Falkirk troubadour Taz used illuminating experience in Blackpool to pen his new song

Taz Modson – a close compadre and dead ringer for multi-instrumentalist songwriter Ian Simpson – was staying in a hotel in the popular seaside resort when local landmark light lit up the room and fired up his imagination.

Let’s let Taz take up the tale.

He said: “Our new single is an interesting one as it doesn’t come from a personal experience, more a songwriting experiment. Outside my hotel room in Blackpool were these blue lights that lit up the room at night.

"I thought to myself that Blue Light Shining Through The Blinds was a good title for a song, so I got up and started writing. I remember seeing around the time that someone I knew was getting married so decided to write a song about an ex-lover thinking about what they could’ve done better on the eve of the wedding and ultimately try and win them back.

"The result was this song and I’m very proud of it.”

Blue Light Shining Through The Blinds is released on all good digital outlets – Apple and all that jazz – on Friday.

It’s only the latest release for Taz and the Maniacs.

"The band started out as an idea I had around the summer of 2015 for a solo project,” said Taz. “The band has no official members as I play all the instruments on our recorded music.

"Our debut release Peace and Love was a concept album about a fictional war torn character but also tackled a lot of the positive and negative themes of growing up in a small town in Scotland.

“The next step for this project is a second album which I’m planning on releasing track by track throughout the year, starting with our song Numb which was released last September and now we have Blue Light Shining Through The Blinds coming out on Friday.”

When Taz plays live – as he did at Falkirk’s own Vibration Festival last year – the Maniacs appear in the form of James McManus (guitar), Matthew Christie (keyboards) and Julian Bailey (drums).

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