Colin MacIntyre
As the hottest thing to come out of Mull since Balamory, FemaleFirst couldn’t resist catching up with Colin MacIntyre to chat about his latest album The Water, his Andy Warhol inspiration and those Z-listers from Big Brother who are Famous For Being Famous!
What have you been getting up to recently, anything exciting?
Well I was making the video for Famous For Being Famous last Saturday night in London so that’s been the focus of the last few days and I’ve just seen the first draft. I went out in London’s West End dressed as Andy Warhol because his 15 minutes of fame comment was the premise behind the video. It was a good laugh because we just had a camera pointing outwards the whole way from my eye line just watching the reactions we got from people along the way. The lyrics of the song talk about citizen fame so that’s why we went and pointed a camera at Joe Public and had an interesting night!I’ve just been doing that and getting ready for some of the live dates that are coming up!
Wow, I love it! You have been performing under the pseudonym of the Mull Historical Society from 2001 to 2005; how is it performing under your own name now?
It’s actually no different really as it was always just me so in a weird way the Mull Historical Society was more me than this is now because with that I did the artwork and produced my albums; I basically did everything myself but this time round it’s really strange working with a designer on the artwork and having a producer.Obviously there is a difference as going under my own name does do different things to you because I’ve hidden behind a weird name and now I’m just using my own so I feel a bit more directly involved in what I’m doing but it has changed me in that sense as before that I liked the idea of hiding behind something and I think now it’s about being more direct and is exciting. It’s my own label as well so it’s like wearing a lot of different hats!
Have a lot of your old fans stayed faithful?
Well that’s the plan; I think so, it’s been on my website for a year and half and I think if you were into what I did before you would know that it was be anyway and this is what I’m doing now but if you weren’t then hopefully you’ll hear about it.
I don’t see why people wouldn’t stick with me because if they liked Mull Historical Society they will like it anyway,. I just think my name isn’t as well known as Mull Historical Society is but I think I just need to get this album out there and just keep gigging and see how the single goes.
Does the music still sound the same as before?
I think what I’m doing musically isn’t massively different; I made three albums under the Mull Historical Society name and I suppose they were almost like a body of work themselves but I don’t think I have radically change, there is just a lot more guitar on this album and working with a producer made the music a bit more direct rather than producing a lot of ideas; this is more of a ‘less is more’ type approach.
I think it’s worked though, and what I’m dong now is recording my next album which seems a bit strange as I’m still working from this one but I’ve just had this opportunity to go back home and record and that has taken that mantra even further as the next album is more acoustic and looks to strip things right back.
You were named Scotland’s top creative talent at the Glenfiddish Spirit of Scotland awards, how did that make you feel?
It was pretty good really, I was there with my mum and I wore a specially commissioned denim kilt and I’d never worn a kilt in my life but this was a designer one! I didn’t expect to win but the guy on the same table as me, Chris Hoy, had just come back from cycling at the Olympics, and neither of us expected to win anything but then the woman who was running it was sat at our table too and so I thought, I wonder if we’ve all won but then we both won so there was lots of champagne and a good night out!
What has been your proudest moment?
I think the first song that I had in the charts, Mull Historical Society had four top 40 singles so I suppose that or one of my albums going into the top 20 album chart and you never really know if that’s going to happen when you first start out! I took out a bank loan to buy a load of gear when I was a student and I had six months before the hire purchase kicked in and I was trying so hard to get a record deal in order to make something happen and be able to pay off my debt.
You never really expect anything as you’re not really sure where the journey is going to take you. Supporting R.E.M was great; when you get artists of that calibre you feel quite proud to be doing that! I suppose just getting to do what you love for a living makes you feel very fortunate to be creative and not have to work in a call centre which I did before.
What would you still like to achieve?
Can I have two?
[FF: Okay]
I want a number one album that really reaches loads a load of people! And secondly I want the novel I’m writing to be published!
Exciting! What’s the novel about?
Well it’s almost reached it’s second draft now and it’s about a island community and someone who lives in London who goes back to the island he’s from when he hears about a death of someone who is a big force in his childhood. A series of events begin to occur which fills in a load of gaps in his life and helps him discover who he really is.
Tell me a bit about your latest single, Famous For Being Famous
I wrote it when I was in New York last summer and I always wanted a guitar sounding song and I was listening to a lot of bands like that at the time and felt that society at the moment with reality TV and Z-list big Brother stars that title - Famous For Being Famous - sounded so current.
The original inspiration was from Andy Warhol and his prediction that; “Everyone will have 15 minutes of fame” and then he got bored and changed it to “Everyone will be famous in 15 minutes.” The lyrics talk about the desperate reality TV stars who try to cling on to their publicity focus and it’s almost like they’re talking to their PA trying to get noticed again and in the middle of the song it sounds ‘Hello, Ok!” and that’s referring to the two magazines and it’s really a song which came instantly and fitted lyrically.
With the video we were going to get a load of ex Big Brother and Jungle stars [
FF: Oh They’d love that!
] I know, but it’s taking the piss and I thought that some of them might not like it but then I think some of them might not care because they can get on a video!
It’s just a song that explains itself really.
What’s your favourite song from your album The Water?
I don’t know if I have a favourite but I think the last song on the album; Pay Attention To The Human, which features Tony Benn as he wrote a poem for it and he finished the song with his voiceover and I think that song is really ambitious and the story is quite similar to my book really! It’s the closest I’m going to get to my Bohemian Rhapsody.
There are so many artists trying to make it at the moment, what do you think sets you apart from everyone else?
I suppose that would be my talent! I think what I’ve already achieved makes me successful but I just hope that the quality of what I do sets me apart but I think you should always try to be distinctive but there will always be other people doing the same thing but I don’t really worry about it and stick to my own vision.
Well good luck with everything! We ask everyone we interview to come up with a question for the next person we interview....and Yvette Fielding wants to know; “What’s your favourite type of cheese?”
Isle of Mull Cheddar which you can buy anywhere, it’s one of the most well known things (apart from Balamory) to come out of Mull!
So finally, what would you like to ask the next person I interview?
If you had a sheep, what would you name it?