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

• https://www.hebceltfest.com/artist/tumbling-souls
• 
  
• 
  

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.