Singer Ewan MacFarlane on Glasgow, love and giving up Apollo 440 for Springsteen

The Glasgow singer-songwriter was a key part of a band with top 40 singles under their belts and a presence worldwide but knew he wanted to return to the music he first fell in love with.

Born partly of a desire not to be "jumping around the stage in my 50s" he released his first solo album Always Everlong last year, inspired by the music of Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen.

With new album Milk out this week (October 28), there are no regrets about taking what could have been seen as a risk.

MacFarlane said: "I’ll always be a part of Apollo 440, we’re like a family, but the truth is there was always a burning desire in me that fancied being a solo artist.

“Since I was a young lad I’ve always been into classically and traditionally picking up an acoustic guitar and writing a song, which is very much the opposite of what we did in Apollo 440.

Ewan MacFarlane (Image: Sonic PR)

“It was just always a wee fantasy I had in my head: picking up a guitar and writing some tunes.

“I believe if you write a song, either on acoustic guitar or piano, and it stands up just with the voice and one instrument it’s a good thing, so I wanted to challenge myself to see how far I could take it.

"I never thought it was going to be a risk, but I was very realistic and thought there would be people who, quite frankly, are huge Apollo 440 fans and are going to think, ‘what the hell are you doing?’.

“But I’m OK with that, I’m alright with that. I think you do music do satisfy your own soul first and foremost and if you can do that and other people listen to it and appreciate it that’s just an added bonus.

“For me making music’s always been about keeping yourself happy first and foremost. The day you start writing a tune or doing a production to think, ‘is this person going to like this, is that person going to like that?’ it’s a bit of a downward spiral from an artistic point of view.”

While his new record is still very much drawing from the Americana well there's plenty of development in MacFarlane's sound, with influence from the likes of the Arctic Monkeys.

He explains: "Because… I was going to say because I’m old but I’ll change it to ‘because of my maturity’, I’ve had access to so much music all my life and although I love my classic stuff and I go back to it often – and listen you could even call Arctic Monkeys classic these days the boys have been out for a while – but they’re just a brilliant band and I loved the idea of having that main guitar riff just with the drum beat where it was quite raw, creating space.

“However, when the chorus came in I really wanted to try and flood it so that it went from the skeleton of being raw, just with the hook guitar line and the drums, then going into a soundscape. I like to challenge myself in the studio.

“Because I spent so long doing Apollo 440 stuff, most of that stuff was done on the computer. I’m now getting into the phase where, because of my education with making electronic music, it’s quite interesting when you almost use the same concept but use different instruments, traditional instruments.

“But you’re still kind of coming to it from a computer music point of view. A lot of purists might say ‘if you’re playing a guitar you need to play it from start to finish’ and have it real and raw.

“I tend not to do that, if I play a guitar bit and let’s say I catch a verse and I’ve nailed that hook on the guitar, I don’t have any issues copy and pasting that hook and putting it onto the next verse, because it gives a great continuity and I think that can be quite important in music as well.

"So with the regard to the Arctic Monkeys, the kind of AM era if you like, I thought I’d take that as the nucleus and see where it goes.”

Milk is a deeply personal album, a concept album or sorts about MacFarlane's wife, Jo who, he's keen to point out, puts up with him recording in their home studio until 4am.

He says: "She’s very patient, I’m a lucky man!

“I think basically Jo tried to discourage me from doing it because a concept album about a relationship, I think she was maybe thinking ‘oh God you can’t have a concept album full of love songs’. But that was never going to be the case it was just a kind of honest interpretation of a journey with a person, the one person that I’ve spent the last 22 years with.

“There are obviously love songs on it, but there are songs that are quite witty, songs that are very honest.

“At the time it wasn’t my intention, I never thought ‘right, I’m going to make a concept type of album’. I just had a bunch of songs I was enjoying, and when I looked at them closer and whittled them all down I kind of thought, ‘wait a minute here, this is kind of all about a relationship’.

There's another relationship contained on the record too: MacFarlane's connection with Glasgow.

On standout track 'Won't Stop Burning' he recounts the story of going to see The Snuts, complete with a quarrel and a visit to Central Station.

MacFarlane says: "I’ve been fortunate to be all over the world and lived in different places, but for me Glasgow is king. It’s probably because, obviously, that’s where we come from but it’s an exciting city as well. There’s a lot going on in Glasgow and I think musically, especially at the moment, Glasgow is fanstastic.

“There are a lot of great young bands and artists that are doing their thing in many different genres and flying the flag."

And fans can expect a third solo album to follow hot on the heels of Milk.

MacFarlane explains: "I finished this a few months ago now, so the job’s done and I’m already onto the next thing, I’m already on pre-production for the next record.

“I’m proud of what I’ve done with regard to the body of work that it is. I’m proud of it.

“We all hope as musicians and songwriters that it’s well received but that’s out of my hands now, I’ve done all that I can do.

“I don’t get nervous at all because I’m very realistic about the music industry in this day and age, it’s a very difficult environment to be in.

“But I think we do it because as musicians and artists we need to do it. I wouldn’t know what do if I didn’t have a guitar to pick up.

“So I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing until my fingers can’t play anymore and I can’t sing. And even if I can’t sing I’ll just bring in one of my daughters and get one of them to sing my songs – but they’ll probably tell me to go away because I’m too old and boring.”