Emily Scott-Moncrieff of Modern Studies & Chrysanths performs an exclusive Scotsman Session
Welcome to the Scotsman Sessions, a series of short video performances from artists all around the country introduced by our critics. This week, Emily Scott-Moncrieff of Modern Studies performs Fleet - the final track on her new solo album, Leave No Shadow, recorded under the Chrysanths moniker
“It’s so weird having a gig but not actually being in it yourself.” Emily Scott-Moncrieff is looking back to the Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s Un:Titled concerts in June, which featured the premiere of her new orchestral piece She breathes, she becomes. She was able to workshop the piece with SCO musicians, and also offer guidance at rehearsals, but she also admits: “Once you hand over the score, it’s almost like it’s gone from you.”
It’s quite a different way of working from what Scott-Moncrieff has been used to, but one that also opened up new possiblities, she feels. And the concert marked the culmination of the SCO’s Soundbox project, which offered mentoring for three diverse musicians – Scott-Moncrieff among them – from the Orchestra’s associate composer Jay Capperauld.
“It definitely expanded my thinking,” Scott-Moncrieff explains. “It opened the door to considering what you’d actually like to hear on a song. Just because I might not know how to write for a particular instrument, it doesn’t mean I shouldn’t try. The project was a wee bit like being back at college, but in a really nice, nurturing way, with so much support and so many resources. And then, of course, you come back into your own real life and think: how can I make that happen, again, using my own resources?”
For Scott-Moncrieff, the SCO’s Soundbox project was about building on what were already diverse skills and passions. “I’ve got two distinct sides to what I do,” she explains. “I was classically trained as a double bass player, and I still teach the bass. But then for a decade I’ve been in my band, Modern Studies, which has been called chamber pop, and I think that’s fair.”
Alongside her band work, however, Scott-Moncrieff also has an active career as a solo singer-songwriter as Chrysanths. “I bought an acoustic piano and suddenly everything made sense, because it’s a stringed instrument. And it’s an absolute delight to play – so inspiring.”
Though it might have started life as voice plus piano, her solo work has since expanded. “I’ve ended up writing a whole orchestral part for a set of songs,” she says “My two worlds of classical and pop have sometimes felt like two separate lives, but I think they’re finally coming together in a place that feels like it’s wholly me.”
The results were released on 13 September as her debut album Leave No Shadow, on Chemikal Underground. “It’s kind of my lockdown album, to be honest, but we don’t really talk about that any more, do we?,” she says. “Everyone else released theirs two years ago – but this has just taken a little time to put together.”
The song Scott-Moncrieff performs for her Scotsman Sessions video, Fleet, forms the album’s final track. “Why did I choose it? I think it’s the song I’d often just sit down and play at the piano – it sits very nicely under the fingers. It’s quite slow and meditative, and quietly observational. I guess it’s about how everything can seem like it’s from quite an insular perspective, but about thinking about a wider world too – zoning in on tiny little details but also thinking universally, within the quiet passing of time.”
For more on the Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s Soundbox project, visit www.sco.org.uk/join-in/soundbox
The new Chrysanths album Leave No Shadow is out now on Chemikal Underground, see www.shop.chemikal.co.uk
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