Top musicians explore mental health in Scotland

Nice place for working on an album - Rossie Ochil in Perthshire

A GROUP of prominent Scottish musicians have
been busy writing an album of songs to
promote awareness of mental health issues.
The songwriters – including Emma Pollock and
James Yorkston from Idlewild – spent a week in
February collaborating on the album at Rossie Ochil,
in Perthshire.
The project, in particular, aims to help promote
the work of Breathing Space and is being part-sponsored
by the phone line and website service.
The musicians will now head to the studio to
record the songs and the album will be released
later in the year.
Idlewild guitarist Rod Jones, who is leading the
project, said: “We’ve just done the writing session.
It’s coming together really well and we should have
16 good songs.
“The last day of the songwriting collaboration we
had snow and had to cut the session short – we
had to get out while we could.
“We’ve given a deadline of April to get a rough
demo of the finished songs. We’ll rehearse in May
and record in June. The album should be ready by
July.”
Other musicians involved in the project include
James Graham (Twilight Sad), Scott Hutchinson
(Frightened Rabbit), Alasdair Roberts and Karine
Polwart.
The project has grown out of the successful
Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival
(SMHAFF) and follows several years of using music
to raise awareness of mental health issues through
live music performances.
The album will form the basis of two
performances, in Glasgow and Edinburgh, during
the SMHAFF in October 2010 and a launch event
will take place during September 2010.
This year’s project will focus on childhood as a
creative theme. The project is aimed primarily at
young adults.

One for me and Blimpy!