Meet the man who has been touring with Young Fathers

It is also no mean feat logistically, as the musician is so busy he has barely had time to catch his breath since playing Glastonbury, supporting Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds and touring the US with Scottish Album of the Year winners Young Fathers.

“It has been a bit of a blur, yeah,” grins Callum, who is headlining Frets at the Strathaven Hotel on Friday (November 3), with support from Belle & Sebastian’s Stevie Jackson and Eugene Kelly of The Vaselines.

“That’s good though. It’s good to be busy. I’ve not had as much time to work on my own stuff, though. Trying to record my new album in cupboards in hotel rooms when I get a quiet moment isn’t really working for me.”

Known for his ferocious, unpredictable gigs, a ‘sort-of’ acoustic set at Frets will be “something a bit different,” he acknowledges.

“I am looking forward to it,” he says. “I’m back on the accordion now, so there is a lot of that in the set, and I’ve got Craig Somerville on percussion, and Jordan Shearer [singer with Neon Waltz] – all of us engineered to interact sonically…so, yeah, it will be a bit electronic, but I think you work with the space you’re in.”

Callum Easter (Image: Gordon Terris/Newsquest)

Callum has been touring with Young Fathers, the soul/pop/indie Edinburgh band which recently won Scottish Album of the Year for the third time.

“It’s brilliant, I know – third time, they should give someone else a chance,” jokes Callum. “The US trip was amazing – we started in Canada, in Vancouver, down to Seattle, Portland, LA – I enjoyed it all.”

It was while playing with Young Fathers in London that Callum was spotted by Noel Gallagher, who invited him to be his support act in Hull in the summer.

Callum Easter (Image: free)

“It was a bit surreal,” nods Callum. “But he seems like a sound guy. I did listen to Oasis when I was growing up – how could you not? I have this memory of being in pubs, and the whole album being played, everyone singing along. You just didn’t get that with anyone else. It was almost religious.”

Callum, who grew up in Dunbar, says he was “late to music.”

“I was a music fan as a teenager,” says the 36-year-old. “But I didn’t start playing until I was 18, and I started slowly. I did want to do it, I just kind of didn’t know how to go about it.

“Eventually, I got better at it.”

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Accolades have rained down on his first two albums, Here or Nowhere in 2019, and System in 2021, and Callum is now back in the studio (when he gets a spare minute) recording with his band, The Roulettes.

“The name is a bit of a cheeky nod to the fact I never really know who is going to make it along to each show,” he says, grinning. “I love recording with the band, it’s really exciting for me. 

“I don’t feel pressure about this being the third album. I mean, it is a bit bizarre, that I got such a good reaction for something I did in a wee basement room on a 15-year-old laptop.”

Reviewers have called his music everything from “idiosyncratic” and “soulful” to “pop with a dark heart”.

“There is a lot of darkness in the music,” he ponders. “ Although, I did think the last album was a party album.”

He pauses. “Maybe a party at the end of the world. I should be a bit more positive, I think.”

Callum Easter headlines Frets in the Strathaven Hotel on Friday, November 3.