Today, i marked the end of my "live scene drought" at The Glasgow River Festival. I'm back for a wee "run out" before the single and album campaigns begin. I guess I'm stretching my musical legs!

My time away from "front and centre" has been put to good use though. I've spent almost two months recording my album with producer Calum Malcolm, both in Glasgow and in North Berwick on the East Coast of Scotland. It's beautiful there. We're almost, almost finished. I can't wait to finally get it out. It's been 3 years in the making and at times the whole process is like pulling teeth, but now i understand why, and I'm glad it's been such a challenging process.

With the album almost complete, I'm out and about once more. Tomorrow night, I'm in Edinburgh at playing at the 3 Sisters for Irn Bru 32's New Music Night. Next week, the boys and i are at home in Glasgow, at Box on the 25th of July and then it's off to Loch Lomond on Sunday the 3rd of August on The Sunday Mail Stage at 1pm. We have a limited amount of discounted tickets available to anyone who'd like to come along and support our loch Lomond début. Just get in touch with us and we'll sort it out for you.

Anyway, just wanted to keep you up to speed...

Hope you're well.

-M

Check out the latest reviews from Maeve's headline at the Oran Mor last month...


http://www.stv.tv/content/out/music/...

http://www.bluesbunny.com/tabid/59/x...

"What can I say? Fantastic. I stood amazed at her voice and I think she is going to be the next big thing. KT Tunstal and Amy McDonald eat your heart out Maeve is coming to bite your arses."

Ask me my secrets, I’ll tell you no lies…

Here’s what you wanted to know about Maeve, and here are Maeve’s answers.

We’ll be doing this again, so keep sending your questions to “I’ll tell you no lies”

“ For someone so young, the issues that your songs touch upon are really profound and poignant. Have you always had such a mature approach to music?”

I think I’ve always had a mature approach to life, which has allowed me to see and experience things that my peers never could. I am, young, but artistically I’ve always felt that I started from a fairly accomplished place. From an early age, possibly even from the age of four or five, I have been interpreting my world through short stories, paintings, poetry, music and lyrics.

“ At what point did music become more than a past time?”

Throughout my life music has always been more than a “past-time”. It was the main way in which I expressed myself and explained my world. There were periods growing up when I didn’t think I was good enough to make a career out of music. I’m really grateful for those years of doubt because they forced me to work hard and take stock of my weaknesses. More importantly however, those years really highlighted my strengths. When I left school at 16 I tried to hold down a part-time job but I ended up starting, and quitting, four in that first year after school. I couldn’t settle. I just didn’t have it in me to be “normal”. It was at that point that I realised I was born to do this, that being a songwriter and singer was my purpose in life.

“Did your parents encourage your career in music?”

Yes, I’ve been lucky. My dad and mum made it possible for me to concentrate exclusively on my career and I’ll always be grateful for that. I don’t think they thought it’d take so long though. I’m my dad’s pension plan!

“What motivates you?”

To be honest I think “fear of failure” really motivates me. At the end of the day, if you’re not scared of losing something that you consider yourself to be passionate about, then perhaps your hearts not really in it as much as you thought. I truly believe that fear is more important than passion and talent, but all three together can make you unstoppable if you’re prepared to work hard.


“The spotlight seems constantly fixed on issues of weight and image. Fat or Thin, which do you think we should encourage?”

Neither. How can we look on with disgust at the size 0 culture, claiming that only “skinny” celebrities are responsible for influencing the eating habits of young girls? We need to get real here! We need to stop praising, obese women calling them voluptuous, proud to be “different” and sexy? Don’t get me wrong; we definitely should champion women who are happy within themselves, but lets not get caught up in suggesting that “fat” celebrities are happier and healthier because they aren’t starving themselves. What we need to realise, is that both extremes are dangerous and bring with them health difficulties like heart disease and diabetes, not to mention the psychological damage that can come with weight insecurities and image pressures. Actually, I think “different” and “sexy” would be someone who actually dared to be healthy!

“Is Glasgow a good place to be an artist?”

I guess it’s like everything else in that it’s what you make of it. As an artist, Glasgow has always been good to me. There is a sense of “community” in Glasgow that is unbeatable. Glaswegians love to talk, the famous “Glasgae banter”, and so it’s hard to not to be inspired. It’s a fairly small city, so you get to know almost every promoter, artist and venue and you become very aware of the people who can help and more importantly those who may hinder you as a musician. At the moment, It’s not as tough as London or New York to get noticed in Glasgow, because the number of genuinely talented artists in