My Festival: Kirsty Law - 'Scotland Unsung is an antithesis to tartan tat'

Scotland Unsung is an antithesis to tartan tat, premiered at the heart of the Royal Mile during the height of tourist season.

What will we learn from your show that we didn’t know before?

I hope the audience will come out of this performance with a sense of the depth of Scots songs and stories, and how they can inhabit our lives. I hope that some might be surprised at the emotional places it has explored, sometimes without our realising.

Who or what was the biggest inspiration for your show?

In writing this show, my biggest influence has been Virginia Woolf and her ‘fictional biography’, Orlando. It’s been an important book for me for a long time. In it, she tells the story of a fictional character, Orlando, shifting through time, space and gender - in order to paint an appropriately colourful portrait of her long-term lover, Vita Sackville-West. I wanted to tell a story of the Scots tradition that exists throughout many people’s lives and so I have, taking lead from Woolf, created my own character, Scotia, who travels from one song to the next in shifting form.

What’s the best review you’ve ever had, and the worst?

I like this question - because it was the same review! It was for an album I made. The review started by comparing my singing to Ani Di Franco and the album’s production and arrangements to early Massive Attack - however after a few more traditional melancholic folk songs, the reviewer decided that it wasn’t entertaining and that ‘enough was enough’!! It still makes me laugh - my music is proudly melancholic at times, as is the whole tradition. This is actually something that this show encapsulates - how important the shadowside of our songs and stories is, we need it.

Who or what are you most excited about seeing this year?

My venue, the Scottish Storytelling Centre, has an incredible Fringe programme this year of local and visiting artists. I am excited to catch Dougie Mackay and Jemima Thewes’ A Wolf Shall Devour The Sun, which looks beautiful and involves shadow puppets. There is an Irish storyteller, Clare Murphy, who has a show on called The Spanking Goddess and Other Discarded Tales, and I would love to see that. It has a not disimilar line of enquiry to my own, stories that are perhaps lesser known, a different way of looking at a tradition. I would also love to see any of the trilogy of shows that the incredible Mairi Campbell is performing, her work is always so moving.

Who do you most like spending time with in Edinburgh?

I am an Edinburgh resident and I love how the city comes alive for the Fringe. The amount of creative energy here, the risks being taken. So at this time of year I love to meet visiting performers.

Tell us something about you that would surprise people.

When I was 14 I was much more interested in being Kurt Cobain than a folksinger. Some days I still am! I actually find that old-fashioned folksinging, grunge, punk - even free improvisation - can feel similar to song. They all require a rawness and authenticity in their performance and don’t hold up beauty as the number one goal.

What are the best and worst things that have happened to you at a festival?

One year at the Fringe, Brian Eno came to my gig and had some lovely things to say about it. That was pretty amazing, and a full circle moment from my mum going to see him in Roxy Music at the Caley Picturehouse when she was 15! The worst thing that has happened? Things are rarely terrible and you can put up with just about anything if you manage to make a good connection with your audience - so the worst is probably when the stage has been badly placed and the audience can’t hear because of a noisy bar or a loud neighbouring music tent.

What’s the first thing you do in the morning and the last thing you do at night?

I would love to be able to tell you some amazing mindful morning or evening habits that are the secret to a creative and happy life - but I am not a creature of routine whatsoever! It is completely different every day and every night. When I’m home, in the morning the routine is ‘try and get to the studio when I said I would’ and in the evening it’s ‘try and go to bed when I said I would’.

Thanks for the interview! We’d like to buy you a drink. Where are we going and what are we drinking?

It’s definitely the Waverley Bar after a show and a pint of anything by Williams Brothers, ideally over more songs.

Scotland Unsung, Scottish Storytelling Centre, 20-24 August, 12pm.

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