Falkirk singer Calum Baird overcomes lockdown to launch new EP

A View From the Notebooks features the songs Ways of Being, When the Tables Turn and Contemplating Sunflowers and can truly be said to be a product of the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown.

Calum said: “I started writing two of the songs last year but never finished them – I never really could find the time.

"That’s the weird thing about the lockdown – it gave me the space and time to finish writing these songs and I also had another new song come out in the summer The Stones of Tomorrow, that was written during the lockdown.

“But the COVID-19 pandemic has been quite damaging to the music scene, with some venues not around any more.”

It’s certainly been damaging to Calum, who was forced to cancel a ton of Scottish gigs and his annual globe trotting concert odyssey was knocked on the head too – summer festival dates in Germany and Portugal were cancelled due to the pandemic.

While the lockdown was a mainly negative experience, there were plenty of positives for Calum, who learned new skills – taking up painting and becoming a record producer.

“This new EP is totally self-produced – I played all the instruments, recorded the music and mastered it myself. But, while I can see the benefit of this, I won’t be doing it all the time.”

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Calum says he doesn’t want to do anything to mess with the already under threat “musical eco-system” that keeps facilities open and people in jobs.

“When things are normal I do the gigs to raise the money to book some studio time, so I don’t want to change that. I wouldn’t mind producing a couple of my songs here and there though.”

The new EP also features Calum playing all the guitars and some new toys he became acquainted with this year.

“I play three acoustics on the songs – including one in Nashville tuning, which is used by Joni Mitchell and by Keith Richards on The Rolling Stones’ song Wild Horses.

“I also used an electric guitar on the songs for some riffs and there are some solos too. I bought a fairly cheap MIDI keyboard with a few effects on it to experiment with and picked it up quite quickly having played a bit of piano at school.

“I’ve recorded songs with other instruments on them in the past. I always felt people expected the same sound when I played them live, but it was just me and my acoustic, so that put me off using other instruments for a while.”

Calum also used his spare time to familiarise himself with the work of well permed landscape painter Bob Ross on Amazon Prime and developed his own artistic talents to complete his self produced EP – designing the cover himself.

The singer will take to the web from 8pm on Friday, December 11, playing songs from his new EP and a cover or two.

A View From the Notepads is released on Friday, December 4 on all the usual digital formats.

Visit www.calumbaird.com for more information.

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