Begin Began Begun
The dedication on the back of my debut EP reads:
“For my mum. With thanks to Jenny, Boo, Fin and my lovely DIAMC crew. Without you there would be no songs”
However, there are many others I’d have also liked to have said a big “thank you” to if room had allowed, so here goes:
The team at Moniack Mhor, all the Stages Programme mentors, and my fellow Stagers. Thank you for being a brilliant springboard and a brilliant bunch of human beings.
My lovely Universal Hall Promotions team for all your support and encouragement.
Ewan MacPherson, you’re my hero. Your inspiration, vision and input were everything I’d hoped for, and more. Plus it was so much fun!
Jamie MacRae, Dave Martin, Beth Porter and Maria Quinn, I’m indebted to you all for your arrangements, instrumentation, inspiration, creativity and for all the laughter (some of which features on the EP).
Mattie Foulds, mixing and mastering wizard with the patience of a saint. Thank you for accommodating my tweak requests so graciously and making it all sound amazing.
Jen Cantwell, for both my new logo and the artwork and design for the EP and singles – all of which is utterly beautiful in every way.
Michael Mitton, for being my rock, my chef, my roadie, my tech support, my stop-motion filmmaker, my camera man and video editor and, when required, my scratching post.
Connor Barthelmie, for being willing to listen to your Mum’s music and give constructive feedback.
Lauren MacColl for the loan of your beautiful harmonium, and also for the loan of the excellent mic for the clapping in The Rope.
Expanding on the DIAMC crew mention in the dedication – we are the Drunks in a Midnight Choir – a songwriting group that was birthed from the Boo Hewerdine and Findlay Napier Bird on a Wire online songwriting workshop which we all participated in together during April/May 2021. We decided to keep going after the eight-week workshop completed and have been meeting online monthly ever since. It’s an amazingly supportive group who’ve had my back at every step of the journey towards the creation of this EP (and one of whom recorded the beautiful piano parts for it). Five of the six tracks were written to prompts from within the group. I’m immensely grateful for our ongoing friendship, support and hive mind.
Expanding on the Stages Programme mentioned above – this was a four-month long writing, production and performance mentorship programme that I took part in during 2023. Curated by Boo Hewerdine, it was facilitated at the Moniack Mhor Creative Writing Centre. You can find out more about it on Moniack’s website here. I not only learned a massive amount during those four months, I also made yet another wonderful group of songwriting friends, two of whom you hear on the EP.
Studio & musicians
The EP was recorded in most part at the studio at Universal Hall, which is in the Park Ecovillage, Findhorn.
