Guitar-strumming Scottish lasses may be 10 a penny but there's something a little special about newbie Amy Macdonald, says Elspeth Waters
You may not have heard of Amy Macdonald yet but don’t worry you will; especially if you’re hitting the festivals this summer. Having already toured with Paulo Nutini and Travis this year, Amy is no stranger to big venues. But, after Glastonbury this week, followed by Hyde Park Calling, T in the Park and Guilfest, the plucky 19-year old should be drawing some serious crowds in her own right.
Pretty brunettes with guitars are nothing new; and with her Scottish accent, fleeting comparisons with the likes of K T Tunstall and Kirsty MacColl are hardly surprising. Indeed, up close, in minimal make-up, jeans and layered tops, she’s just your average teenage girl, albeit rather more relaxed and self-assured than any I grew up with. “I don’t think I really sound like anybody else,” she asserts. “People say I’ve got quite a distinctive, deep voice and I think the album has got a nice mix because I get my inspiration from the rockier side of things but there’s also a poppy tinge on there at the end, so it suits everybody, I think.”
Like I said, no shortage of confidence here. But, she’s right, there’s something about her bold and deliciously raspy vocals that beg special attention; not least because their depth and soulfulness seem to defy her young years. I saw Amy and her band – all male, all extremely attractive – at The Eve Club last month and the richness of her voice, combined with her Glaswegian bonniness and charm, was spine-tinglingly good.
Amy’s getting used to the comparisons, although the parallels with Shakira suggested by one reviewer left her (and me) rather perplexed. But she doesn’t seem too phased by such remarks. Or in fact, anything at all, as far as I can gather. “Some of the things people say are so obscure,” she says. “I think people are just lazy sometimes and it’s a bit of a strange situation where they feel everyone has to fit into a pidgeon hole so everybody has to be the next ‘somebody’. And it’s a bit stupid because people want something different.” Which is exactly what Amy intends to be. And, while she’s only too thrilled to be compared to such established talents, their styles, or in fact the styles of any existing female vocalists, are of little consequence to Amy, who claims not to be influenced by any of her contemporaries. Of the back-chat style made popular by Lily Allen and Kate Nash, she says “I personally wouldn’t listen to it, but I really respect what they do because that’s the kind of music they like and good on them for doing it.”
So, we won’t be seeing Amy donning ballgowns and trainers à la Allen any time soon, nor will we see her emulating those tabloid-worthy prima-donna routines either. (She may be performing at T in the Park this year, but she’s still going to rough it with her friends in a tent, like every year). There won’t be any reality TV series or published memoirs in the pipeline either, since pointless celebrity is something Amy feels particularly strongly about, judging by the track, ‘The Footballer’s Wife’. “Sometimes you don’t want to put the TV on and see unknown wives and girlfriends of footballers who run shops. What is that? Then you get the ones that write their autobiographies like Wayne Rooney’s girlfriend, whatever she’s called. She’s one year older than me. If I was to write an autobiography, I wouldn’t even fill half a page and she’s got, like, 400 pages of crap. Who is she? She’s nobody. They say she earned £20 million last year but that was just off the back of her boyfriend.” That’s another thing Amy won’t be doing, since, while her long-term boyfriend is also a musician, he’s happy for her to take centre stage right now. Although, fame doesn’t seem to be something Amy’s hankering for. “Even if I get millions of pounds I’ll still stay in my little two-bedroom house,” she says. “I just like singing and I like writing songs and I like hearing what people think of them and making them happy through it.”
Amy clearly has little time for people chasing the ‘cool train’ and not being true to themselves, as illustrated by the soon-to-be-released first single 'Mr Rock and Roll'. The song, she confesses, is a rant against the status assigned to being a rock chick which is spawning a generation of Lindsay Lohan and Kirsten Dunst-wannabies who hang around music venues wearing their skinny jeans and ripped t-shirts, when they’d clearly sooner be dancing to cheesy pop in the club next door. “If you do that, then some amazing opportunities might pass you by and some amazing people, because you’re not being yourself so you’ll never meet people who’d be perfect for you or what-not.” A wise old thing, isn’t she.
Demonstrably un-girly, Amy insists she has always preferred listening to stuff by all-male bands: namely, Oasis, Ocean Colour Scene, The Libertines, The Kings of Leon, Razorlight and The Killers (the inspiration behind the album track 'Run'). In fact, it’s thanks to her all-time favourite indie boys, the fore-mentioned Scottish group Travis, that she’s singing at all. “The first album I actually bought for myself was The Man Who by Travis,” Amy says. “I just absolutely loved it. They were playing live at T in the Park so I asked Mum to take me. My dad always had guitars in the house because he played as a hobby so when I got back I bought a Travis chord book and taught myself to play a lot of the songs on the guitar.”
I’m already impressed but then she hastens to add that all this happened when she was just 12, and that she began writing songs a year later, and suddenly I feel thoroughly inadequate, remembering my own musical career, which sadly began and ended with grade one piano. Even more astonishing is that Amy hadn’t so much as joined the school choir before this point, claiming to have been tone-deaf as a child. I’m not sure I believe her, but however it happened, at the tender age of 14, with firmly developed chords in tow, Amy hit Glasgow's acoustic scene, playing at Starbucks and book shops before moving onto pubs and clubs, such as the notorious Barfly Club.
Fast-forward three years to 2005 and the clearly bright youngster has finished school a year early (having gained the required five highers to get into university) and taking a year out to step up the gigging, listen to music and read NME. Flicking through her favourite music chronicle, she sees an ad for a new production company seeking new talent. The company, Melodramatic Records, hears Amy live and promptly signs her, before she is snapped up through them by Mercury Records a year later and begins recording her forthcoming debut album This is The Life. “I wrote the album over a course of five or six years so I had already finished all the songs when we went into the studio last summer,” Amy says. “All my songs are about things that I feel strongly about or places I’ve been, concerts I’ve been to or situations I’ve been in.”
In the last few months Amy has embarked upon the frenzied whirl of promotion. When I meet her at Universal’s Kensington offices, she’s looking a little tired after a radio gig in Manchester the night before. But she’s utterly delightful nevertheless, and I get the feeling she’ll be just as cheery after years of sleep deprivation; although Amy suggests we might not be seeing her for a while after this promotional stint, lest she should run out of steam before that all important second album – a curse felt by many a promising artist. “It’s kind of hard just now because nothing’s really happened to me,” she says. “People think it’s really glamorous but having four hours’ sleep is not what I call fun. Right now I’ve got no inspiration to write at all, and I haven’t written anything for about six months.”
Something tells me she’ll be just fine on that score though. After all, if bands are her main inspiration, she’ll have plenty to choose from at the festivals. She could also write about having just bought a house in her beloved hometown (not something many 19-year olds could lay claim to, I’m guessing). Or she could write about supporting her all-time hero, Travis frontman Fran Healy, and the fact that they may be the only two musicians alive who never get nervous before a performance. Now, surely there’s a story in that? Whatever it is that gets her fires burning, if this album is anything to go by, it’ll definitely be worth a listen.
This is the Life by Amy Macdonald is out on July 30. The debut single 'Mr Rock and Roll' is available to download on July 9 and released on July 16. If you can’t wait that long check out Amy’s songs and get more info via www.amymacdonald.co.uk and www.myspace.com/amymacdonald.
