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00:00Well, I was born there, brought up there, and my mum still lives there, so it's still,
00:16you know, I'm still it.
00:24I did, and then I went off to school, I went to Fettis for a bit, and then in Edinburgh,
00:32and then I went to London when I was 18 for music college, and then I think I moved, then
00:46I probably moved, I moved to LA when I was 24, 25.
00:58That all emerged very simply from my home life.
01:05Dad had a residential recording studio based outside Inverness at Nairn, and that was life.
01:15I was very used to kind of rock bands coming, and Ozzy Osbourne coming, and Echo and the
01:22Bunnymen, and all these bands would just come and record, and I thought it was pretty normal.
01:29I thought a normal job was waking up at lunchtime and playing music all the time, so that very
01:36much was how I was brought up, and I think that was the initial introduction to it all,
01:46was that, being able to kind of just daily walk down to the recording studio and listen
01:52to bands playing, and hearing them writing songs, and so it was very much, that was very
02:01much the home life. But yes, it was a residential recording studio called Highland Studios.
02:11Well, I think it's a horrid shame that Ironworks has closed down.
02:20The amount of fascinating bands that were coming up and being able to play there was
02:28extraordinary. It was, apart from the large stadium size acts, it was getting acts that
02:37Edinburgh and Glasgow were able to kind of have, so it was a real disappointment to see that,
02:45because I think that legitimised Inverness in such a great way, because it made it a proper
02:55base that people could go on tour to, you know, that's what bands need to do.
03:01You don't, before you used to kind of tour to sell your album, but now you make your album so you
03:08can tour, so it's a very much different scene, so that's very disappointing. But on the positive
03:17side, MacGregor's, I think, has been a great establishment to get music accessible. The fact
03:35that the main IP to it is relying on live music and embracing the culture, I think is fantastic.
03:46For that genre of music, you know, Ironworks was doing everything from dance acts to,
03:54you know, all kind of acts, but MacGregor's is something, because that was always something I
04:00always kind of felt was so strange, to be able to kind of, why can't you easily access Celtic music?
04:08Every Irish pub on the planet has Irish music, but Scottish places just seem to kind of
04:13run away from it, so I think Bruce has done a great thing with MacGregor's.
04:20So, you know, you've got the music side, and then the accessibility with Eden Court now,
04:27the fact that all those touring productions are starting off in Inverness now, I think is a massive
04:34stepping stone for them. And, you know, having a different, not the usual planning, cinema-wise,
04:47I think is also very exciting, because, you know, the big chains tend to kind of play the big
04:54movies, maybe like the size of movies I work on, but there are other movies out there for other
05:01audiences, and I think Eden Court's been doing very well at showcasing that.
05:21Look, yeah, that's the tricky thing, you've got, it's,
05:26places to do with the arts do lose money, that's just the nature of it,
05:31because you're also trying to create your audience base, it's all, you can't just, overnight,
05:38just all of a sudden, kind of think that people are going to come running to this new,
05:48to a form of entertainment that they're not necessarily used to, so it's, yeah, yeah.
05:55You're competing against streaming services now, it's very difficult, and customer care
06:01is very important, so you've got to kind of look at things like that, but look, I used to perform
06:07at Eden Court, I used to do tap dancing with Margaret Firth's Merry-Go-Round, which was a
06:16dance school, and every year it would be, she'd do a, I think anybody from 30 upwards would remember
06:25Maggie Firth, and I'm pretty sure everybody went there once, at least, they were told to go,
06:36you know, and she got people into ballet, and all forms of dance, and many left and moved to
06:43London, and were working in some of the West End shows, and I think it was Maggie Firth,
06:50it was that, and that yearly performance at Eden Court, where it was,
07:00you know, it was the beginning of learning, learning that you have to prepare and practice
07:06to put on an event, so it really, those were the very key, the key important moments.
07:14So, so I think, I think, and again, that is the other reason why something, it's, it's, it's a
07:21shame that Ironworks has stopped, because I think it, it meant people that did have music, that
07:28passions for music, and wanted to kind of get into, felt more access, being accessible to it,
07:34they were able to hear it live, and, and, and if you're, if you're in a band, that's what you love
07:39and if you're, if you're in a band, that's what you love out of music, so,
07:44but I, I think it's a different time, and I don't think you, you, you necessarily do need to be,
07:52you do need to move, and, and so many, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, you know,
07:59they do as many concerts up in Inverness as they do down in Glasgow, so, so I don't, I think the
08:05things can come to you, quite different than what it was 30 years ago.
08:21Well, look, it's, it's, you know, one of my favourite artists is Michael Forbes,
08:26and Michael's based up in the Highlands, and, and, and, and again, it's just, it's,
08:31I, I think it's the same as the musicians, you know, Bruce, I've used Bruce McGregor on quite
08:40a few films on the soundtracks, and he in turn has kind of then brought other musicians who,
08:48who are either teachers, or they're cooks, or they're somebody, and in the part, and then in
08:53their free time, they, they perform, and, but being a full-time musician is, is, is, is hard
09:01work, you know, the thing is, is that if you were to do it in London, you might, there aren't,
09:08there's more recording studios, there's more session work, so there is more work, but then
09:13there's more of you, so that you're going to get less, less jobs, but I think the concept of a
09:19full-time musician is more feasible in London than elsewhere.
09:30It, it, you, it's as fundamental as a sausage roll, I don't think it's just, it's, I'd worked
09:36with them 15, 18 years ago on Curse of the Were-Rabbit, so I know, I know Nick Park very well,
09:45and I know Julian not very well, so, so we knew each other, but, but it's just, it's a, it's a,
09:53it's, you know, it's filmmaking that doesn't get made anywhere else in the world, technologies
10:00moved on, but they've been loyal to the craft, it's a really artisan way of filmmaking that
10:08just doesn't happen anywhere else in the world, so that is, that is very,
10:15that's the exciting thing of it, and when you visit them, and you see them,
10:21you see them making it, it's, it's so, it's so tactile, and it's personal.