EXCLUSIVE: Kevin McGuire Talks New Single ‘Seeing Things’

Scottish country music talent Kevin McGuire has wowed with his most recent single ‘Seeing Things’ which sees him delivering a hugely impressive production style, and relatable lyrical story – whilst his vocal display is simply incredible and showcases that he is one one the most exciting artists within the UK scene.

Here we chat exclusively with Kevin McGuire to discuss his new single in more depth:

Congratulations on the release of your new single ‘Seeing Things’, how excited are you to have new music out in the world?

I am so, so, so excited like it’s been such a long process and a difficult one because I know that I’ve had that music there for a while and we just wanted to get it as perfect as possible. Get the artwork done. Honestly, it’s been like Christmas Day getting new music out, it always does. Yeah, I’m so excited, so delighted about this

You wrote this track via facetime with Nashville writer Mason Thornley, how did that session come about?

Mason got in touch with me a couple of years ago, said he really liked my voice, It was maybe a year after the release of ‘3 AM’ on Spotify I think and he got in touch with me and we wrote together maybe two years ago and then we did another session and we wrote a great song together and we’ve just kept in touch ever since. Mason’s a great writer, I’m super happy to have him on it, and obviously during the lockdown last year, you know around April/May was the kind of time everyone was stuck in their house. Even though we are now, it was a different time back then. It was new to us so he was like “right why don’t we jump on and do a Zoom session”. Zoom sessions became a little more normal back then so yeah that’s how it came about.

This is your first ever co-write with a songwriter from Music City, are you looking to collaborate with more writers from there in the future?

Yeah of course like I’ve not really thought about it, I don’t really think that much about writing with certain people. I’m quite a kind of relationship(y) writer like. If I like someone and I’m comfortable with someone then I’ll absolutely go for it. I think me and Mason have got a really, really good connection. We write really well together it’s the same with me and Andy we write really well together. Me and my manager John write really well together. So yeah, it’s amazing writing with guys from Nashville, they really know what the scene’s like over there they know what stuff’s been done and what’s not been done and they’ve always got such a great take on things so it’s super exciting and I would love to do it again.

This is your first release of 2021, and it feels like you’re ready to take risks with your sound this time around, would you say that’s a fair judgment?

Yeah, I would say that’s a fair judgment I think you just need to be bold and believe in what you’re doing like it’s difficult to even explain. We’re only here for a very short amount of time and I try not to second guess things you know if it works and it fits and you 100% believe in it then go for it. If we ever want to bridge that gap between the UK music and the US music in country like in terms of the chart stuff then we have to take risks we have to want to stand out from the crowd and put lines in songs that make us stand out and try to really, really be ourselves so yeah I feel like I’m ready to take risks I am not there to be shy and try and do music that I think just fits in. I’ll always, always do music that makes me 100% happy, and hopefully, that’s what this has done.

You’ve previously stated you want to make music that stands up against what’s coming out of Nashville and it feels like you’ve done that here, so are you hoping to get US radio airplay?

I would love some it’s not on the first priority list right now just because it’s such a hard thing to do but yeah I would absolutely love to do that. it would just be insane to hear my track on there and get that recognition from a place country music is the most well-known so yeah that’d be amazing.

With a view to breaking it in the US alongside your base here in the UK, do you plan on getting shows booked in Nashville when travel is permitted?

Yeah, again I would love to do that. It mainly comes down to things like visas and travelling and all that kind of stuff. I would absolutely love to do it it’d be insanely good but I also love playing here in the UK. I love the country music festivals here so I’m happy to do take any opportunity that comes my way and whether it’s here or in Nashville I’m sure it’d both be amazing.

You’re an artist who is always looking to make the next song the best song and with ‘Seeing Things’ you’ve definitely taken a major step-up, so was the plan to always have this as your next official single or was it a tough choice between other songs you’ve been working on?

No, we only decided this in December I wasn’t actually planning to put any new music out right now. We are in talks with some people right now about doing certain things with my music but I didn’t want to have a January and February where I wasn’t doing anything, releasing stuff because we have so many songs sitting there. I was thinking six months ahead without really thinking about the next few months and in December we (my team and I were like “we can’t go January, February, March without releasing something, you need to focus, you need to put something out there. We’ve got all these tracks sitting here”. So ‘Seeing Things’ felt like the right one to do particularly with Mason being in Nashville and having that extra Nashville connection it was just something that really worked for us.

How are you finding the process of the releasing new music during this time period when so many promotional outlets are off the table?

You know what, if I’ve learned anything in the last sort of twelve months it’s that you can make a buzz about your music online if you use Instagram properly and you can use social media properly then you know it’s possible to do it. Look it sucks that we can’t play it live in front of people. I always think that’s when I can really show what I’m trying to do but I think you have to tick every box nowadays, you have to be good at social media, you have to be able to create good tracks, you have to be able to record well as well as play live so look none of us can do anything about what’s happening right now. It sucks that we can’t promote it at festivals and things like that but everyone is sitting online right now so the audience is still there so that is the one we have to use.

With this track can we expect this to be the launchpad to a full-length album from you, as that’s something your fans seem to really want?

Yeah you know, I’ve been asked this question so many times and I have an album’s worth of stuff there you know I’ve almost released an album’s worth of stuff and I think at the right time an album will come out. I think because my music’s developing so much right now I feel that maybe something I would record right now for an album, when the album is done at the end of the year or in a year’s time I might not want that song on my album anymore because I’ve progressed even more with my sound and stuff like that. So, look don’t get me wrong an album will come out someday, someday soon hopefully but right now I’m just thinking about the next single and what that one’s gonna be so please, please bear with me. I do hear you but yeah we’ll get there.

Looking ahead, what are you plans this year?

Oh my goodness if any of us knew what our plans were for this year. I’m hoping to get as many listens to my music as possible. That’s the number 1 thing for me. I just want to have more people listening to it than last year, have as many people listening to it as possible I want to put out music that I love, that other people love that sounds great you know I want to be playing some shows you know when they come back. Hopefully, they’re gonna come back around summertime maybe outdoors so that’d be absolutely insane. But yeah I just want to take a step every single day to be further towards where I want to be and that is as successful a music artist as I can be. I never really try to think too far ahead in terms of planning but yeah we’re going to see what’s around the corner and hopefully, we can get some shows done this summer. New music 100% of course, definitely much sooner than between the last two singles so that’s the kind of rough plan. We’re just gonna take it as it comes and whatever feels right at the time we’re just gonna run with it.

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