Up and coming Scottish artist Katie Gregson Macleod on playing the St James Quarter at Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2024

We speak to up and coming Scottish artist Katie Gregson Macleod following her performance in Edinburgh.

Transcript

00:00We're in a scary little green room in St. James' Quarter.

00:04I just played my set at 6pm there and, yeah, it was a really crazy thing.

00:10I was just in the middle of the shopping centre but it still felt intimate, weirdly.

00:14Playing live at all is, I think, one of the things that...

00:17I mean, it's probably the most important thing

00:20because I think that you learn a lot about yourself as an artist

00:23and what songs feel the best to play, what songs feel the most truthful by playing live

00:28and I think I played so many gigs when I was younger.

00:33And I think that this kind of space, just like platforming,

00:37I think that Scottish artists have always punched above their weight so much.

00:41Festivals like this just kind of highlight that

00:43because there's just so much great music on show.

00:46And I'm very grateful to be part of that line-up, you know.

00:48But this needs to happen because I think that we should platform Scottish artists.

00:52What the last year and a half has taught me is that it's just to follow my gut

00:56and there are times when I feel like I maybe wasn't following my gut.

00:58And you feel it straight away and I think that I'm so conscious of it now.

01:03The band that I've got is just...

01:06I mean, first of all, they're just the best people ever.

01:08They're some of my greatest friends.

01:10But they're just so fluid and they can move with what I want to do

01:15and what I need to do for the next part of my life.

01:17But I think the one thing that I've come to be at peace with

01:21and I think it's really important is just to allow myself to change and evolve.

01:26I had to grow up in public a little bit because I'd released one project

01:30but I was 18 and then when the video went viral it was like,

01:34oh, the next thing I do needs to be something that is me.

01:39But I kind of just took that pressure off myself by thinking about it as different chapters

01:46and this chapter that I'm about to go into, I'm about to release a project,

01:50it's very different sounding but it's the most me that I've felt so far.

01:53But I think that it's easy to criticise yourself

01:57but I think it's more fun just to allow yourself to grow.