Interview: Iona Fyfe on performing after Covid and her passion for Scots

She’ll’v seen me fae her ­windae gettin oot the motor. A’m sprachlin wi a couple a ­bottles ae ginger, a poke a millionairre’s shortbreid, an a packet a lateral flow tests. There a drooth on, an ma chemists jist got a delivery in that morn. Whit a haunsel!

Iona says she’s pitten the door on the snib fir me. Gaun up the close A’m tryin tae mind the last A seen her face tae face, wis it in the Afore Times? Aw, nut, we’d baith been filmed in performance in Helen ­Kyle’s Memory of Water project aboot a year back. A live event rejigged intae a film project, oor sets wur back tae back, an there we wur ootside peerin ower wir pus-masks at wan anither, hauf ­stammagastit, ­bletherin aboot whit’d became ae wir lifes fae ­lockdoon stertit.

As a got tae the tap dancer A didnae huv that wee dreid A’m gettin meetin pals ages wi me, thit fae the last A seen them they’ve turnt intae their maw or their da, Iona’s in her early twinties but. A did tho hiv that aw too familiar flummoxed feelin A get meetin ither folk A ken fae live performin – “How are ye even stull survivin throu these times?”

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Iona Fyfe is wan ae Scotland’s rarest singers. On tap ae that she campaigns fir better wirkin ­conditions fir musicians, an she’s a kenspeckilt Scots language activist. Iona cam up throu the Traditional Music and Song Association (TMSA) movement in the North East an flittit tae Glesga tae study Traditional Music at the prestigious Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS). She’s won coontless awards, maist recently this year’s Musician of the Year at the MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards. Iona’s released a ­critically aclaimed album Away From My Window, an EP Dark Turn of Mind, an a wheen o singles. She’s toured Scotland an the warld singin wir traditional Scots sangs an her ain braw wirk, an by richts that’s whit she shuid be daein the noo.

“I feel more like a business woman now than ­before.” A’m luikin at her hame studio – aw set up fir gaun live in performance online or recordin ­music at the drap ae a bunnet. “I genuinely think that the pandemic has made me rethink what is important. And I don’t think that ripping the arse out of ­touring is that important to grow as an artist or being a ­practitioner.”

Apairt fae a haunfae o concerts in Germany an Denmark, in duo wi Michael Biggins, maist ae Iona’s singin performances this past couple ae year huv been gien throu the lens. This is in sterk contrast wi 2018 an 2019 thit she minds as “naethin but gig, gig, gig, gig, gig”.

“It was amazing, but it left us really tired.” Fae whaur we ur the noo in 2022, it’s sometimes ­mibbie haurd tae mind, but fur performers luikin forret fae the stert o 2020, Brexit loomed. It’s been masked wi the pandemic, but the costs o tourin an the ­restrictions on traivel efter bein taen oot ae the EU are insurmoontable stull.

Iona wis awready sizin up whither or no it wis even possible tae continue takkin wir culture ­ootwith ­Scotland in live performance whan lockdoon ­regulations hit.

“Our industry has been constantly shut, even though other industries have not been shut. There’s been more concern about getting 50,000 people in Ibrox than 200 people in a concert hall.”

This double dunt tae the bedrock o whit it is tae be a professional musician haes seen Iona ­increasinly become a campaigner fur ­fairer wirkin conditions fur aw ­musicians.

“I’ve become scarily acustomed to ­online. I’ve seen how much we can do online through successfully ­campaigning for Spotify to recognise songs in the Scots language and my work with the ­Musician’s union.”

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This experience ae campaignin haes ­informed Iona funnin new weys ae ­explorin her airt. Alang wi streamin ­concerts modeled on the live experience she’s been daein mair portfolio wirk.

“I’ve started writing myself, on stuff I feel I can comment on. And I’ve been recording readings of childrens’ books, like Nil by Mouth’s Neeps and Tatties. I wouldn’t have had the time or even ­realised I have the skillset to do that kind of thing.”

Alang wi this Iona’s been giein online coorses on Scots ballads, an makkin lairnin resoorces sich as her exploration o Scots literacy in sang fir the Scots Language Centre’s Scots Warks project. Iona recorded her ain composition, The Cauld, alang wi her ain Scots version ae Taylor Swift’s Love Story for Scots Warks. 

A think back tae the last A seen Iona singin live. It wis early 2020, A’d been at the Grit Orchestra pleyin The Barras, an efter that A’d stotit alang the Gallagate. A’d nipped in tae a couple ae baurs on ma wey tae The Scotia an duin wan sang at an open mic an wan at a session. At The Scotia A bumped intae a couple ae musicians an poets thit’d been performin earlier that nicht tae, an whan last orders came A decidit tae awey up tae Celtic Connections’ Festival Club tae see who wis aboot. Iona wis there at the TMSA singaroon alang wi aboot 20 ither ­sangsters an she fired ma name doon tae dae a turn.

Thae kin ae nichts seem a warld awey. A cam up wi ma parents runnin folk clubs an then A stertit pleyin in rock bands aroon Glesga, sae gaun oot aften wis aw aboot the music.

Fae pleyin gigs, tae daein a turn, tae gettin pult ontae stage cause a band’s tambourine pleyer hudnae showed up. A big pairt o ma ­flittin back tae Glesga efter stravaigin aboot this ­island wis the music scene.

There naewhere like it, an there a ­reason it’s a Unesco City of Music. Fae orchesteral tae hip hop, indie tae folk, warld cless professionals tae warld cless buskers and warld cless karaoke singers, it’s aw there. It’s in wir veins.

But tae ­paraphrase Adam McNaughtan – Whaur is the Glesga A uised tae knaw?

A ask Iona aboot how we get back tae whit we haed. “I do feel anxious about returning to normal. I’m really sad about this pandemic cancelling a few gigs in January and February. But I don’t think I was ready to go back to a full throttle Celtic Connections, or full throttle socialising.”

It’ll tak a drap time for us aw tae get back tae whit it wis, an mibbie a lot o help. A’ve seen Iona an a wheen o Glesga performers this past couple year on Mark McGhee’s You Call That Radio? show. In ma opinion there few thit’s done mair tae keep the Glesga unnergrun music scene, an its warldwide reach, vital throu the pandemic. Sae we dae ken thit wir bands an musicians are aw there, champin at the bit tae get back tae it. An awb’dy’s makkin new music, juist waitin fir a live debut.

Iona’s been wirkin on her second ­album, a collection o less kent ballads fae the North East taen fae The James ­Madison Carpenter Collection. It’ll be an excitin recordin, we’re wantin ­professional, knawledgable musicians cairryin the tradition forret. But A see her fykin in her chair an ask her “Whit’s up?”

“They’re beautiful sangs, but I’ve fallen out of love a bit with the idea of ‘Right, here’s 10 ballads’. It’s lik ance I’ve done these I’ll have done aa the ballads in the beuk.”

“Whilst procrastinating doing that ­album I’ve written loads of songs for a third album that’ll be more like The Cauld. I think the third album is all songs that I have written. The entire album will be in Scots.”

“It’ll nae be as teuchy as the Scots o the ballads. Juist like, mair how we talk.”

ME and Iona huv blethered ower the years aboot how we go aboot extendin wir ain accents an language intae the genres we luv an stull hauddin on tae wir traditional music. Hou kin we no uise wir ain voices in wir airt in whitever we’re daein?

A dae it wi rock an classical art singin, wirkin wi The Scots Opera Project we’ve produced a wheen o full productions in Scots. An folk wur daein it weil afore us, lik Alex Harvey, the Nyah Fearties, The Cundeez, an new trails hae been bleezed bi wir contemporarties in the Scots Hip-Hop an Indie scenes.

But as performers wi Scots accents, an thit talk in Scots, we aw face the same challenges wi the expectations o a genre. There aye a dytit eejit there jist gantin tae tell ye yer voice disnae belang in certain kins o music. “I feel very uncomfortable when someone from another genre comes and does what you do, so I’m wary doing something that other people do.

“But also there’s not many singers who write contemporary folk-pop songs in Scots.”

Iona’s switherin aboot her third album an whither it wants tae be in a couple o versions fir her audience. Her EP, Dark Turn of Mind, wis sung in her ain accent, but aw in English language.

“The entire album will be in Scots, and then there will be another overdub in English and they can choose. Like, here’s it in English juist in case.”

A tell her thit as a writer A’m ­aften asked fir baith a Scots version an a ­English version fur the same pey. Thit it’s mair wirk, but A dae it acause A want tae keep the integrity o ma ­language.

“I can’t eat integrity. Besides, it’s not loads more work on an album. The ­music doesn’t need to change once it’s been ­recorded. You can’t treat an album like it’s meant to be in a museum, it’s meant tae be in the charts. My only big fear is that radio stations pick the English ­versions to play.”

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A mind o a conversation A’v hud a thoosan times wi visitors tae Scotland at gigs aw ower the country – “The music here is great, but you guys don’t play the records anywhere!”

An it’s true. Baurin a haunfae local ­radio stations, lik SunnyG, we’ll no. But that? Weil, that’s ripe fir us ­chyngin!

As we get tae rebuildin wir live music scene, we hae the chance tae baith be ­wirsels an tae try oot somethin new. A ask her if she’s worried aboot comparison wi ither airtists, it seems ye cannae dae naethin athoot gettin “The Scottish ­insert-other-artist’s-name-here” ­treatment. She’s no wantin tae be “The Scottish Taylor Swift”, she hus her ain voice, an her ain things tae say.

“I jist want tae be Iona Fyfe.”