Crowd funding for Berklee College of Music

I’m extremely excited to say that I have been offered a place and a generous scholarship, to study music at Berklee College of Music in Boston in September! I auditioned in London in Feb and have been offered an almost full-fee scholarship, so I am now looking to raise the remainder of the fees living costs, in order to take up the place. I have launched a crowd funding campaign, with lots of things in return for donations. I would very much appreciate if you would take the time to have a look and share the campaign if you can:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/study-at-berklee-college-of-music/x/6333096#/story

Thank you!


Orkney Folk Fest

Bichan’s vividly expressive and evocative chamber-folk score underpinned a wonderfully engaging, absorbing illumination of past lives and family ties.
Sue Wilson, The Scotsman, 25th May 2015

I have just about recovered after a crazy weekend at the Orkney Folk Festival, which saw me perform my first show for ‘Out of My Own Light’ and play several gigs with the Fara lasses, as well as the Fiddle Gathering and joining Hadhirgaan, Douglas Montgomery’s school fiddle group, for a tune (a fair few years since I played with Hadhirgaan!) I’m absolutely delighted with how my concert went and totally over the moon to have received such a fantastic review from Sue Wilson, in her round up of the festival in the Scotsman on Monday. It was really wonderful to have so many family and friends of my Grandmother there and again at the special viewing of the exhibition in the Pier Arts Centre, I was delighted to hear so many nice and encouraging words from folk. Thank you again to the festival for having me and for such a great weekend, I can’t wait for Orkney Folk Festival 2016! Take a look on my blog about the project to see photos of the exhibition, concert and the photographic book:

http://mstait.tumblr.com/


Behind the scenes

I put together a behind the scenes video from our time at Watercolour Studio in Ardgour (near Fort William) and at Gloworm studio in Glasgow recording piano parts, featuring a rough of one of the tracks we recorded. Take a look:

Cellist Su-a wrote a really lovely blog about our time at Watercolour, read that here:
http://sualee.tumblr.com/post/118908723516/watercolour-wilderness

I have borrowed some photos from her blog also:

If you like what you hear of the music so far, please consider pre-ordering the album here, as you’d be helping me towards taking up my place at Berklee College of Music by doing so. Thank you.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/study-at-berklee-college-of-music/x/6333096#/story


Exhibition

Not long now until the Orkney Folk Festival! I’ll be performing the music from Out of My Own Light next Thursday in the Orphir Hall; tickets available from the festival website: www.orkneyfolkfestival.com

My photography will be on display at the Pier Arts Centre and I will have the first copies of the photographic book ready to add to the exhibition in time for the festival also.

Sadly the album wont be ready in time for the festival, but shouldn’t be far behind! I’m delighted with how it is sounding so far and there are still a few bits to record before mixing happens. I can’t wait to share it! If you are interested, you can pre-order the album here and help me greatly by doing so. Thank you.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/study-at-berklee-college-of-music/x/6333096#/story



Recording

Extremely sad leaving this behind this afternoon.. What a lovely week at Watercolour Music, really a special place to record an album, with such a fantastic group of people, who I can’t thank enough; Su-a, Mike, Mike, Duncan, Angus, Jennifer and Signy. It is extremely rewarding and really exciting to hear the music I have been working on for so long, finally come to life and I couldn’t have asked for a better team, what a fun week! Thank you so much to Nick and Mary Ann of Watercolour, it is such a beautiful, inspiring place to create music and a fantastic backdrop for photos and video; really brilliant having Mike Guest Photography around to take loads of beautiful footage and create masterpieces in the kitchen too, what a guy! Thank you all so much.

I’m really excited about this album, I can’t wait to finish it off and to be able to share it, but first up, the concert at Orkney Folk Festival next week… Tickets on sale online for ‘Out of My Own Light’ at the Orphir Hall on Thursday 21st: www.orkneyfolkfestival.com Can’t wait!


Watercolour Studio

This week I am recording the music for ‘Out of My Own Light’ at Watercolour Studio, near Fort William. I am really delighted with how it all sounds so far and it has been such a lovely time recording with these fantastic people. A really rewarding experience.


Shetland Folk Festival

I’m just back from a fantastic weekend at the Shetland Folk Festival playing with Fara and now straight on with rehearsals and recording for my project ‘Out of My Own Light,’ in time for the Orkney Folk Festival on the 21st May!

Here is a wee rough clip of some of the music I will be recording. I’m really excited to have Mike Vass on fiddle/guitar, Su-a Lee on cello, Jen Austin on piano, Duncan Lyall on double bass and Signy Jakobsdottir on percussion for this, with Angus Lyon in the engineer/producers seat, at Watercolour Studio in Ardgour.

You can pre-order a signed copy or a digital download of the music and help me out greatly at the same time, by donating to my Crowdfunding project. I am raising money to take up my place at Berklee College of Music in Boston, please have a look here:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/study-at-berklee-college-of-music/x/6333096#/story

Thanks to Ewan Coltherd for making the wee clip of Meb sound way better!


Long awaited update…

Shamefully, I haven’t updated this blog in quite some time! I tend to concentrate on my tumblr blog and Facebook page and forget to update this; I will rectify this!

I have been mainly working on my Canadian project, now named ‘Out of My Own Light’ and have an exhibition at the Pier Arts Centre in Orkney opening on the 25th April, which is very exciting. The photographic book is being printed as I type and I have been working hard at writing and arranging music for the album. We head into the studio in a few weeks to record, so I’m very excited about that. I have Mike Vass joining me on fiddle and guitar, Jen Austin on piano, Su-a Lee on cello, Duncan Lyall on double bass and Signy Jacobsdottir on percussion. Angus Lyon will be engineering and producing the album, which we will record at Watercolour studio near Fort William. I will be performing with the full band at the Orkney Folk Festival on the 21st May, tickets will be on sale here very soon: www.orkneyfolkfestival.com

Read more about the project here: mstait.tumblr.com

Besides the project, I have had a busy year with many musical trips, concerts and so on, including a return trip to Valley of the Moon fiddle camp in August 2014, after playing at Milwaukee Irish Festival with Gria, and Fara recorded our EP, available here: faramusic.bandcamp.com We have an exciting summer ahead with Shetland, Orkney and Cambridge Folk Festivals and one more yet to announce!

Using Format