Katch Holmes has been a constant in the Scottish music sector for quarter of a century. A major driving force in the festival sector with Knockengorroch in south west Scotland, and artist agent, a coach, expert speaker on major global music panels, she has seen and done it all. Ahead of a series of workshops in Glasgow and Edinburgh on how artists can be better at self promotion and the scared art of touring, she talks to Shaun Milne about her career, the shape of the music sector and industry, and what motivates her to help.
Episode 28 is streaming now.
SHOW NOTES
Knockengorroch Festival
https://www.knockengorroch.org.uk/
Self-Promotion & Organising a Tour with Katch Holmes
https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/tradmusicforum/self-promotion-organising-a-tour-with-katch-holmes/2025-09-26/10:00/t-qjlmpvz
Off Site Productions
https://www.offsiteproductions.org/about/
It's easy to get lost in the music of Elias Alexander. It's trad-meets-electronic. Fiddle, bagpipes, guitar, whistles and keys, one minute. Samples, loops, and dance floor beats the next.
You could just as easily be shaking your stuff to his music around a beach bonfire, drowning out the noise of the Atlantic, or contemplating his emotion layered lyrics on a drive home.
Thoughts of Scotland, shores, mountains, but with a twist.
It's all born in the USA.
In Ep27 of the Good Stuff in Between podcast, Elias chats to Shaun Milne about how his love of bagpipes and fiddles happened, writing songs with emotion and a sense of knowing who you are, and a return to Scotland to perform at HebCelt and other big stages.
Episode 27 'Elias' is streaming now.
It's festival season, but how on Earth do bands and artists get to perform on the big stages, and what goes on behind the scenes to decide the all important line ups?
As the Artist Programmer for HebCelt and a veteran of other huge live events including the MTV Europe Awards, Celtic Connections and more, Michelle Shields knows the importance and impact of such decision.
She talks to Shaun Milne about planning, making connections, and always being switched on to the talent of today for the festivals of tomorrow, delivering some of the best live programming in the UK and beyond.
Good Stuff In Between Ep26 'Michelle' is streaming now.
Ciarán O'Toole is the co-founder of secure music sharing and streaming platform Songbox - a platform with a difference.
It is designed from the ground-up for artists and musicians to privately and securely share their music in the creation, collaboration, pitching, marketing and release process with whoever needs it.
What's more it includes powerful data, user analysis, and a one-stop-shop for including Electronic Press Kits, personalised links and more.
It is music player in design, providing a slick and familiar user experience.
Here Ciarán talks to Shaun Milne on the Good Stuff In Between podcast about how he and co-founder Michael Coll developed the idea, their pedigree, and the ethos and values that run through their business development.
But most of all, why it matters.
SHOWNOTES
https://songbox.com/
Sign-up to Songbox - Good Stuff In Between affiliate link:
https://songbox.com/?via=goodstuffinbetween
As founder of Wee Studio and Wee Studio Records in the Outer Hebrides, every day Keith Morrison is help shape music careers across the islands, Scotland and the world.
Touring with his band Face the West and this year at HebCelt with his best friend Alasdair White, he's also leading from the front on stage.
Music is everything here.
From producing records to touring with bands, or getting that elusive sound to innovating with new ideas, all of it is forged with friendship, fun and for the right reasons.
In Episode 24 of the Good Stuff In Between he chats to Shaun Milne about his remarkable journey from Lewis to Las Vegas, festival site to main stage, and how the story may really only be getting started.
SHOWNOTES
https://weestudio.co.uk/
https://www.hebceltfest.com/
https://goodstuffinbetween.com/
It was an era of glow sticks, rave pants and dodgy haircuts. Sneaking into castle grounds with a carry out, scrawling notes on blank walls. Dodging the police to avoid a ride home.
And for some, a chance to make music and follow the bright lights.
Among them Willie Campbell, founding frontman with The Tumbling Souls, who are back with a new single due for release - 1995 - which is a nostalgia dipped love letter to those times, refections on lives lived in between, and homecomings.
He discusses how it fuses their blend of on trend country meets trad with a flash of indie. It will be among the songs on their at HebCelt Festival in July, where Willie has just been inducted into the Hall of Fame.
He also talks about how The Tumbling Souls have settled into a tight line-up: Iain ‘Spanish’ MacKay (guitar, vocals), Louisa Barron MacDonald (fiddle), Iain Kernahan (guitar), Stephen Drummond (accordion), Willie (guitar, vocals), and their sixth member, Paul Martin (guitar).
And he explains the process of recording at Wee Studio in South Dell on Stornoway with owner Keith Morrison and producer and performer in his own right, Scott C Park.
A second single – Nowhere In A Hurry – is already pencilled in as the follow-up release later this year.
Ep 23: The Tumbling Souls, is streaming now.
SHOWNOTES
Skerryvore and co-founder Daniel Gillespie have been making music happen for 20 years. Eight albums, thousands of miles clocked up, and adoring fans across the globe ensure their legend will live long and proud for generations as one of Scotland's greatest exports. This week they were announced as new inductees to the HebCelt Festival Hall of Fame ahead of their appearance on the main stage in Stornoway in July. But before then, their biggest concert yet with an anniversary gig at Floors Castle in Kelso on Saturday. Amid the last minute checks and preparations, Daniel chatted with Shaun Milne about what it means to be in one of Scotland's most inspirational bands, what folk can expect this weekend, their love and dreams for HebCelt and the islands, and what advice he'd share with artists charting their own way in the music industry. Episode 22: 'Daniel' is streaming now.
Skerryvore at HebCelt
https://www.hebceltfest.com/artist/skerryvore
Skerryvore at Floors Castle
https://skerryvore.com/xx/
Navigating the music business can be as alien as it is confusing which is where Kitt Carr comes in. As event coordinator for Wide Events CIC, she organises industry essentials such as Wide Days and Off The Record Scotland, major events helping demystify everything from getting on the radio to releasing music, securing gigs, and more, by plugging into their network of industry experts to share leading advice. She talks to podcast host Shaun Milne about how she got involved, the work she and the team does, overcoming challenges, identifying opportunities and the next event coming up - all about growing live audiences.
Episode 21 'Kitt' is streaming now.
Record deals, late night bust-ups, overseas tours, NME interviews, the Peel Sessions, Glastonbury and pissing on historic monuments were all part and parcel of Scots band Mogwai's early rise as the young team went onto conquer the 1990's, driven in part by their then manager Colin Hardie.
As the band gets ready to embark on a 2025 world tour after the release of their latest album The Bad Fire, he takes us behind the scenes of what it was like going from playing small gigs in Glasgow and the Highlands to some of the biggest stages in the world, the qualities needed in a manager at the time, and whether or not he'd be willing to do it all over again.
Recorded in Glasgow with host Shaun Milne, its a nostalgia laden trip back to the 1990s when Kappa was still vogue, benefits supplemented life and no-one would be surprised if DF supremo Geoff Ellis phoned up your parents.
Episode 20, 'Colin', is streaming now.
The Smile You Send Out Returns To You couldn't be more fitting for the name ofConstant Follower's latest album, released on February 28 via Last Night From Glasgow. Because in this episode ofGood Stuff In Between it is the smile, the uplifting joy that oozes out from Stephen McAll as he talks about how it all came together, that dominates most. It is juxtaposed next to a raw, honest and deeply personal account of violence, substance abuse and societal cruelty that, in part, informs the beauty and creativity that has emerged through the ripples of time. It was a privilege, and inspiration, to record.
Show Notes
https://linktr.ee/ConstantFollower
https://www.helpmusicians.org.uk/
https://www.helpmusicians.org.uk/about-us/our-impact/constant-follower---its-a-feeling-of-support-unlike-anything-ive-had-from-any-other-organisation
https://shop.lastnightfromglasgow.com/
https://seabassvinyl.com/
https://goodstuffinbetween.com/
Ainsley Hamill will be part of the Celtic Connections opening concert before also launching her brand new album, Fable, on January 17 including the new single Machir Bay out today, and December's release Ó Ho-ró ílle Dhuinn, before embarking on a mini-tour in England to kick-start her incredible year.
In Episode 18 of The Good Stuff In Between, she shares the inspiration behind her new work including the legends and landscapes of Scotland, the videos that accompany it, and the importance of friendship as her creative spark.
She also takes a look back on how her career began, offers advice to new performers based on her own experiences, considers how the folk community differs from others, and how performing at the likes of Eurovision, the Mod and other internationally renowned events have helped shaped her approach to music.
Episode 18, Ainsley, streaming now.
Fred Well is a songwriter and singer from Bergen from the sameMade Management stable as the likes ofAurora,Sigrid,Skaar,Moyka and other top artists.
He is just back from touring with Norwegian DJKygo having performed on the superstar's eponymous album with 'Surrender' which was heading towards four million monthly streams, and co-wrote for Kygo's latest releaseHold On Me with Sandro Cavazza out today.
His own single,Little House, is also out now and he joined journalistShaun Milne on the Good Stuff In Between podcast to talk about the inspiration behind the song, life on the road, and how he is still chasing his own dreams for the future.
Sara Fjeldvær is a songwriter, musician and singer from Norway who weaves stories in song that provoke, challenge and comfort in equal measure. Part jazz, part folk with a flash of pop and aged like a vintage wine, her voice conveys feeling as she explores her place in the world, and its place in her. Love, loneliness and identity traverse each ofher two solo albums, a slew of EPs and singles, and her newestcollaboration which has her looking at music in other ways. Ahead of her debut live UK show inGlasgow on Monday, October 21, she talks to Shaun Milne about her inspirations, feelings and music and she prepares to share her work to an international audience that should get ready to pay attention to one of the most exciting emerging singers of the year so far.
Show Notes
The supremely talented contemporary harpistPippa Reid-Foster discusses her stunning new album ‘Undercurrents’ which is out on September 6 with Shaun Milne in Episode 15 of the Good Stuff in Between podcast.
She has a brilliant story of overcoming adversity after fearing her career would come to an end following a terrible accident which saw her ability to play left hanging in the balance but for the determination and expertise of a surgeon and NHS to save her talents.
Her recovery and focus has come with the reward of musical legends includingPhilip Glass,Max Richter andAlexandra Hamilton-Ayres endorsing the use of their music in her new works to stand proudly alongside her original compositions which, as the album title suggests, dives deep into topics around water including the sea, wild swimming, nature and climate crisis to name a few.
Hailing from Helensburgh and born with a love for sailing, she is also working on an exciting new project collaborating with an international group of artists of all disciplines following a recent sea faring adventure with theThe Excelsior Trust that will see them tour around Norway, the Faroe Islands and other music loving nations next year.
She has just released her first single from the forthcoming album with ‘Turning Tides’ where she shares the rhythms and waves of her secret sanctuary from life’s challenges in the hope it helps bring calm to others. She will also appear in new work from the astonishingly talented singer, songwriter and composerSiobhan Wilson.
Chris Giubarelli sold his family business to chase a dream of playing music for a living as he does around the bars of Inverness and performing in a choir. It's a path that brought him to Belladrum where, at the heart of the festival, he chatted to Shaun Milne about his transformation from selling fish suppers to entertaining people as the Highland Folk Hero.
Author Christopher Brookmyre chats with Shaun Milne on his love for music, going to gigs, how songs inspire his writing and what readers can expect from his latest novel The Cracked Mirror which he read from during a literary performance at this year's Verb Garden stage at Belladrum.
Seán McLaughlin, Vicky Gray and Sandy Batchelor talk to Shaun Milne about their performance at this year's Belladrum festival, response to their latest album Goodnight, Lad and offer a sneak peek into some exciting film news involving one of the band.
Indie rockers The Sun Day - frontman and rhythm guitar Connor Ritchie, Luke Doyle on lead guitar, Aidan Forret on bass, and Craig Spink on drums - played their second Belladrum this year and took time out after to chat with Shaun Milne about what it is like being part of an up and coming band at a major festival.
Born in Leith, raised in Edinburgh, and a musician mum based in Dundee, the phenomenal Roseanne Reid has been carving out a reputation for herself in roots and country and is now dabbling in more traditional Scottish folk as she sets her sights on her follow-up album.
Her musical taste was influenced by her parents including one half of The Proclaimers, but her songwriting and playing is authentically hers alone. On her first trip to Belladrum, she spoke to Shaun Milne for the podcast about the experience, life as it happens, and what comes next.
Kenny Smith and Michael MacMillan from Highland folk rockers Torridon join host Shaun Milne at Belladrum music festival and reveal how they are going to mark 20 years of touring and recording as a band in this special bonus episode.
