Easter Ross siblings' phone-shot music video named finalist at European short film festival; Calrossie Farm-based MacGillivray chieftain music vision strikes a chord with diverse audience
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A MUSIC video made by Easter Ross siblings on a mobile phone during lockdown has been named a finalist at a European film festival.
Iain MacGillivray’s vision of marrying the ancient sounds of Scotland with electronic dance music to chime with an international audience has already struck a chord with a growing army of followers since he and sister Annia released IDMacG - Mouth Music.
“We wanted to create a packaged sound of Scotland which is cool, edgy, trendy, and innovative, but one that still possesses euphoria and ambiance,” he explained.
His vision of a “perfect matrimony” of genres swiftly racked up 20,000 views on social media. He has previously performed with Motown legend Martha Reeves, playing the pipes.
He said: “We thought we would put something out there to lift the spirits of people and boost morale during these hard times of the lockdown period. And of course many families are suffering right now with their loved ones or loss of loved ones.
“It was quite poignant as well, as we had managed to create something, navigating through all the restrictions and limitations, while under the government lockdown, so we were really proud of that.”
Iain (33) of Calrossie Farm, near Tain, is Chieftain of The Clan MacGillivray Worldwide and a highly accomplished musician. Sister Annia (20), a Gaelic singer, clarsach player and student nurse, also reveals herself as quite the mover with groove dancing on the uplifting video they pieced together.
He was “absolutely delighted” to learn of the the Roma Short Film Festival shortlisting in the Best Music Video category last week – and feedback from fans hailing Mouth Music “a banger of a tune” and requesting more of the same.
He said: “We were overjoyed with the wave of positive feedback we got for the release.
We submitted it to various film festivals around the world for music video competitions, just to hedge out bets. We sent them to locations across Europe, North and South America, Asia, Australasia and Africa.
“So I was over the moon when I received an email on Friday stating that we’d achieved Finalist in the Roma festival. I thought not bad for mobile phone footage and working within the limited parameters and tight restrictions that we face currently. I thought we pieced it together really nicely though and made it very professional looking!”
The second single, IDMacG’ - “Freedom comes this weekend, “highlighting the hope of a return to normality of some kind in the near future”.
He said of the musical vision: "I've always been super-passionate about dance electronic and Scottish/Celtic and I've had this idea – or more of a dream you could say - about one day making a really catchy and musical sound that moulds both, the ancient sounds of Scotland with the modern sounds of electronic dance music and make it radio playable and visually appealing to a mainstream audience on an international setting.
"So rather than just put a tune to a beat or a beat to a tune - or simply place a song to a groove or a groove to a song - we really wanted to mix and mould the sounds together in a unique way that has never quite been done before. So ideal for live and recorded performances!"
The current release can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvDSwzeJ-tE
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