Evie Waddell

Good evening folks!

A few nights ago I was invited on Travelling Folk! It was an interesting addition, which they titled 'Hearing Loss'. You can listen to my chat on BBC Sounds (25mins in) here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0022ykd

In other news I'm really excited to embark on a two-week residency Summerhall alongside 4 other lead artists as part of with Rough Mix. We will share our early-stage ideas at the opening of the MegaMix festival on the 11th of Oct! Hope to catch you there!

Join us for our Rough Mix Sharing on 11 October at Summerhall. Opening MegaMix Festival, five artists will share early-stage ideas after a two-week residency.

Spotlight on Evie Waddell: From Stirlingshire, Evie is a talented Gaelic and Scots singer and fiddler. Her musical journey began early, nurtured by the Riverside Music Project and Gaelic-medium schooling. A graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Evie's artistry draws from Scottish traditions and influences like Jo Miller and Martyn Bennet.

In 2020, Evie showcased her versatility in the play 'MAIM' by Theatre Gu Leòr. She directed her own show 'Fàilte Gu BSL' in 2022, the same year she won the Danny Kyle Open Stage award. Evie released her debut EP 'Leviathan' in 2023, followed by 'Faultlines'. A finalist in the BBC Young Traditional Musician of the Year 2024, her latest project is the visual EP 'Cluich!', released in February.

📷: Elly Lucas

My Gaelic ‘Rap’ debut tomorrow! Thanks to The Glasgow Barons We’re on at 1.50pm but the whole day looks like a nice varied line up

Gaelic Song/Rap writing process so far..

- Practicing rapping existing Puirt a Beul and playing with phrasing, timings, tempos

- Shouting out some current legends and I’m excited that they are happy for me to sprinkle some of their lyrics into the raps

- Rehearsing with a band of fab musicians I’ve never worked with from classical music background.

P.S- you know what I’m going to say.. it’s bandcamp Friday, so go on yersel and support some music. https://eviewaddell.bandcamp.com/

A few events I'm happy to be involved in this week...🎵

-5th of September I'm leading a workshop for the Indepen-dance Gathered Together Festival 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

-6th of September I'm performing in the Gathered Together Festival at Tramway👞

7th of September I'll be attempting some Gaelic rap at the opening of the Govan Footbridge Festival 🎤

Great to be a part of a lovely event run by Alec Finlay recently. So nice to be creative at a relaxed pace with a community in the outdoors. It rarely happens

Short description of the goings on of the day...

"‘Day of access’ is about using the perspectives, or perceptual worlds, of different communities, to view landscape, and ecology, differently. ....We share an approach which is creative, but not primarily political, or activist, or campaigning."

I enjoyed talking a wee bit on my practice and helping try translate the Gaelic names of hills into BSL.

You can read more: https://www.dayofaccess.co.uk/2024/07/place-name-meanderings-taylor-strickland.html

I’m gigging at a free festival for the opening ceremony of the new Govan-Partick Bridge! It’s on the 7th of September
If you’re a fan of Gaelic language or music, or a fan of rap, or a fan of having a laugh, come see me take a stab at Gaelic rap around 2pm
I’ll also be joined by local rappers from Up2Standard and CCTV as well as Sunny G FM community DJs

I’m also playing another wee performance slot for Indepen-dance 🙂 Have no fear, no rap here

Myself and Isla Ratcliff recently joined Live Music Now Scotland🎵

We’re buzzing for our gig at the National Galleries of Scotland on the 3rd of October 🖼️ (and it’s free!)

LMNS “gives young artists opportunity of performing at the start of their careers and enables high-quality live music to reach people throughout our communities, especially those who wouldn’t normally have access to it”

I plan to go visit the gallery and find out which room we are in since when I did this for a gig at Sharmanka Kinetic TheatreI found it really inspired my performance and invited me to interact with the art works

BSL will be incorporated into our performance. All pieces signed song or movement/gesture and/or dance

Great summer of gigs 🪗 🎵

Here’s some snaps from Newton Stewart & Minnigaff Traditional Music & Dance Festival which we throughly enjoyed 😄😲

Its great to be back playing with Neil Sutcliffe after a few years. We’ve got a project in the works! Can’t say much for now apart from we’re excited😁🙃

Brilliant photos by Simon Crompton-Reid !

Been all over recently. Where is my mind?
🤯

Well.. getting in the zone for heading tae HebCelt Festival so soon with Isla Ratcliff

We’ll be on from 6:15pm Friday night in the gin Ceilidh tent 🍻

Thank you Eden Court Theatre and Cinema. We had some lovely responses for our Under Canvas gig :)

Speaking of responses I had a recent interview with Signature Deaf which you can read here: https://www.signature.org.uk/evie-waddell-intertwining-bsl-into-her-gaelic-inspired-music/
Always good to have a reflect and a write!

Also, I forgot to put The List interview here, so can check it oot now:
https://list.co.uk/news/44916/future-sound-evie-waddell

Anyways, next up, a gig in Netwon Stewart with new pieces and a Neil Sutcliffe! Featuring movement, dance, sign song and madness as per usual 😄

We had a great time at Solas Festival 🌞
I've never performed in stables before so that was a fun vibe

Moving on to some July gigs.
Starting off with Under Canvas and ending with HebCelt Festival
Also new gig added at Newton Stewart & Minnigaff Traditional Music & Dance Festival on the 12th.

So lucky to perform and travel to new places and watch other musicians play. 🌿 All these gigs will have roughly have 50% of pieces are signed songs and 20% movement/dance

07.07.24- Eden Court Theatre and Cinema Inverness- Isla Ratcliff and Andrew Herrington

12.07.24- Wigtownshire- its been a long time but back playing alongside Neil Sutcliffe !!

19.07.24- Lewis- Isla Ratcliff😎

My favourite photo from Martin Shields Photography (mayb you can even guess the song from the photo?- fun game?)

Èist ri Mo Chuairt Chiùil air BBC Sounds bha tòrr spòrs agam ged a tha mo cuid Gàidhlig caran ropach! Cluinnidh sibh iomach òrain ùr is annasach music 🎶

Join me in a musical ‘journey’ through some music that has inspired me through ma wee lived life on BBC Radio nan Gàidheal 🎵

1 hour of pretty sound music if ye ask me!

Such a great night last Friday night!

A sold out show at Traverse Theatre which was honestly the best yet so good to feel like I’m improving and enjoying. First gig as a trio and always a pleasure to play with Andrew Herrington and Isla Ratcliff 🎻
Well done to the audience and the workshop participants too for getting pretty involved!

On to the next gig then. You can catch myself and Isla at Solas Festival 15th of June

P.S- just keeping it real, life’s not all rainbows. For one, got bitten by a dog yesterday! :(

1 week until our Edinburgh Tradfest with Isla Ratcliff and Andrew Herrington. Absolutely can't wait, and pretty sure it's going to be a good one!

P.S- it's bandcamp Friday https://eviewaddell.bandcamp.com/

Edinburgh Tradfest One of Scotland’s most electrifying performers

Spring/Summer Gigs ☀️🌿

Very much looking forward to all of these outdoor festival gigs ⛺️

Equally excited to perform with Isla Ratcliff 🎻 and 🎸Andrew Herrington
Catch us first at Edinburgh Tradfest
So roll up roll up get your tickets here: https://edinburghtradfest.com/schedule/2024/5/10/evie-waddell

Lots of song and sign language to be expected from all 3 of us! 🖐 🖐 🤚

Edinburgh Tradfest

Here’s another live rendition of my favourite creation 🎵 👞 🎶

And if you liked my live performance Music Video of ‘Cailleach Mhor Staighlaidh’ I created with Signy Jakobsdottir then vote for it! This is the last time I'll go on aboot it! Can vote here: https://celticfestival.ca/robinson-emerging-artist-finalists

I would love to go to Canada 🇨🇦 for the Goderich Celtic Roots Festival and College Festival as I have a chance to perform there! I also have a shot at receiving some mentorship from the team over there and I think they could really help my creative development an awful lot. There’s not too much step dance in Scotland (though the classes I have been to I’ve thoroughly enjoyed)

Joined here by Jenn Butterworth on guitar!



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsCbiLwk2KU

Evie Waddell BBC Young Trad Semi Finals Full set by Evie Waddell for the BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year Semi-Final.0:00 Introduction1:12 The Last Leviathan (signed song) ...

I’m grateful to have been selected as 1 of 5 finalists in the Robinson Emerging Artists Showcase!

I possibly have a shot at this crazy opportunity...to go to Canada 🇨🇦 to show and learn and be inspired by the sheer numbers, quality and creativity of the step dancing scene over there

I’m feeling uneasy about the carbon footprint, flying on a plane that far, so definitely pay for double the tree-planting offset 🌳 🌳

I’ve never performed outside of the UK before but I do see the benefits of sharing cultures and languages with other communities as well as finding commonality and supporting differences

The voting for this is open now and closes on the 17th of April! Please vote for which video you like best. There are some great videos so check them out and help someone develop their craft.

The link is here https://celticfestival.ca/robinson-emerging-artist-finalists?fbclid=IwAR1sPbgy31R-_QuLF_M-9oWArbvnJq5I1WPbxdIARkN58pPi7VSM5uw6NI0_aem_AeHSoGQfzJlnv3xhwsLpKyfL_Zi4tdnTYnpmmNxApMzlTyFrmeaTTYguFyyxG61evJAoLx4Is7XjhT5zkTsIy-Jl

Hope you have a nice day 😊

P.S- a nice bandcamp Friday! So if you want to support my music in other ways, then head over there link in bio

Here's a video of my full performance from the BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year 2024 Final in City Halls, Glasgow.

During rehearsals I went deaf in my hearing ear for the first time! It was a very difficult and emotional day. I had to get over the initial shock and get on with the rehearsal. My hearing ear is back to its normal now but I just want to thanks everyone there who helped me through the day.

And especially Amy Cheskin who helped me in rehearsals and who was also on stage with me by my side for some signed songs as part of the band on the competition day.
Basically I'm very glad I have BSL and an awareness that it greatly helps me (and it can help most people in communication)

Evie Waddell - BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year 2024 Full set by Evie Waddell for the BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year Final.With thanks to Amy Cheskin - BSL InterpreterJenn Butterworth...

Sweet sweet January! The highlights... ✨

1&2. 📸 All our first times on stage at Festival Club! Dream team Grace Stewart-Skinner and Anna Scott brought it 🔥 Celtic Connections

3-8 📷 Ceol is Craic Gaelic Rave curated by mysel n ball of energy that’s Hammy Sgith as we debuted at The Glad Cafe

What a start tae the year. Loving this step/ hip hop more dancing direction 👉

Credit tae ma bro for photos!

Now that all my visual EP videos from ‘Cluich!’ are out, you can now buy the audio on bandcamp https://eviewaddell.bandcamp.com/album/cluich
Or you can buy my first ever CD through my website 💿
The CD features my 3 EPs combined so my whole back catalogue! https://www.eviewaddell.co.uk/

‘Cluich!’ (which means play in Gaelic) looks at the importance of challenging traditional constraints and tensions, exploring new themes and bridging gaps between rural and urban contexts, as a way we can contribute to the evolution and growth of Gaelic cultures and traditional arts

It’s pretty playful and I hope you play it 🎻 🥁 🎸 👞

Thanks muchly to The Bothy Society and Creative Scotland

🏆 Cluich as Fheàrr/Best Performance 🏆

My film ‘Fios no Fois’ won a FilmG !

Thank you Will Clark for helping me feel comfortable to express and perform my pretty personal song to camera! Also thanks The Bothy Society FilmG and voters!

You can watch the full film/music vid in my bio with English subs. You can watch wi Gaelic subs on the FilmG website!

Also a few pals have pointed out it reminds them of the film and tv show Twin Peaks. 📺 I’ve never seen it but apparently my costume is like the Red Room where everyone talks in a strange way that requires subtitles to understand!! “Twin Peaks was one of the first shows on prime time television to make a conscious choice not to explain everything going on and they weren’t afraid to make audiences feel confused now and again”

Like WHAT are the chances 🤣

This one’s a weird one!

The third and final video from my visual EP is out today! It portrays an eclectic mix of moods that women don’t often feel they can express including anger and wildness, it is saying ‘no’ to typical expectations and ‘take up space’ in an atypical (for the Trad world) explosion of playful dance, to this Gaelic alternative/modern/urban sound.

So happy to have worked with dancer Fran Till and camerawomen Alex Nichol on the video

By having movement, a dance element and some sign language the video should hopefully help more people access Gaelic, whether that be English hearing audiences who don’t understand Gaelic or deaf audiences who want to understand Gaelic better. Misunderstanding is quite a theme in my life: sometimes I don’t always understand the Gaelic, or I don’t feel as though woman are understood in Gaelic songs, and of course access for the deaf community has a long way to go.

Vocals & Fiddle - Evie Waddell
Drums & Guitar - Ciaran Boyle

Mixed by Mark Lough at Tolbooth Stirling
Mastered by Keir Long

Funded by Creative Scotland

̀idhlig

Evie Waddell - Chan Eil (OFFICIAL) The third track and video from my visual EP The visual EP offers an immersive audio-visual experience. The three distinct Gaelic tracks aim to be a focus for...

I’m taking a different direction with my latest music video 😜 This will be my last video in my Visual EP. The self penned song is called ‘Chan eil’ which means “No” and will be released in a week’s time!

After the video, all tracks will be available to listen to on ‘normal’ music platforms such as Bandcamp and Spotify

These are some stills from the upcoming music video and more info on the song and other collaborators soon!