'Sound of Young Scotland' Alice Faye on Mika's mentoring, her new album and her Celtic Connections plans
The winner of the coveted ‘Sound of Young Scotland’ title at last year’s Scottish Album of the Year Awards, Alice Faye has a big year ahead, starting with appearances at Celtic Connections, writes Fiona Shepherd
Alice Faye is the sound of young Scotland. Her ravishing voice and sultry style have been turning heads for the last three years, winning her support slots with Rufus Wainwright and the mentoring attention of Mika, but now it’s official. Her latest win, announced last autumn, is the SAY Awards’ Sound of Young Scotland title, named in reference to the cheekily confident strapline of influential Glasgow indie label, Postcard Records.
“It meant so much to me to get that award,” says Faye. "I had really put a lot of stake on it. It felt like such a flag in the ground, to say to myself that I’m being embraced by the Scottish music scene and that I’ve also worked hard.”
More than a deserved accolade, the award also comes with prize money of up to £10,000 which goes to funding the recording and production of a debut album. Faye is ready to dive in this spring, finessing the songs she wants to record for what she hopes will be a Cabaret-like collection with “a little bit David Bowie vibes because growing up he was the main guy that got me into songwriting. But also as if you were walking into a speakeasy and Marlene Dietrich is there.”
She has a title in mind, Vaudevillain, fuel for a Bowiesque alter ego. “I’m putting on this character of this villainess lady from that time period, talking about her different trials and tribulations with love affairs and life in general. I know exactly what I want my debut album to be so to win the award and get money to help make the album is perfect timing.”
It seems that Faye was born ready. Brought up in Glasgow by a Motown-loving mum and all-round music maven dad, she has been songwriting since her schooldays, making full use of the music room and performing in the school soul band before further honing her chops singing with the National Youth Jazz Orchestra of Scotland and undertaking classical singing lessons to broaden her technique.
Music has been flowing out of her over the last couple of years, with her growing catalogue of singles and EPs seamlessly criss-crossing genres but always recognizable from the enchanting elasticity of her voice. Faye possesses the kind of tonal allure which makes an instant impact and she has relished the opportunity to convert audiences during support slots with the likes of Rufus Wainwright, Nick Lowe and, most recently, her fellow rising star Jacob Alon. Pop star Mika certainly heard something when she auditioned for the second series of reality TV competition The Piano at Waverley Station and was handed a wild card for the final.
“Before the show I thought I just bluffed it on piano and made it sound good, imposter syndrome I guess,” she says. “Mika made me realize that I was good and why wasn’t I owning that. Overall that experience gave me so much confidence - also because I was relieved that I was no longer on reality TV anymore and all I had to worry about was performing a good show.”
Mika’s mentoring may have been a valuable boost but Faye’s development is grounded in her hometown residency gigs. She hosts a late night Monday jam at Bloc, one of Glasgow’s most dedicated grassroots venues, playing an opening set each week with her band. “I clearly just romanticize these situations,” she says, “but it makes me think about the Beatles’ residency gigs in Hamburg that made them so tight. For us that’s still only four or five hours out of our week that we are getting to do that but it gives you such a robustness towards all different types of audience and I think you feel less abashed. You can feel the most sure that you can ever feel about your own audience because you’re so used to the random variables of what it’s like to perform at pubs.”
Tuesday evenings, meanwhile, are given over to what she describes as a Greenwich Village-meets-Weimar Berlin singer/songwriter open mic at Duke’s bar which she hosts with another valued compadre, Julen Santamaria. The pair have released a number of exquisite collaborations, most recently the Some Brief Encounters EP, a gorgeous and joyful five-track nugget of atmospheric Americana and breezy folk rock which perfectly encapsulates Faye’s effortless retro aesthetic and the ease with which she delivers a stream of quality songs.
It all bodes well for the album, which she hopes to release later this year. Before then, she has a busy start to 2026 with an Edith Bowman radio session already in the bag and a couple of Celtic Connections appearances on the horizon. She will take her place as part of this year’s Roaming Roots Revue line-up alongside Guy Garvey, C Duncan and Rianne Downey, before road-testing material for the album at her own headline show at the Citizens’ Theatre. With typical effervescence, she is full of ideas for costume changes and audience interaction and particularly enthused that she and her band will be boosted by the addition of her two sisters, Delilah and Edie, on backing vocals. "Delilah’s is like a clean soprano jazz voice and Edie’s is quite smoky - she loves a lot of punk stuff,” says Faye. “I think of Delilah as the high harmony older sister and Edie the low, smoky, rebellious younger sister and I’m the middle one - the perfect mix!”
Alice Faye plays the Roaming Roots Revue, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, 25 and 26 January and the Citizens’ Theatre, Glasgow, 28 Januar, as part of Celtic Connections. For full programme details, see www.celticconnections.com
The Scotsman’s arts newsletter is now sent twice a week - subscribe today
Want the latest Scottish headlines sent directly to your phone? Sign up to our new WhatsApp channel here
Comments
Want to join the conversation? Please or to comment on this article.