Song Blog #1 - 'Mean Guy'

I thought this blog might be a good place to share some of my songs with folk who have an attention span beyond that engendered by TikTok, so here's a shot across the bows. An odd choice, since this barely qualifies as a song, but I wrote this as a mood piece during Trump's first term and if anything the mood has deteriorated during his second. He's besmirching Scotland right now with his fetid personality, hence the timing.

Mean Guy was one of a number of tracks I used to develop my digital production, and to get beyond the guitar in terms of composition. You can judge for yourselves how worthwhile or effective either mission was - as usual, I had no real thought for audience appreciation (sorry!) as I was chiefly entertaining myself.

The track, and in fact the whole album, could only go so far under my stewardship, so when I felt I'd done as much as I could I went to my dear chum and studio guru Marcus Samson Wright to get into the nitty-gritty of mixing and mastering. You can hear Marcus's own fantastic music here - you'll quickly see/hear why I seek out his advice. We had a lovely summer removing all the unnecessary plug-ins and effects I'd been slathering all over everything, and Marcus was, as always, supremely generous with his expertise, explaining his process in terms I could understand and bringing on my own skills better than a month of youtube tutorials could ever do.

Anyway, here's Mean Guy -  I hope you enjoy it, and if you can identify the "One, two, three, four" sample (clue - it was a countdown before I sliced and diced it), you win 600 fictional points.

 

Celtic Music Radio Interview - Celtic Connection 2025

What next?

 A few folk have been kind enough to ask what I'm planning now that I've bid farewell to the Primary classroom. My glib answer is that I'm trusting to fortune for a bit, but I roll that out because the real answer is quite long and confused and I haven't yet got a clear idea of how to approach it all. However, for anyone who's curious, here's a wee annotated list of enterprises that I fancy a go at just now - if anyone feels like joining in for any of them, please drop me a line! (I won't include 'write a blog' in the list, but that is one of them...)

1. Music lessons: I got the chance, at Kirkcudbright Primary, to develop an approach to teaching music that respects the academic route, but keeps it at arm's length. That path definitely suits some folk, but I met scores of kids whose innate musicality was not immediately best-served by reading music and deep-diving into the theory. I go with the assumption that learning by discovery is nearly always more fun and effective than learning by instruction, so my job is to facilitate a student's own discoveries. That can be on a specific instrument, but it'll always be with reference to voice, percussion, the student's own taste and the musicality of language. I have a couple of students already and I look forward to every lesson - just weans so far, but it'd be a lovely journey to take with an adult. Songwriting is, was and always will be my main route into music, so that is thoroughly encouraged!
2. Podcasts: I cannot wait to get back into creating episodes of Oor Wee Podcast with Susi Briggs - hope to hit the ground running with that pretty soon, including developing the classroom materials that might make these useful to teachers - but there's also a new podcast on the horizon that indulges my Beatles geekdom. It's called Beatle Blethers, with me and noted political journalist Gerry Hassan (who is even more obsessed than me). If you like rambling conversations in general, and ones about that band in particular, then you'll like these. Gerry's big fat address book will be thoroughly raided and we're interviewing our first author, Graeme Thomson (George Harrison: Behind That Locked Door) this very week. That'll be three episodes in the bag, so we'll probably get round to releasing those quite soon - I will very much keep you posted, don't you worry about that.
3. Workshops: I already run a monthly Scots Creative Writing workshop through the marvelous charity Open Book, and have done for a few years now - I've also hosted a couple of songwriting workshops for the wonderful Mad Jam in Edinburgh - but I'm thinking of ways to bring writing and music workshops off zoom and into the real world (well, Gatehouse of Fleet, anyway). I'd love a regular songwriting/songwriters' program, there is loads of talent around without many outlets. I will need paid for this sort of thing though, and that either means charging folk (which, while perfectly reasonable, is always a bit icky) or applying for funding (which is as much fun as complex root canal work). We'll see...
4. Gigs: Did I mention I'm a singer-songwriter? Playing songs for a bunch of folk is my absolute favourite thing to do and I shall be looking for opportunities to do so every month. There's a few coming up - Govanhill International Festival on August 10th and Shambellie House on August 15th, to name but two. If you have a hoose that could host a concert and you've ever half-fancied doing so, why then, I'm yer man. I'll even read a poem or two, for the sake of variety.
5. Writing: Oh, yes, writing. I have four (I think) novels reasonably underway, in concept terms at least, and a few author visits lined up (Hawick Library in September and the Mitchell Library in October, for example) so I am still officially a writer. I'd love to get a collection of weans' stories in Scots published - I loved story collections when I was wee, and I have the stories, just not the publisher. I also finally have time to represent the Federation of Writers (Scotland), who generously voted me Scriever for the year - if I've not met a good few hundred fellow Fed members by the end of the year, I shall count my time poorly spent.
6. Commissions: I'm lucky enough to get the occasional musical commission, from incidental music for environmental films to full soundtracks for children's shows, and I'm very, very good at it. (What? I wouldn't have quit a secure and rewarding job if I didn't think I was any good...) The thing I need to learn how to do now is actively pursue these opportunities - if you know of a way to do this that does not involve miserable hours on social media, I'm all ears.
7. Farting About: this is the one I'm nailing so far.  

So, friends, if you see me doing ANYTHING other than these extremely important things, feel free to wag a finger and demand a new album, or something.