FISTFUL OF SAND
This song is about my Great-great Grandfather, John McLean, who born in 1825 in Kilmory Bay on the Isle of Rum. Exactly a year and a day after he was born Rum, like so many places in the Highlands, was cleared of all its inhabitants; they were replaced with sheep. The song is about the day they left. John Mòr McLean and 300 others sailed to Nova Scotia. He eventually settled in New Zealand and founded a very successful engineering company, John McLean and Sons.
I like to sing in places that resonate with the songs I’ve written. This was recorded on the Isle of Canna in June 2024 with the Isle of Rum where my Great-great Grandfather was born behind me.
INTO THE OPEN
Written during the 2020 lockdown, this song offers optimism, hope, love and togetherness to anyone who needs it. This version was recorded in a favourite cave when the song was still very new and raw. No amps, no mics, no reverb, just pure cave… washed clean twice daily by the sea with a little help from the moon.
BLACK HORSE OF THE WOODS
This song expresses all the raw love I have for the nature around me and the fact that so many of us share that feeling. It was written after a close encounter with a male Capercaillie in an ancient Caledonian pinewood. He was so desperate to get to a female that he flew in a straight line, crashing straight through the trees – ‘like a cannonball’.
OVERLOAD
This song was written in February 2020 just before lockdown and just after an epic party. Interpret the song however you like but I hope this brings you warmth. Being with humans in February felt good for the soul. Weeks later we were all starved of close contact. Recorded in February 2020 on a mobile phone in my kitchen in the Highlands of Scotland. Kind, kindred soul in Devon added the haunting violin in March 2020. Through lockdown the extraordinary Hebe Denny worked on the drawings and painstaking animation. This film was finally put together a day before the new year.