too. You gotta hear it to believe it. Once you hear his recordings you’ll never be alone again.

There are stories in abundance about him. Myths about him losing his eye to Harlem gangsters or Ringo Starr? You be the judge. If you want to get started, there's an amazing album “Spiders on the Keys and Resurrection of the Bayou Maharajah”. It's just him in a piano bar in New Orleans (Maple Leaf Bar) with about 20 people there. It didn’t matter to him if there were 20 or 20,000 people there. His worst night would be his best night to some people. On the recordings, you can hear them all shouting out, heckling, cheering, talking. Very vibey.  You can also hear the classical influence in his playing too as it shifts effortlessly between genres.

He had quite a tragic story. Run over by an ambulance and with the pain, addicted to morphine at the age of nine.

That didn’t stop him being a child prodigy on the piano though! He would stand in on Fats Domino or Little Richard on their records. Even Aretha Franklin revered him so that she covered one of his songs “So Swell When You're Well” on the album, ‘Hey Now Hey (The Other Side of the Sky)’. 

K:  What a great story but being knocked over by an ambulance he's got to be the most ironic thing!

I’ll check him out

What is your take on where you think live music will go from here?

S:  Yeah well if there's one thing that history has taught us it's that poverty and frustration is the breeding ground for creativity.  The Great Depression brought some of the best music of the century and I can't imagine that this time around would be any different. I’ve got my fingers crossed that there's going to be loads of people that do something new and anti-establishment.

K:  Tell me about jelly roll records is that still going?  

S:  Yeah, that's a record label that was started at the beginning of lock-down. Using it primarily, to release acoustic blues/country music and the music of close friends. Expect collaborations galore with local artists who have their feet firmly in the roots of blues and old time music, but with a a distinct modern twist. I’ve got a lot of plans for the label to have a YouTube channel that hosts behind the scenes footage from live sessions and even have a podcast where we're talking about the players and the backstory of the songs that they'd be recording for the label. 

K;  What are the plans for when we get this virus completely behind us?

S:  I get evicted in October, so I’m going to spend a few months in the States in October.  Sold a couple of guitars to fund the trip. The plan is to go there and have some sort of blues/country pilgrimage.   Nashville is on the cards and then up to Kentucky for the Bluegrass! Then down back through Tennessee to Mississippi then down to New Orleans and then hang in NOLA for a little bit. Got some good pals in the States that’ll put us up and give us leads on jams and gigs etc. Very excited. 

K:I wish all the best with your travels and your music and thanks for your time and for sharing your story Scott.Now, I’m going to go and check this one-eyed, gay, New Orleans, piano player!

Guitar used in shoot: Gibson L3

Camera: Sony A7R3
Lenses: Sony 85mm 1.8, Sony 24-105mm f4
Lighting: Godox AD200 with umbrella softbox