Meet the Glasgow band behind a song in Netflix's A Castle for Christmas

Starsky & The Fox’s song, Celtic Heart, will feature in A Castle for Christmas, which was filmed in Scotland and stars Brooke Shields as an American author who travels the country and falls in love with a castle.  

The song, which the band describe as “indie celtic pop”, was written by vocalist and lyricist Starsky, producer and guitarist Jamie Duffin, and bass player Scythe, and recorded in their studio at the Barrowlands in late April/ early May of this year.  

The following day, Starsky sent a demo of the track to a friend he had met online.  

Starsky

“I basically became friends with someone on Instagram and just got chatting about music, and we exchanged music, and it just so happened that she’s in that kind of field,” he said.  

“I sent the song, and she knew someone that had wrapped a film in Scotland, didn’t know any details about it, and she asked if she could pass it on and did, and we’re really thankful she did, and that’s how it came about."

Within 48 hours, the film’s LA-based production team got back to the band to tell they “loved” the song and they had already found a place for it. 

Despite the fact they’re now “super buzzed” for the film’s release, Jamie wasn’t convinced at first and it took a couple of weeks after they started to receive terms and conditions and contracts before he thought “this might be happening”. 

They then had a three to four-month wait before they were allowed to talk about it and tell people about it and, while the band haven’t seen the film yet, they have been told it features in a scene with a Land Rover.

Jamie Duffin

Jamie said: “I’m actually really excited, my wife is one of these big Christmas people, she’s Christmas daft, but I think the fact that not only is it a movie about Scotland and it’s on Netflix, but it’s a Christmas movie as well, it’s a fun thing for us to be involved in.” 

He laughed: “It will be fast forward, fast forward, fast forward until we see a Land Rover, then we’ll be like ‘there, play it, play it, play it’.” 

Starsky & The Fox logo

Having known each other for around 16 years after meeting at an open mic night in Glasgow, Starsky and Jamie are also in cover band The Foxes, who play at a range of events across the country, including at Murrayfield for the Scottish Rugby Union during the Six Nations.  

With lockdown bringing an end to covers gigs for band for a significant amount of time, Jamie, Starsky and Scythe started to write their own music. 

Starsky said: “Being in a band that plays other people’s music, whether it’s a classic Loch Lomond or 500 Miles thousands of times a year, and there’s nothing wrong with it at all because we love playing them, the idea was ‘let’s try and get an anthemic Scottish song that next time we’re playing Murrayfield in front of a few thousand people, let’s play our song’.” 

Celtic Heart, which was released last Friday, is inspired by Scotland.

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Starsky said: “A lot of the lyrics came from, obviously mentioning Glen Coe, but also the wildlands of Knoydart, which I think quite a few people won’t have heard of, it’s the last wilderness of the United Kingdom, and it’s just majestic.  

“I’ve been there, and it rained every single day, so heavily, but it was incredibly beautiful, and it’s that kind of thing we want to evoke; that kind of beauty of the landscapes but merging it with the idea is ‘look we’ve got great landscapes, but hey, come to Glasgow or Edinburgh or any city or town, and you’re gonna have fun’.” 

So, with everything off to a flying start for the band, what are their next steps? 

Jamie joked: “Now that we’ve got the song in the movie, I’m looking at retiring maybe in like six months when the royalties come in.” 

As well as early retirement, the band are looking at releasing an EP in late January or early February next year before recording an album and starting to gig it.  

Starsky added: “We’re buzzed about the movie, we want to see where they’ve placed it, and the credits.  

“It’s just the first step in hopefully an incredible journey ahead.” 

A Castle for Christmas joins the list of festive films from the streaming service shot in Scotland, which includes the Princess Switch: Switched Again, and Princess Switch 3: Romancing the Star, starring actress Vanessa Hudgens.  

It will be released on Netflix tomorrow, with Starsky & The Fox’s Celtic Heart available for download now.