Findlay Napier (born November 1978) is a Scottish singer songwriter and teaching artist. He was a member of Scottish folk group Back of the Moon and runs music writing courses.

Biography

Napier was born in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

in November 1978 and grew up in

Grantown on Spey Grantown-on-Spey ( gd, Baile nan Granndach) is a town in the Highland Council Area, historically within the county of Moray. It is located on a low plateau at Freuchie beside the river Spey at the northern edge of the Cairngorm mountains, about ...

. In 1996 he moved to

to join the BA (Scottish Music) course at the

RSAMD The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland ( gd, Conservatoire Rìoghail na h-Alba), formerly the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama ( gd, Acadamaidh Rìoghail Ciùil is Dràma na h-Alba) is a conservatoire of dance, drama, music, production, and ...

(now the

Royal Conservatoire of Scotland The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland ( gd, Conservatoire Rìoghail na h-Alba), formerly the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama ( gd, Acadamaidh Rìoghail Ciùil is Dràma na h-Alba) is a conservatoire of dance, drama, music, production, and ...

). He graduated from the RSAMD in 1999 playing with a series of Scottish traditional music bands in Glasgow. In 2000 he had been working as Margaret Bennett's accompanist and had toured with her in Scotland and France. After working on the "In the Sunny Long Ago" with producer

Martyn Bennett Martyn Bennett (17 February 1971 – 30 January 2005) was a Canadian-Scottish musician who was influential in the evolution of modern Celtic fusion, a blending of traditional Celtic and modern music. He was a piper, violinist, composer and prod ...

he was invited by Gillian Frame,

Hamish Napier Back of the Moon was a Scottish musical group from the Isle of Arran which played both new and Scottish traditional tunes and songs cast in modern sounding arrangements. Since forming in 2000, the band had toured annually throughout the UK, Ca ...

and Simon McKerrell to join Back of the Moon. That year Back of the Moon recorded their debut album "Gillian Frame and Back of the Moon". Back of the Moon toured from 2000 till 2007 releasing three albums and finishing with a final gig in the

Kennedy Centre The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (formally known as the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, and commonly referred to as the Kennedy Center) is the United States National Cultural Center, located on the Potom ...

in Washington, D.C. on 21 November 2007. Napier was approached by producer and engineer

Nick Turner Nick Turner, sometimes credited as Nicky Turner, is a drummer who briefly played with The Raincoats and became a founding member of The Barracudas. He left that band to help form The Lords of the New Church. In August 2015 he was invited to play ...

to begin a songwriting project which they later named "Queen Anne's Revenge". They began writing on the evening of 14 December 2003 and had written four songs by the next morning including "Ship in a Bottle" and "Out All Night". Before the demise of Back of the Moon, Napier began working on a project called Findlay Napier and the Bar Room Mountaineers. As the project developed it moved further from traditional material towards a contemporary

Indie Folk Indie folk is a music genre that arose in the 1990s among musicians from indie rock scenes influenced by folk music. Indie folk hybridizes the acoustic guitar melodies of traditional folk music with contemporary instrumentation. The genre has its ...

sound. With help from

Creative Scotland Creative Scotland ( gd, Alba Chruthachail ; sco, Creative Scotlan) is the development body for the arts and creative industries in Scotland. Based in Edinburgh, it is an executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government. The o ...

and

Hands Up for Trad The Scots Trad Music Awards or Na Trads were founded in 2003 by Simon Thoumire to celebrate Scotland's traditional music in all its forms and create a high profile opportunity to bring the music and music industry into the spotlight of media and ...

Napier began a mentoring project with singer songwriter

Boo Hewerdine Mark "Boo" Hewerdine (born 14 February 1961) is an English singer-songwriter and record producer. His work includes lead singer and creative force behind The Bible, formed in the 1980s, and reformed in 1994, as well as solo recordings and work f ...

. The pair ended up writing seventeen new songs and recording and releasing an album called VIP: Very Interesting Persons in 2015, which reached number 2 on the

Daily Telegraph Daily or The Daily may refer to: Journalism * Daily newspaper, newspaper issued on five to seven day of most weeks * ''The Daily'' (podcast), a podcast by ''The New York Times'' * ''The Daily'' (News Corporation), a defunct US-based iPad new ...

's top folk albums. Each song on VIP is about a real life character who has led an interesting life. Hewerdine produced Napier's second solo album "Glasgow" a collection of covers and original songs about the city. Naier met and co-wrote with Megan Henwood and

Rebecca Loebe Rebecca Ann Loebe (born August 17, 1983) is an American musician, singer-songwriter, and record producer. She has performed and toured with such recording artists as Shawn Colvin, The Civil Wars, Gregory Alan Isakov, Mary Chapin Carpenter, an ...

. These collaborations led to Loebe and Napier's 2018 EP and tour "Filthy Jokes" and Henwood and Napier's 2019 Story Song Scientist EP and tour. Napier has hosted the 'Late Night Session' at

Celtic Connections The Celtic Connections festival started in 1994 in Glasgow, Scotland, and has since been held every January. Featuring over 300 concerts, ceilidhs, talks, free events, late night sessions and workshops, the festival focuses on the roots of tra ...

since 2011 and was the creator and musical director of Hazy Recollections a mini festival within a festival that celebrates and connects acts whose music meets at the boundaries of the indie, folk and roots scenes. Napier runs songwriting retreats with

Karine Polwart Karine Polwart ( ) (born 23 December 1970) is a Scottish singer-songwriter. She writes and performs music with a strong folk and roots feel, her songs dealing with a variety of issues from alcoholism to genocide. She has been most recognised fo ...

and

Bella Hardy Bella Hardy (born 24 May 1984) is an English contemporary folk musician, singer and songwriter from Edale, Derbyshire, England, who performs a combination of traditional and self-penned material. She was named Folk Singer of the Year at the 2014 ...

and is the director of Glasgow Songwriting Festival. He is married to Gillian Frame. He works as a lecturer on traditional music at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

Discography

Findlay Napier

*"Glasgow"- Cheerygroove CHEERY006- Oct 2017 *"Very Interesting Extras EP" - Cheerygroove CHEERY004 *"VIP: Very Interesting Persons"- Cheerygroove CHEERY002- Jan 2015

Megan Henwood and Findlay Napier

*"Story Song Scientists EP" - Dharma Records DHARMACD33 - March 2019

Loebe and Napier

*"Filthy Jokes EP" - Cheerygroove Records, 12 February 2018

Chris Sherburn & Findlay Napier

*"Two Men on a Boat"- Cheerygroove CHEERY001- March 2015

Findlay Napier and the Bar Room Mountaineers

*"File Under Fiction"- Watercolour Music- May 2011 * Valentine's Day (Single)- Watercolour Music Feb. 2011 * Raise a Glass (Single)- Watercolour Music Feb. 2010 * When Harry Met Charlie (EP)- BRM/Karmic/Watercolour- 2009 *"Out All Night"- BRM/Karmic- 2008

Queen Anne's Revenge

* "Just One Umbrella?" – Watercolour Music – 2008 * "Queen Anne's Revenge" – Watercolour Music – 2005

Back of the Moon

* "Luminosity" – Footstompin Records- 2005 * " Fortune's Road"- Footstompin Records- 2003 * "Gillian Frame and Back of the Moon"- Footstompin Records- 2001

Margaret Bennett

* "In the Sunny Long Ago"- Footstompin 2001

As a session musician

* "Orain Do Mhullie"/"A Song for Mull"- Arrangements, Guitar and Backing Vocals * "Beside the Waves of Time" – Iona Leigh Arrangements, Guitar and Backing Vocals * "No. 1 Scottish"- RSAMD- Lead Vocal, Guitar * "Thall an Loch Aillse" – Mairi Sine Campbell- Arrangements, Guitar and Backing Vocals * "Glasgow Skyline"- Gillian Frame and Padraig O Neill – Guitar and Backing Vocals * "Finlay MacDonald" – Finlay MacDonald – Vocals

As producer

* co-producer (with Phil Cunningham) "Scottish Music at the RSAMD – The Future of Our Past" Greentrax Records 2010 * co-producer (with Back of the Moon) "Luminosity" – Footstompin Records- 2005

TV work

Katie Morag (TV series) ''Katie Morag'' (Scottish Gaelic: ''Ceitidh Morag'') is the television adaptation of the series of books by Mairi Hedderwick. The programmes follow the adventures of Katie Morag whose life on the fictional Scottish island of Struay is full of ...

Struay Pictures 2014– Actor, Sven, Katie Morag's Uncle * "Fonn Fonn Fonn" Moja TV 2014– Musician, Straight Guy * "Garaids" BBC Alba 2008– Performer, Assistant Musical Director * "Around Scotland" BBC Education 2007– Musical Director, presenter * "Scotlands Music with Phil Cunningham" BBC Scotland 2007– Performer * "" MnE- 2007– Arrangements, Guitar, Backing Vocals

References

External links

Official websiteGlasgow herald: From The Blue Nile to the Blue Lagoon, Glasgow inspires musician Findlay NapierScotsman: Findlay Napier on his new album Glasgow, a homage to the Dear Green Place
{{DEFAULTSORT:Napier, Findlay 1978 births Living people Scottish folk musicians Scottish singer-songwriters Musicians from Glasgow 21st-century Scottish singers