Amy Duncan
A CHANGE of musical direction seems to have worked out well for Edinburgh’s Amy Duncan.
A classically trained bass player, she was a member of experimental band experimental band Swelling Meg, but after the group’s demise in 2000, Duncan began to move centre stage as a songwriter and has gone on to release five albums, earning the Scottish artist comparison with such songwriting greats as Joni Mitchell and Patti Smith.
The most recent of these is Undercurrents, recorded by one of Scotland’s most admired music producers, Calum Malcolm.
Highland fans will have a chance to hear songs from Undercurrents live, along with others from Duncan’s back catalogue, when she appears at the Ceilidh Place, Ullapool, on Tuesday.
You trained and performed as a classical double bass player, so what made you transfer your creative energies to songwriting/singing instead?
I think creating my own music is something that has always been in me and like so many of us, I was massively into the songs of people like Kate Bush and Suzanne Vega as a teenager, and connected with them in what felt like a life saving way.
I remember playing bass with a singer-songwriter one night and feeling so creatively unfulfilled during the gig. At the time, I was trying to work on my songs and keep working as a bass player until I realised I didn’t have enough energy for both.
The next day I made the decision to sell my double bass and used the money to buy a guitar, stage piano, and recording equipment. I decided I had to do what I loved the most, and songwriting became my main focus.
I did manage to get another double bass though (thanks to a very kind friend), and I still play, although I don’t practice as much as I used to! I work out string arrangements for my songs by recording double bass parts and layering them. I also really enjoy teaching the double bass, and think I have found the right balance now.
Inevitably you are described as a singer-songwriter with all that entails, but is it a description you are comfortable with?
I don’t mind the term singer-songwriter and think it is a relevant description, but I am also a composer in that I write my own string arrangements, something that the classical background has really helped with.
There is also a producer side to me, not necessarily in the technical sense, but when I make my demos at home on my own I get a lot of creative fulfilment from putting it all together and layering vocals, strings, bass, synths and whatever else there is to hand. That’s where the sense of magic is for me.
How personal is your writing voice? Are all the songs very much about your own concerns and experiences?
I can only write from my own experience and emotions. In the past I have abandoned songs that I have tried to write from someone else’s perspective as they haven’t sounded genuine to me.
I have one rule when I’m writing, and it’s that the song has to make me feel emotional or move me in some way when I hear it back. If it doesn’t, then I think it’s unlikely anyone else would be moved by it.
Undercurrents?Is there a particular theme or feeling that resonates through
Quite a few of the ideas for the songs from Undercurrents came to me whilst going on my daily walk along by the Water of Leith in Edinburgh, so the river runs through the album.
Undercurrents is about going below the surface to connect with the deep and hidden emotions, engaging fully with life, rather than observing from the edge. It is about seeing through limiting personal beliefs and finding the truth underneath.
You began by self-producing your work, but with Undercurrents you are working again with Scottish music legend Calum Malcolm. Can you say a little about what he brings to and influences about each project?
Before we start recording I send Calum my demos, and we make an A-list of songs that definitely should be on the album and a B list of ones that maybe aren’t as strong. We then take notes and maybe some areas of the song will need strengthening, like shortening introductions, or varying a vocal line’s melody more. On the Cycles of Life album, I had originally written the song Ivory Tower with a piano accompaniment, but Calum suggested it would be better on guitar. That ended up really improving the song and is one of my favourites.
Having come from self producing three albums, it has been great to work with a producer and to be freed from my tangle of cables and general technical confusion! It is also great to have someone that I trust steering the sessions, and to know that the sound quality is always going to be excellent. This frees me up to really focus on my voice, the instruments and arrangements.
And one final, optional question, but what is MQA and what does it mean for your album and your listeners?
MQA is a new convenient way to play digital audio at studio quality through a stream or a download and it works on any device. Undercurrents was the first album by a British artist to be released in this new format and it has led to my music being introduced to a new audience who are interested in this technology. My listeners are also really enjoying the lovely mastering and quality of the vinyl and the CD quality is great too, so it’s just a matter of whatever floats your boat really.
I like to make my music available in a wide variety of formats so that everyone can hear it the way they want.
• Amy Duncan will be at the Ceilidh Place, Ullapool, on Tuesday July 12, accompanied by Fiona Rutherford on harp and Lawrie MacMillan on bass guitar.
Undercurrents is out now from Linn Records.
