Maria

A peek inside a busy brain forever turning things over and trying to find solutions to problems which might not even exist. Written after a conversation with my friend Mike Rawlins, so I dedicate it to him.

My first home lay on the north edge of town and it crops up frequently in my songs. The title is also a nod further northward towards Scotland where I live now. This is a jazz-infused swirl of images from my childhood and teenage years.

Explores the external and the internal; how people appear in public vs what might be going on behind the scenes.

A dark story hiding behind an upbeat tune. The contrast between things that play out on this side and that side of the door.

A very small song which is best viewed on a large screen.

In my dreams I often go back to the town where I grew up, to taste the sea air and recall the touch of the banister in the hallway of the house I left behind.

Looking at the gaps between things rather than the things themselves. The place I call Beekeeper's Corner was growing wild when I wrote this song, but since then, four new houses have appeared.

A blueprint for the way I’d like it to be.

The first Glasgow Songwriting Festival took place in Govanhill Baths. I found inspiration in the cubicle doors of the hot baths suite, beautiful in their dilapidated state and silently holding their history.

On a family holiday to St Abbs a few years ago, the ritual of stopping to open a farm gate, holding it to allow the car through, and closing it again, grew in significance by the day.