What a Carrie On…

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The Scottish songstress, who recently took over the airwaves with her debut single ‘Hello’, is a big fan of the magazine that helped her along the way – yes, we mean End of Term!

WORDS: ROSALIND TULLOCH

Back in 2008 End of Term discovered an amazing ‘unsigned’ singer-songwriter performing at the Scotcampus freshers festival in Glasgow. Having fallen in love with her acoustic sound, we decided to get Carrie MacDonald, then 21, into a recording studio to record her first demo album – and ran a feature on the process in our Spring 2009 issue.

In fact, Carrie’s cropped up frequently in End of Term over the last few issues and it is with great pleasure that we can now feature her as a signed artist with a successful debut single ‘Hello’ under her belt!

But would this success have changed her? We arrange to meet Carrie in the Metropolitan bar in Glasgow’s Merchant City. When we arrive she’s sitting quite casually on her own, dressed in her own bohemian style, hair scraped up and looking effortlessly gorgeous. As we walk in she jumps up to greet us with a big hug. Ah, still the same Carrie then!

TAKE-OFF!

Now signed to John McLaughlin’s independent label, Proto Management, Carrie’s music career is certainly taking off. “ We worked together and then it just kind of spiralled,” she says. “I signed with him and the radio stations picked up the single and that was that! I just thought I was going to write a couple of songs with John McLaughlin, which was in itself brilliant – I didn’t expect any of this!”

You will no doubt have heard Carrie Mac’s debut single ‘Hello’ on the radio, a catchy single that’s earned her a great reception when she played to a crowd of 10,000 at In:Demand Live, where she shared the stage with the likes of JLS, Diana Vickers, The Saturdays, Alesha Dixon and The Wanted.

“I was quite scared cos I was the only unknown act there,” she admits, “but the crowd were brilliant and some of them knew the words to Hello! It was very surreal!”

THE FAME GAME

It’s certainly a far cry from the acoustic sessions she’d been playing, while working in an Edinburgh coffee shop for the last five years – a job she only gave up after her customers started recognising her.

“I was still working when my song was being played on the radio and I was in the Sunday Mail,” she says. “My customers were looking at me like: ‘Is that her?’ So I thought it was time to go!”

A highlight of being signed has been playing with her own band, something she relishes as it did get lonely when it was just her and her guitar on stage. Another perk has been the introduction of a stylist and a hairdresser who constantly push the boundaries of her style and help to get her into character for playing a big set. “I’m quite scruffy in general and not really into getting up and putting on a full face of make up,” she laughs, “but now it’s like my job and I have to look presentable and wash!”

BRIGHT FUTURE

So much has happened since recording her first demo CD with End of Term that it seems so long ago, but she’s certainly not forgotten it. “I have to thank you guys so much for everything,” she says. “I’ve still got the copy of End of Term that I was in when we went to record my CD – and that was the CD that helped me get here!”

Currently working on her debut album with producers John Mclaughlin and Dave Thomas, Carrie hopes to have an album out by the end of the year and is planning a Scottish tour in the not too distant future – watch this space!

We always knew she would make it!

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‘Hello’ is available to buy in all good music stores and available to download now from: www.carriemacmusic.com

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