FEATURE: Sandy Kilpatrick comes home to a heartfelt showcase of local folk talent

Come along with Folk & Honey on a night out in Glasgow to celebrate Sandy Kilpatrick’s career milestone and read all about our exclusive interview with him! 

Part I: The homecoming gig.

On Easter Monday, April 21st, people gathered with friends and family to celebrate what truly matters to them. To some, this looked like a picnic in a park or a barbecue with friends. But, for a lucky group of music lovers, Easter Monday was to be celebrated at Glasgow’s iconic live music venue, King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, where the monthly ‘The Glasgow Songwriter Round’ was to be held. The ‘Round’, as it is usually referred to, is a Nashville-inspired free event in which four artists perform in turns, fostering a sense of intimacy and camaraderie between performers and audiences and creating highly unique and personable performances.

I arrived just in time. The bar had started filling up an hour before the venue doors opened, and the crowd’s anticipation was already palpable. The doors opened - to a general “whoop!” and applause - as people excitedly climbed the stairs and found their seats. King Tut’s venue is an intimate space, with a stage to the right of the stairs and the bar to your left. In front of the stage, the staff had arranged circular tables and chairs (with free popcorn!) for the audience. I found my seat at the front, right by the stage, ready to take the night in. The rest of the audience followed suit, sitting in small clusters of 4-6 people and chatting among themselves as if they were all lifelong friends, despite the diversity in age and gender of people in attendance. I was immediately certain that most of them regularly attend the ‘Round’(considering it is a free event that brings people together to unite them with a common love for live music and folk artistry) in the heart of Scotland’s music capital.

The room was lit up by warm lamps and multicolour stage lights, as well as by the twinkly fairy lights which adorned the microphone stands, and buzzing with anticipation. Around half-seven, Sandy took the stage, followed by Sarah Jane Scouten, Kirsteen Harvey and Venus As A Boy (aka Cammie). They sat (in this order) on their stools and grabbed their guitars as Sandy greeted the crowd. As a long-term fan of the ‘Round’,  Sandy seemed ecstatic to have been invited back to perform in Scotland after moving to the north of Portugal in 2000, and greeted the crowd with an ample smile and a word of thanks for Jenn, the organiser of the ‘Round’.

Sandy Kilpatrick has had a career some can only dream of. He recently surpassed the 25-year milestone and can now boast of his career’s longevity and influence in international waters. He is an acclaimed singer-songwriter, born in East Kilbride in 1968, known for being the frontman of Manchester’s cult band Sleepwalker between 1995 and 2000 and a prolific folk performer and songwriter. After his Sleepwalker days, Kilpatrick moved abroad to Portugal to live on a refurbished farm with his family. Now, he regularly delights international audiences between the UK and Portugal. His songs have been featured by Elbow´s Guy Garvey on BBC Radio 6 Music, by Iain Anderson on BBC Radio Scotland, and by Mark Radcliffe on BBC Radio 2. Sandy has also received raving reviews from platforms like ‘CLOUT’, ‘It’s All Indie’, ‘Music Crowns’, etc.

Sandy kicked off the night with ‘The Light of the Moon’. This song, originally released in 2015 as part of Sandy’s album ‘The Shaman’s Call’, was the perfect opener. Its live arrangement was contemplative and melodic, with Sandy’s guitar accompanying his homesick and nostalgic lyrics perfectly. But what truly stood out to me during this song was Sandy’s smile. As he revisited his homesickness a decade later, while performing an ode to Scotland in the heart of Glasgow, Sandy’s facial expression reflected the warmth of experiencing such a full-circle moment, tenfold. While the melancholic tone of the song’s studio version was still unequivocally present at the song´s core, this particular performance was marked by Sandy basking in the glow of coming home. The subsequent applause was tumultuous.

“I’ve travelled so far just to find / I didn’t leave my people behind / My people are with me tonight / Oh, Lord, take me home / on the wings of my song /And leave me beside / the banks of the Clyde”

His next song, ‘The Spark’, is Sandy’s latest release and the most powerful love song of his career. It is an ode to Sandy’s wife and muse and was directly inspired by a transcendental conversation they had in the early stages of their relationship. He explained to us how his wife’s response to a simple question (“What makes art good?”) ignited within him the desire to continue pursuing a music career. ‘The Spark’ sonically depicts this too: The intro slowly builds and pauses, with Sandy’s first verses tugging at the audience’s heartstrings as he reminisces. Sandy’s voice, clearly well-trained and adept at captivating audiences after years of performing live, let his devotion shine through as he basked in the freedom of loving so deeply and unconditionally. It soared towards the end as his guitar chords crescendoed and then quieted down to revel in the sincerity of his feelings as professed throughout the outro, ending the song to another rowdy applause as my favourite lyrics from ´The Spark´ whirled around in my mind:

“You were so beautiful / and made just for me / You set me free / Oh, you set me free / to live an illuminated life / To live an illuminated life / All you need / All you need is a spark”

Next, he performed ‘The Hunter’s Moon’, which is still unreleased. After admitting to being terminally “obsessed by the moon”, Sandy explained how this song came to him during a feverish late-night outing, while a storm raged over his family’s farm in Portugal. The live arrangement depicts this vividly, with the song’s beat mimicking raindrops on a traditional Portuguese tile roof. The song is full of musical Portuguese influences and was inspired by Sandy’s rediscovery of nature in this foreign ecosystem. After the chorus escalated, mimicking thunder, Sandy broke into the kind of improvisational singing best reserved for standing "alone in the rain, in your pyjamas, at 2AM”, thus transporting the audience to this magical song’s setting. As the chords started fading out, I was strongly reminded of how an onslaught of rain would come down, hard, and soften again once a storm passes.  Through this incredibly poetic performance, Sandy transformed the feeling of being ‘held’ by Mother Nature into a sonic hug for his audience and was rewarded with warm applause.

“Mother Nature is there for me /  Yes, she’s gonna hold you”

Sandy concluded his set with ‘We Don’t Need Tomorrow’, a song he released in 2012 for the ‘Redemption Road’ album. After a trip to Harlem which helped him reevaluate the melancholic tone of his previous music, he decided to scour his memories for more uplifting musical inspirations. Drawing from memories of a communal hiking trip from his University days, Sandy wrote this upbeat, summery song to remind himself, and his audience, of the pleasure of sharing a sunny day with friends. His smile was incredibly infectious, as the strummy arrangement imbued us with the easy-breezy energy of those jovial summery days. Sandy had shown us the chorus in advance, so the audience joined him in singing the last chorus. It was truly the perfect choice to finish his set, so when Sandy cut out his guitar at the very end, the audience’s voices intermingled with the other performers’ and his own to create a unique harmony that lifted everyone’s spirits. The following applause was out of this world.

“It all begins with friends / Friendship’s the fuel that never will end / We lay in the shade of a willow tree / in the heat of the afternoon sun”  “We don’t need tomorrow / Until the day is done”

The other singers, whose sets were intermingled with Sandy’s, following the traditional structure of songwriting rounds, also delivered very impactful performances. Sarah Jane Scouten, a young Canadian singer-songwriter, first captured the audience by performing a song in John Prine’s memory, but it was the story behind her arrangement of ‘Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry’ that truly enamoured everyone present. This song, which tells the story of countless Canadian mothers who were forced to send their sons to fight in Europe during WWI, was a powerful and defiant cry against the hypocrisy of chauvinistic, war-hungry men who have long denied the important role women played during these dark times. Glaswegian singer-songwriter Kirsteen Harvey also managed to move the entire crowd with a selection of original songs dedicated to her family and the beautiful landscapes of Scotland. Her goosebump-inducing arrangement of ‘Burning On’ received a huge applause, as she reflected on her past struggles and how the will to keep on going “came to [her] like an angel in the night". Kirsteen gifted us an extra song to close the show, a heartfelt rendition of the iconic Scottish folk song ‘Wild Mountain Thyme’, enlisting the help of everyone present to do so. And last, but certainly not least, was Venus As A Boy, who enchanted all of us in the audience with the "folk’n’roll" inspired ‘Tiny Grains of Sand’ and another song remembering Agnes Samson and the witches of East Lothian. However, nothing could top the powerful emotions in the room after ‘Rainbow Ball’, a song written to commemorate the life of a close friend who had recently passed away, which was written and performed with his friend’s old guitar and a plethora of bittersweet memories carried lovingly in his soulful singing voice.

I left King Tut’s feeling overwhelmed by the wave of conflicting emotions these performers’ songs had unleashed onto me, which is something I deeply appreciate every time I have the honour of witnessing live music shows. Seeing this wee show in the heart of Glasgow’s music scene was truly magical, and I can confidently say I will return for more. I don’t think I could ever get enough of these truly intimate and human moments in which art is shared with all kinds of people, who peek into the soul of an artist through their music and resonate with what they encounter, leaving the experience completely changed by the beautiful act of connecting at the deepest level. At a smaller venue like Tut’s, the proximity to the artists (as well as the phenomenal acoustics) will have you rediscovering feelings you thought were long-lost, or learning how to view the world from a previously unencountered perspective. This is why I (and so many others) truly love and appreciate live music and the wonderful musicians who make it all possible. All I have left to say to Sandy, Sarah, Kirsteen and Cammie is, very simply, thank you.

As an Editor for Folk & Honey, I had the added privilege of reaching out to Sandy to ask him for an interview and dig deep into his 25 years of experience in the music industry. I instinctively felt that he would be the kind of person with buckets of anecdotes and advice to share, and I was dead right. A couple of days after the gig, I had the absolute privilege of chatting with Sandy- calling from his sunny, stunning family farm in Portugal- about the wild ride that has been these past 25 years.

Part II: The interview.

Throughout the gig, I got the impression that Sandy was an incredibly personable artist with a wealth of experience and knowledge on all things folk-adjacent that I was keen to unpack, as I strongly believed that this would add an enriching perspective and background to his music. After interviewing him, I can confirm this to be true.

To begin, I asked Sandy where his love for live music comes from. Sandy takes me back to his early teens, telling me stories about sneaking into the renowned Barrowland Ballroom, one of Glasgow’s most well-worn and loved venues, and Glasgow’s Celtic Park to go see live shows. Many Scots credit the Barrowland’s 91 years of history as the catalyst for their love of music, and Sandy is no exception. “I must have been 13 or 14 when I was sneaking into shows… I saw Echo & The Bunnymen there”, he confesses. These early shows ignited in him a spark, which eventually grew and evolved into developing his guitar skills and covering songs towards his last days as a student in Lancaster, which is also when he met his now wife, Tess. But Sandy felt an even stronger pull towards the “spiritual” connection of a “communal gathering” in which live music is performed: “I do consider it a sacred experience, really”.

Soon, he started writing his own songs and performing them, becoming fully “music-obsessed” and, following a move to Manchester, immersed himself in the music scene. He kickstarted his career by playing in a cult band called Sleepwalker, previously known as “The Hum of Good Machines”. His early days in Manchester were shaped by the dichotomy of the camaraderie that was established among most bands and the competitive edge of the scene. “We wanted to be the best, and it’s really important to have that fire to be the best that you could be”. This drove Sleepwalker to regularly perform in venues that have hosted some of the world’s biggest music stars, like the well-respected Manchester Roadhouse, which was the heart of a lot of English music talent during its heyday. “[We] played a lot of shows at The Roadhouse. [It] became a second home because [of] the people that ran it”. It was there that Sandy established a close friendship with Elbow, especially with Guy Garvey. “Guy came to see almost every show that I played with Sleepwalker. Even when they got signed to Island Records, [they would] come up sometimes [while] they were recording their first album”.

Sleepwalker fostered these relationships with other musicians, and in 1999 they were approached by The Roadhouse’s staff to see if they would like to open for Muse. “It looks better in retrospect”, Sandy contemplates, “[but] I played with a few bands that seemed really promising, you know?”. “It was good to play with them [and] the concert was okay. In my opinion, they were just taking the baton from Radiohead”. Sleepwalker’s success grew, and soon they were launching their first single ‘Sleepwalking’ to a full house in Withington’s Cine City Cinema, in April of 2000, with Elbow as their opening act. He cites this as a truly fond memory from many, many years ago and confides in me that he is still great friends with Guy Garvey to this day. While Sleepwalker eventually disbanded, Sandy knew that his heart was still in music and persisted as a solo artist.

Unfortunately, life rarely turns out as planned, and Sandy was forced to relocate to Portugal to be with his family. During this time, he independently released ‘Incandescent Night Stories’, a heavier album which reflected the bittersweet feeling of finally reuniting with his family at the cost of leaving his home country behind. “[The album] was quite heavy because the transition from Manchester to Portugal was absolutely heartbreaking for me”. Left unsatisfied with the reception to this album, Sandy decided to step back and spend some time building a network of friends, musicians and collaborations before coming back to music. Following this brief hiatus, Sandy eventually met and began working with long-term Portuguese collaborators André Silvestre and João Robim (aka Robim), as well as local photographer and filmmaker Eduardo Brito. Together, this eclectic group of artists have collaborated and helped Sandy produce his favourite released projects.

While working on writing for his album ‘Redemption Road’, Sandy embarked on a road trip with Eduardo, which became the inspiration behind the multimedia project ‘Terras Últimas’. This took them from their towns in the north of Portugal to all the European towns that once upon a time used to be considered the end of the world: Finisterre (in Galicia, Spain), Finistère (in Brittany, France) and Land’s End (in Cornwall). Thus, ‘Terras Últimas’ was born as a collection of photographs, music and sketches inspired by this incredible road trip Sandy and Eduardo took. “It was a very beautiful project and we both put a lot of love into that”, Sandy reminisces, “but it was also quite odd [and] a bit mad and risky”. Revitalised by this trip and the ability to flex his creative muscles, Sandy went back home and completed ‘Redemption Road’.

‘Redemption Road’ was deeply influenced by another trip, this time to New York, during which Sandy visited a gospel church in Harlem. He was inspired by the profound spirituality and human connection of gospel music and now cites this moment as a “turning point” in his life. “[It] was really pivotal”, he muses. “In retrospect, I became ready to write the songs about nature that have become my focus after that”. He explained that this became his phenomenological “portal” into songs, which is in part inspired by Bruce Springsteen’s approach to songwriting: “He’s a novelist, really”.

In the wake of ‘Redemption Road’, Sandy took up a new approach to writing and releasing music, which can clearly be seen in his latest projects. His latest release (which teases his next album ‘Illuminations’), ‘The Spark’ celebrates this turning point in his life by examining another pivotal moment, wherein Tess explained to him that art only needs to make someone feel something to be ‘good’. “I knew that I wanted to approach art on this album”, he explains, “and I didn’t want to just be writing postcards about nature. The [core] idea really is my engagement as an artist, as a songwriter, with [the Norwegian landscape]”, much like his previous album ‘Confessions from the South’ was “a homage to different places in Portugal”. More specifically, ‘The Spark’ celebrates both his conversation with Tess and the bright light of Ålesund, a Norwegian town known for attracting travelling artists. While this album has been taking some years to be released, Sandy prefers it this way. “I’ve been talking about releasing it for two years… And I suppose it would be different if I was with a major label [but] the industry has become kind of broken [so] the best way to have a fulfilling experience is doing it like this, on my own terms”. As such, ‘The Spark’ remains a beautifully-written love song, deeply personal in its devotion towards Sandy’s wife and muse, through which he also imbues his audience with the desire to pursue art, for art’s sake, and with the knowledge that to love wholeheartedly is to be truly free.

‘The Spark’ has given Sandy quite a bit of traction in the UK’s folk music scene. “I feel very blessed”, he smiles, “but I would’ve loved to have more opportunities in the UK, and that’s why I relocated [here] last year… [Now] things are looking very good”, he states. “The music [in Portugal] has evolved incredibly in the last 20 years”, he tells me, “but I’ve definitely felt a lot of longing, and I’ve been missing Scotland a lot”. When asked about how it felt to come home and play in King Tut’s, he said “It felt fantastic, to be honest. I love being in Glasgow, I love being in that [musical] context. It just felt natural to be at home, and the chemistry in King Tut’s was great, the public were amazing… I couldn’t have asked for any more as a reintroduction”. He has plans to return soon, to promote a new single which will also tease ‘Illuminations’. “It’s all been growing quite organically and nicely”, he reflects, “but what I’m really excited to do in the UK [is] do a load of live shows with my band”. As such, Sandy is set to reach another career high once ‘Illuminations’ is ready for release, and if the crowd at King Tut’s is any indication of how this will go, I think it’s safe to say that UK audiences will greet him with open arms. With his parting words, he gave me some advice to pass on to aspiring musicians who might be looking for their own spark: “Just keep looking. It’s quite an organic process, [so just] keep going. Trust the process of your work, and eventually you will find your own voice”.