Folk musician John McCusker on 10 things that changed his life

I got a tin whistle at the age of six and a violin at seven. I took to them straight away and I often wonder how my mother knew I would, because nobody else in the family plays a note. That was the start of my journey and I ended up playing in orchestras and St Roch’s Ceili Band in Glasgow. Out of that ceilidh band have come so many musicians who are now in folk bands throughout Scotland.

My parents also asked the local church if I could play the organ, even though I hadn’t had any formal piano lessons, and I ended up playing for funerals and weddings, pretending I could read the organ music! Somehow I could do it and thank goodness, because I think that is the only thing I ever wanted to do.

2 My parents’ record collection

When I was little, all I wanted to do was listen to their old records. As soon as I got home from school, I would go straight to the record player and put the headphones on.

I was listening to their old country records and lots of Irish music like the Clancy Brothers (below) and the Fureys – the least trendy music for a kid to be listening to but I couldn’t wait to get home from school to listen to those old albums.

The Clancy Brothers

They cemented my love of traditional music and even when I started producing records they were a big part of the sounds I wanted to make.

My mum is from Ireland and that love of Ireland and Irish traditional music has run through my whole life.

Their record collection was a real turning point. I was like a little sponge. I just soaked as much music into my tiny brain as I possibly could.

3 The day I did Irish dancing for bullies

My older sisters were doing Irish dancing and I ended up doing it too. It was my mum’s idea but I loved it and danced in competitions as a wee boy.

At school assemblies I would be asked to play the tin whistle and violin and one day they asked me to do some Irish dancing. I had to wear a little skirt, a kilt type thing, and play a tin whistle in front of the whole school!

I was playing football later when some older boys told me I had to dance. I didn’t want to and they bullied me into it but it felt like I was sticking up for myself. I realised I was proud of what I do.

In the music industry, I think some people do try to control you, but from that moment I have always been able to stick up for myself.

4 A record shop in Hamilton

I went to Holy Cross High in Hamilton. I used to get £1 for my lunch and the kids used to walk into town to get something to eat. There was a record shop called Impulse Records which sold pink and white striped paper bags for £1 containing 10 seven-inch singles. You didn’t know what you were getting – they were things that did not make the charts. Instead of buying lunch one day, I bought a bag.

That was the start of my love of different genres of music, whether it be Nanci Griffith, Billy Bragg or Sonic Youth. I was 12 at the time and playing folk music but this was the first time I had really heard music from around the world. I didn’t like everything but those records were signposts for my love of different genres. That has stood me well because I have never been pigeonholed into one or another.

One day I could be playing folk music then the next day recording with Ocean Colour Scene, Idlewild or Mark Knopfler. Music has always just been music for me. I love all forms and genres.

5 The RSAMD

My violin teacher told my mum and dad that I should apply for the junior kids at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD) and I went from the age of 13 to 16.

I suppose the idea was that they trained you to be a classical musician but my heart was never in classical music. I never practised and I was in a band called Parcel of Rogues with my friends, playing jigs and reels and jumping up and down. The RSAMD did not like me playing folk music because you could only really do one or the other back then.

So I would pretend I wasn’t playing folk music but then I’d get into trouble for being spotted playing it on the telly!

I used to go every Saturday morning and there was a blackboard with names of the people that were kind of in trouble so they had to go and see the principal. My name ended up on that blackboard every Saturday morning; it got so bad I just went straight up the stairs to his office without looking at it!

However, even though I didn’t fully enjoy it, I am now so grateful for those three years and that foundation of learning because even when I am recording with pop or rock artists, they very often want me to do a string section and play like a classical musician. It forced me to read music too. Up until then, the only formal training I had was half an hour a week with other kids at primary school.

Ironically, later in life when I got to play with orchestras, it would be with those same teachers – so it was like coming full circle. We have all come a long way since then. Different genres of music go hand in hand now and it seems so natural. It is how it should be. Music is music.

6 Joining the Battlefield Band

I guess my mum and dad’s plan was for me to become a music teacher or join an orchestra but when I was 16 and playing on people’s records, the manager of the Battlefield Band saw me play and asked me to join the band. It was by far the best thing that could have happened to me, although I suppose it was my parents’ worst nightmare because instead of going to the prestigious Royal Academy, I went in a van with some hairy people to Germany! They just saw me getting taken away but I was getting a job and a wage and a passport for the first time.

I had never been anywhere apart from Ireland and at that time the British Council were putting traditional music on all over the world so I got to go to places like Syria, Jordan, Sri Lanka, India, New Zealand, Australia, Japan and America. It gave me a great love of travel and my whole world just opened up. I remember getting curry for the first time and my immediate reaction was to put salt all over it!

I’ve never lost my passion for travel and meeting new people and the Battlefield Band gave me that, although I was out of my comfort zone. It was the first time I had to talk to an audience and really develop performing skills and I am so grateful for that.

7 Having my two girls

Molly Mae (12) and Jessica (eight) are, without a doubt, the best thing that could have ever happened to me.

It makes me think back to my mum and dad’s encouragement and love and how it is never-ending. They could not have done any more to encourage my passion. Mum and dad have never driven a car so we went everywhere by bus and my dad would wait in the rain with me and walk a mile with me up the high street in Glasgow to get to St Roch’s High School to play in the ceilidh band.

I want to pass on the love and encouragement I got from my mum and dad to my girls.

The most amazing thing about having them is seeing everything through their eyes and their gorgeous innocence. I remember being in the kitchen with Molly when she was really small. We had a little digital radio and I pressed the button to make it go on and her eyes just lit up. She used to call it the magic box.

They turn me on to so much music I would not normally listen to. I love it and the way they react to it. I see and hear things completely differently because of them. They have fresh eyes and don’t judge people.

8 Getting to work with Mark Knopfler

I was at the point in my life where a relationship was ending and I didn’t know what I was going to do musically.

I was moving from Yorkshire back to Edinburgh and left a music relationship and personal relationship that I had been in for more than 12 years. I didn’t have much money and not many gigs. Then Mark Knopfler’s management called and asked if I would play on his record. I ended up doing a promotional tour with him and was then asked to join his band and do a world tour for six months.

John McCusker says playing with Mark Knopfler turned his life upside down

That turned my life upside down in the best possible way. I got to play in venues like the Royal Albert Hall, Madison Square Gardens and the Hollywood Bowl but it was like starting again. I was so out of my comfort zone. Even though I had spent 20 years of life touring, all of a sudden I was in a room with what I can only call geniuses, the best players in the world, and learning a whole new skill of performing in stadiums and arenas. Mark saw how nervous I was at a sound check at the Royal Albert Hall and he told me that I had to believe that I belonged there and to not overplay. He told me it was just another venue and to just be myself.

Mark’s attention to detail is incredible. Watching him and the members of his band at work and, for me, being a little sponge again has been amazing. I have spent 15 years touring the world with Mark and his band and have learned so much.

9 Being asked to join Transatlantic Sessions

More than 20 years ago, Aly Bain had this very simple but very inspiring idea of bringing some of his American friends over and mixing them up with people from here and getting them to play music together.

It has cemented so many friendships and was the start of a trio of myself, Mike McGoldrick and John Doyle. We were part of the house band and didn’t want the fun to end so we kept going and now play more than 50 shows every year together.

Transatlantic Sessions has given me the gift of always being completely inspired. It just makes you want to play music and keep on going, enjoying it as much as you can.

10 An old photo

More than 40 years ago, my mum, whose maiden name is McCabe, took me to a session in Carrickmacross, County Monaghan, where she is from. There were local musicians there called McCabes and my dad took a picture of me sitting beside these older men. My mum thought they might be distant relations but we never asked at the time.

Then two years ago my mum traced her family tree which led her back to Ireland where she was told she had to meet a Brian McCabe because he knew all the local area.

I showed him the picture and he told me he was the man sitting next to me in it and beside him was his brother – so I was meeting the man from the photograph more than 40 years later. It turned out they were from a long line of musicians and my mum’s dad was a very distant relative.

It was the first time in my life that I was able to trace my music through the generations. The most amazing thing was that his daughter, Helen, came down from Dublin to meet us. We played tunes and it was like listening to myself on the fiddle. I had never met anybody with that connection before. We play the same, we write tunes in a similar way and now she is my partner.

Through that picture I met my soulmate and we are now living in Edinburgh and going on tour and making a record together.

John will release his new album John McCusker – The Best Of – in January. The double album will feature 30 of his standout tracks from the past 30 years and is a celebration not only of his solo work but also of the many notable collaborations he has been part of throughout his career.

www.johnmccusker.co.uk