Scott takes to song to mark a year’s passing

Fans of impassioned singer/songwriters should check out Scott McWatt’s free show in Monroe’s Live this Saturday night. The Glasgow born singer is promoting his second album A Ceist Ama, (A Matter of Times) which has 12 tracks, each representing a month of the year. How did he come up with this idea?

“It was at the beginning of the writing process,” he says. “I wanted to challenge myself lyrically, and I was quite happy with the outcome and where it went. I didn’t want to go and do a conventional album, I wanted to incorporate different influences and make myself a better songwriter in the process.”

Once Scott had decided on the idea, writing the songs came fairly naturally.

“What’s a year in my life like? Everyone goes through the same things – in January you make promises to yourself, you’re going to do things differently. Then, in December we’re all guilty of working towards those promises again, and reflecting on the past.”

A Ceist Ama opens with a burst of bagpipes before Scott starts singing. Then, later on, there’s harmonica playing and a full, rocky sound. Again, this was part of the ‘year in a life’ concept.

“Songs like Summertime¸ I really wanted that feeling of festivals and harmonicas and really having a good time,” he says. “With summer being the height of the year, and the album, having the full band element gave the rest of the record more of a context.

“The idea was that – and not only lyrically – each song would adhere to its specific season, its month. Musically, you could feel like it was summer. It’s bright upbeat, it has a lease of life. I think that was just as important as the lyrics themselves.”