Glaswegian artist Crawford Mack is back with the sound of the summer. His latest single Kicks is out now.

Mack’s playful new single is full of upbeat, sonic twists and turns that are bound to get toes tapping instantly. Kicks was written with the express purpose of having some fun, sparked by a moment in time; “I was out for a walk in Victoria Park and got caught by a wave of optimism from seeing a group of people hanging out with a speaker blaring Franz Ferdinand,” Mack explains. “I was actually taking a break from writing a slightly darker song, came back and changed the whole thing!”

In this interview spotlight, I chat with Crawford Mack about the latest release, influences, challenges and more.

Full Q&A along with links and music below.

Let’s dive a little deeper into You, the artist and your music. What attracted you to this genre or style?

So far in my career I’ve mainly played stuff that falls between Indie Folk (or freak folk) and Indie Pop/Rock. Sometimes there’s a bit harmonic influence coming from jazz music, which was what I studied and started out doing when I moved to London. Those three styles primarily because I love the lyrical honesty that tends to come out of Indie Folk Stuff, the energy of Indie Rock/Pop and the harmonic dexterity and rhythm section interaction that is always in play with Jazz Music. 

All my favourite artists indulge their curiosity in playing various styles of music with great players, but it always sounds like them if you get me? People like Sting, Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, or Father John Misty nowadays. I love that approach because there is something in almost any conceivable style of music that I will absolutely love and obsess over at some point. 

Having said that the influence in my latest track ‘Kicks’ cones from kind of Indie Pop/Rock genre was what I was obsessed with as a teenager growing up in Glasgow with bands like Franz Ferdinand and The Fratellis and of course also with a lot of Brit-Pop bands like Pulp still being very popular. 

What led you into this journey with music? And further, what drives you to push it out to the public? 

I grew up singing as a chorister at first, Chapel and so on. But I think the main thing was that my mother was always playing different styles of music in the house, loads of Punk, Nick Drake, Sinatra, Scottish Trad, Irish Trad and lots of African and French Music, she was mainly obsessed with Bowie and I was really into U2 and The Who growing up until Franz Ferdinand came along and were the first band of my own generation that I really loved. Despite this I had designs on being an actor until I started being involved with bands back in Glasgow at around the age of seventeen. Some of the guys in the band were really into Steely Dan and listening to their music was a big part of me getting into jazz music which is what I ended up moving to London to study. 

Since being in bands songwriting has definitely been what I’ve enjoyed the most. I’m prepared to work on the craft of it all the time and it follows that, because I’m constantly writing, developing the initial ideas and experimenting with a song that I’ve finished writing is where I really enjoy pushing myself. A lot of what I do never sees the light of day but little sections may be worked into other tunes from, time to time. 

The driving force of putting my own music out there is a really interesting question to answer, sometimes I feel a bit egotistical for letting myself think anyone’s gonna care to listen so I’m really glad they do. I think my drive came about because at some point of doing a Jazz vocal degree I got a bit tired of singing other people’s songs even though they’re incredible songs, I just felt like I was always being a bit of a pastiche of someone else’s musical stylings for the sake of what that kind of audience wanted to hear, so this is really the only way to play the way I want to. 

Who or what influences your creativity? Have your tastes in music changed over time?

I credit most of my creative development to a few different things; the discipline of transcription: the process of listening to music and notating the melody and harmony for the purposes of study, analysing other writers lyrics – particularly writers like Sting, Paul Simon, Nick Drake, Joni Mitchell, Tom Waits, Father John Misty and Robin Pecknold, and also musicians like Wayne Shorter. Away from other artists I like trying to set myself wee parameters and challenges to write around, like making weird number matrixes and assigning them to words in a book and forcing myself to use those words within certain lines for the craic (it doesn’t always work but sometimes it;’s super helpful). 

My musical tastes definitely expand, but I’m not sure if there’s much I dislike that I used to like, I think one of the most exciting things is when someone can’t believe I’ve never heard of a band they love because there’s potential there for you to really get into something new. 

Were you trying to accomplish anything specific on this new project? Creatively or otherwise? 

Honestly, I was trying to be a wee bit more upbeat than normal, ‘Kicks’ actually started out as quite a dark song, and I changed it after seeing some people having a good time in the park whilst I was taking a wee break because they were listening to tunes I really like and it gave me a wee sense of something to look forward to with my own pals. 

What was the last song you listened to?

‘Holding On’ by The War On Drugs whilst in the gym. 

Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s? 

Vinyl for quality, but I used to really love burning CD mixtapes for my pals cars, now I’m a fan of making them playlists on DSPs. 

How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify? Apple Music? Bandcamp? Or something else? Why? 

I use all of them actually, I like supporting my pals on Bandcamp when it is their preference for me to do so. I really like the layouts of both Spotify and Apple though probably find myself using Spotify more for no reason other than more of my pals are using it so send me recommendations of stuff to check out.  

Other than the digital era overwhelming us with access to an abundance of music, what is the biggest challenge you face when trying to connect with or find new fans? 

Summarising things into short-form content, I absolutely loathe doing so whether it’s the copy or the videos themselves. I’m also not the biggest fan of the fact I’m trying to please social media platforms by creating stuff to keep people online because I don’t think it’s a great thing to try and do. 

Where is the best place to connect with you online? Discover more music?

Probably Spotify and Instagram, I’ve got a playlist on Spotify of other music I love that’s featured on my profile which is well worth checking out. 

Anything else you’d like to add before signing off?

I’ve got a gig in Dalston at Servant’s Jazz Quarters that’s been rearranged for September 16th so it would be great if you could come down!