Keith Matheson
Photo Cred: Troy Nelson
24 March 2020
Now, Edinburgh based musician, Keith Matheson has released his new album ‘Kekker’ featuring Ged Grimes from ‘Simple Minds’, Dougie Vipond and Gregor Philp from ‘Deacon Blue’ and Andrew Mitchell from ‘The Hazey Janes.’ The album name derived from a nickname Keith was given to him around 10 years ago which stuck with him ever since.
Keith formed his first band ‘The Sirens’ in 1980, in his childhood town of Wick. Growing up listening to glam rock, Keith lists, ‘The Rubettes’, ‘The Showaddywaddy’s’ and ‘SLADE’ as some of his influences: “I just bought glam singles all the time and it really does kind of influence the way I write.” However, punk/mod band, ‘The Jam’ became his all-time favourite.
Looking back on the 80s and 90s, Keith’s favourite place to pay a visit to was record store, Groucho’s in Dundee where he worked in for 11 years, providing him with the opportunity to meet musicians.
Live music venue, Fat Sam’s, another Dundee establishment, was also in his top list, citing it as, “a brilliant venue, because when you were getting bands like, 'Joe Public' and ourselves playing one week, and then next weekend it would be ‘Simply Red’… it was just such a brilliant mix and you could get some really good supports, like bands that you would really look up to.” The capacity, Keith says, was around 300 which provided a more intimate gig and, it is here he would play with ‘Big Blue 72.’
Photo Cred: Troy Nelson
Formed by Keith, around 1986; it originally began as a five-piece band however, extended to around ten when producing their 1989 album, Live at The Marquee Dundee, which covered a four-piece brass section. Overall, around 30 different members were a part of the band. The name ‘Big Blue 72’ came from Keith’s older brother’s work colleague who worked on the Beano at DC Thompson: “He said ‘why not Big Blue 72’…and I said ‘that’s pretty cool’…it was as simple as that…a random comment in a scriptwriting office.”
After ‘Big Blue 72’ disbanded, Keith formed ‘Marshall Curtis’, at the same time becoming good friends with Kit Clark, from 'Danny Wilson.' Kit had formed ‘The Swiss Family Orbison’ with Gregor Philp, Dougie Vipond, Colin Davison and, Keith was soon ‘cajoled’ to join the band. ‘The Swiss Family Orbison’ went on to release 2 albums in which their first self-titled album is getting re-released mid-April.
“We weren't scared about playing with anybody cause we were so tight”, says Keith. The Swiss Family Orbison went on to appear on This Morning where they performed one of their singles.
During this time Keith also joined ‘The Pearlfishers’ however, a "huge break" would be to follow, which saw Keith returning to university, gaining an interior design degree and getting married.
Approaching back into the music scene, the original line up of ‘The Swiss Family Orbison’ decided to reunite for 3 gigs as a nod to their 21-year anniversary from when they last played: “It was brilliant fun, it just clicked again.”
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"We weren't scared about playing with anybody"
However, a new project is what Keith needed to focus on as he had been writing songs throughout the years which had been “sitting around doing nothing.” One included an unfinished song about his older brother who had passed away in an accident. Playing again with, ‘The Swiss Family Orbison’ allowed Keith to finally finish this song and he thought, "Christ we should maybe release an album."
With that inspiration, Keith managed to form a “Scottish super group” for his new album. Keith hails it as, “one off my bucket list, it's the best thing I've ever done.” Kekker is available to purchase in Grouchos, Dundee and Assai Records in Edinburgh/Dundee. It is also available online through the website ‘Band Camp’. Made for guitarists, the site is known to be incredibly user friendly and takes little commission.
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Photo Cred: Troy Nelson
I asked Keith, what advice he would give somebody aspiring to be in the music business: “its brilliant if you can be a fantastic songwriter, but if you don't record it and even just put it on SoundCloud or something, it needs to be out there.” However, playing live is what Keith believes “is where it’s at” to set yourself aside from other online users.
Although the internet had allowed the creation and management of music to become more accessible, Keith feels it has come at a cost, proving it more difficult to be heard and receive that recognition vital to a musician: “I’m always encouraging people to play music, it’s a great thing to do but I don't want to give them the wrong idea that’s it easy ride.”
Playing to around 3000/4000 people at the Royal Albert Hall with Kit Clark alongside ‘The Saw Doctors’, is among Keith’s most memorable moments during his career. They played around 17 dates from Portsmouth to Glasgow, describing it as a “mad party” as all the fans would attend both the support and lead act, an often rare occurrence in the music industry.
Keith labels the experience as “amazing” but “equally annoying” as they had discovered their camera had no film inside. “I was like ‘are you kidding me?’ We would never be back doing this again and we've got no photographs, people could just say ‘you're lying’ …But it was fab… that is never going to happen again.”
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"It's one off my bucket list, it's the best thing I've ever done"
It is clear, Keith’s desire and love to make music is still strong, despite it being an incredibly tough career to earn money from.
“I mean if I had the choice, if I could make a living and not be a millionaire…If I could just make a wage playing music, I'd have never had stopped. That's my passion, that is what I want to do with my life.”
Author: Karina Caulfield