Seat At The Table; Episode Three with Calum Bowie

Calum's Running toward a better him, with his next single, Running Boy

Ahead of the release of his next single, Running Boy, I sat down with Calum Bowie, the dynamic Scottish singer-songwriter hailing from Banchory, Aberdeenshire. With a unique musical identity inspired by the likes of Sam Fender, Alfie Templeman, and Maisie Peters, Calum's journey began with a debut release in 2018. He has quickly risen to prominence in the Scottish music scene, offering captivating melodies and authentic lyrics that leave audiences craving more. Beyond his music prowess, Calum's electrifying live performances have earned him opportunities to share stages with notable artists like JP Cooper and New Rules, with sold-out headline shows at iconic venues like London's Omeara. Supported by radio and critics, Calum Bowie is a rising star, and we are delighted to feature him as our esteemed guest in this exclusive interview.

Can you start by introducing yourself and your musical journey so far?

My name is Calum Bowie, I’m a singer songwriter from Scotland. I currently live in Edinburgh, I moved here from Banchory, a small town up near Aberdeen. I’ve been writing and playing since about 14 (the first one is a song we don’t speak about), and then released my first EP at sixteen and have been releasing singles and stuff ever since.

I started doing some social media stuff then as well when I came to uni, and ended up starting to sing out the window and it’s stuck ever since.

And now I have a new single coming out on the 3rd called Running Boy which I’m very excited about!

Many people became familiar with your talent during lockdown when you sang from your flat’s window. How did that experience shape your musical journey?

I mean it has in so many ways. It was pure luck more than anything. I originally started just doing my own stuff and I had been doing what I now do on TikTok to a lesser extent on Instagram but it wasn’t really picking up as much traction because that was before there as reels and it was just a case where you had to follow the person etc.

I was putting out a lot of music and my sister actually said to try this app, it’s called TikTok, and I said I’d try it. It started doing a lot better than it was doing on Instagram but I didn’t really think anything of it ‘cause it was just this app, and now TikTok is TIKTOK.

So I started posting covers and then some of my own stuff. I happen to have a video that did quite well, where my neighbour stuck her head out the window and said “thanks for playing” and I was like wow and I posted it. That was my first kind of big video and I was like “wow this is great”.

And I’ve stuck with it ever since. I’ve done some covers and I do quite a lot of my stuff out the window now but it’s really great fun.

Running Boy is the name of your upcoming track. Can you tell us the inspiration behind the track and what it means to you personally?

Erm so Running Boy is a funny one. I remember writing this a while ago and it being a song that I didn’t know where it fit in in terms of my releases and whether or not I was going to put it out and stuff cause it’s quite a personal song and it’s almost opening up you know to everyone about how…

So I’m from a small town and the thing that I was terrified of was never making that jump you know, and I guess that’s the “Are you Yearning Boy, Are you learning more”, like are you really doing as much as you can be doing. For me, like, I needed to go and do stuff, whether or not it was music or whether it was music or whether it was just to get out to a bigger city and stuff.

I wrote that song in a night. I remember writing it at 3am or something ridiculous like that, and I was trying to be quiet as well haha. But I remember just kind of writing those lyrics and it was like you know “am I running?” it was almost a self-question of like am I running from what I need to be and what I want to be and who I want to be and what I want to do and all these dreams that I have, am I running away from that?

I don’t want to be the guy who never moves right, so there’s a line that’s like “Don't just look back and see, a man who never left the shore” and that kind of sums it up as like I don’t ever want to look back and think ah I never did these things and I should’ve done them. That would be my biggest regret is not actually getting a chance to.

You know failure is fine but as long as you try it, that’s the main thing. And it’s kind of don’t hide behind who you used to be. So as time passes by it’s easier to just go, well I’ve done that, but it’s like well you could do better or you could do more.

It’s kind of just a note to Running towards a better you I guess, and not hiding behind who you used to be.

What message or feeling do you hope Running Boy conveys to your listeners?

It’s definitely just go and do it. I mean “There’s no time like the present”, ( whatever the quote is that’s what I mean hahaha). But yeah I mean there is no better time than the present, and you can always put it off and put it off until you go on for however long. And it’s like just a case of go and do it, and then you learn, and it's always once you start it’s easy. The hardest part is the leap of faith, and that’s like whether it’s moving away or doing something that you’ve always wanted to do and that’s the message I want to get across. Just do it! (I am not promoting Nike, I would love to but that’s not the case).

Can you tell us about the process of creating Running Boy, from the initial idea to recording and production?

I remember writing it overnight, like three in the morning. I remember writing like the whole song on guitar, in a quiet voice cause it was late at night at home in Banchory actually, and my parents were asleep. But I remember writing it and being like ugh I don’t really know.

It was only recently, actually it was summer, that I was like oh I’m going to record this and then you know it might come out.

I still sat on it for a while, but I went in with a guy called Michael McDonald, who has produced a lot of my songs, I love working with Michael.

We stayed super late, and bounced ideas off each other, because there’s a guitar bit in the second verse that comes in, and it’s kind of a bit more of an electric guitar, but which I really like and that was one of the bits I really wanted to nail.

Then we finally got it and we were like THIS IS IT, and now that’s the version that’s coming out. But we recorded that, as like a demo, and then we loved it so much that I was like “nah this has to stay like the same”.

That night, you know late into the morning, that’s the version that’s coming out.

It feels super personal to me because I remember not being on my phone and no one being up and it being like super dark and then that just being like what people are going to hear.

It’s really cool and I’m really excited for people to hear it and do know what they think as well.

Did you experience any challenges while working on Running Boy, and how did you overcome them?

*It doesn’t sound like you did really…*

I normally do you see this is the thing so this was an abnormal thing because…

Normally, I get two kinds of songs. Sometimes you really work around them and you know they both come out how you’d like them to come out but like some of them take more because you want to get the right thing and then there’s some where you just go “right what is my head thinking”. You almost take yourself away and you just like go “right write a song” and just your brain and your hands do it automatically and then you know you’ve got a song.

Those lines came out as like a whole verse, normally I’d get a line and then I’d have to go right what’s a rhyme, but it just came out as a verse and I was like “oh I don’t mind that actually”. And then that turned into yeah I’m going to use that and that’s the version that came out.

It very much wrote itself but that’s unusual so I’m very grateful for that.

*But it’s like a raw message from you as well*

Yeah absolutely. It’s super exciting when that happens. Like I said, normally you sit down on a day and say I’m going to write a song, this is my message and how do I get that across. I don’t normally just go I’m going to write a song, I don’t know what it’s about but then your head just writes it. And then you realise “oh actually that’s what I’ve been thinking but I didn’t know how to put it into words” and then you manage to put it into words somehow.

But yeah, it’s cool, it’s really cool.

How do you feel your Scottish heritage has influenced your music and your identity as an artist?

I mean, Scotland… I do a lot of travelling and stuff. I’ve been up and down to London, I’ve been all over the place and I’ve got a tour coming up. But I mean I love coming back here. Especially from a small town perspective that it’s such a thing where folk music and Celtic music, especially when you go up into the Highlands, you know that music I’ve always loved. Fiddles, accordions all that sort of stuff like I love that in a song. It’s not always in pop music so it’s kind of nice to have that influence coming in.

I don’t know whether or not it comes across, but I very much take influence from all the traditional bands, Celtic bands, ceili bands, that sort of stuff I love all that!

*It’s nice too that your accent comes across in your music*

Yeah for sure, I mean I haven’t always had it be the case that my accent comes across in the music. Like you can listen to a load of music and its transatlantic, like American or UK and it’s almost similar enough, it's super easy to understand and stuff. But I love people like Gerry Cinnamon and people like that where you can really hear it in their lyrics. Now obviously he’s Glasgow it’s a different accent, but yeah I like keeping the accent, it’s grown on me big time.

As a young artist, what advice would you give others looking to break into the music industry?

I guess it would be just Write music. And even for myself, that’s me telling myself that as well. I’m my own enemy when it comes writing, you don't always want to do it. The music is the main thing and that’s what people connect with and you can do loads of social media stuff, and I love doing my social stuff and you know reinterpreting songs and that, but you know the music is very much what drives that and it connects with people.

I am so grateful that people have been able to connect with my stuff, but that’s the heart and soul of what you do. By all means enjoy the social stuff, that’s great and it’s super fun to do and people are always lovely about it as well, but yeah make sure the music is always the driving force of that.

What’s one thing about you that your fans might not know but would find interesting or surprising?

I mean, I can juggle. I used to juggle quite a lot. I actually joined the juggling society in uni, but only for about two weeks. So I went to Edinburgh Uni (briefly) before I left to do music, but I joined the juggling society. My dad had taught me to juggle, and I still love juggling. It’s a bit of a random one but it’s also a bit of a workout to be honest, good for the upper body hahaha. I don’t do it enough, I haven’t juggled in a while but I guess that’s a fun fact haha.

Finally, what’s next for Calum Bowie? Are there any exciting projects or collaborations on the horizon?

So I’ve obviously got this single coming out and then I’ve got tour, which is in November/December. So all the English dates are sold out, and then I have two Scottish dates left, Aberdeen and Glasgow in December.

And then next year I’ve got so much stuff. I mean I’ve got new music coming, I’ve just announced my London show today actually in March and hopefully a slightly bigger body of music as well, that would be exciting.

There’s a lot to come and I’m very excited about it!

Calum's new track, Running Boy, is available to stream across all platforms now!