Jam for Climate Justice
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Aberdeen Performing Arts is proud to present Jam for Climate Justice, a night of new songwriting featuring the crème de la crème of musical talent from all across Scotland. We’ve paired up six singer-songwriters and commissioned each duo to create a new song especially for tonight! In addition to the brand news songs, you’ll be treated to a solo set from each artist. There will also be jam and scones on offer, provided by local makers and bakers.
Selected artists this year are Erin O’Callaghan, Finn McLean, Kai Swarvett, Robert Mercer, Roseanne Reid and Zoe Bestel.
Doors – 7pm Starts – 8pm
Erin O’Callaghan is a singer-songwriter from a small village in Northamptonshire. Grounded by her father’s Irish routes, she grew up loving folk music for its storytelling and began to develop her own style in her early teens. Influences like Kodaline and Phoebe Bridgers have seeped into her melancholic and introspective style of writing, creating songs that feel like warm diary entries. Erin moved to Edinburgh in 2022 to study Acting and English. In addition to her studies, she released her two songs in 2023 with support from BBC Radio nan Gàidheal and Amazing Radio.
Finn McLean is a Glasgow-based musician who writes and plays for both themselves and others. Finn’s practice embraces their entire musical life – from starting in traditional Scottish music in their Gaelic primary school, teenage angst represented through an electric guitar and bad riffs, to graduating from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, studying composition and guitar.
Robert Mercer is a songwriter from Aberdeenshire who combines melodic guitar arrangements with earnest lyricism to create songs that are reminiscent of Elliott Smith and Sufjan Stevens. Learning to sing at large jam sessions as a student, Robert has always chased human connection through playing music. After finding his voice as a songwriter without collaborators during lockdown, he moved into Aberdeen and soon found his feet as a regular performer in the city’s vibrant open mic community. Inspired by these weekly jams and collaborations with his new musical family, 2023 was his most prolific year of songwriting yet.
Roseanne Reid is a singer-songwriter from Edinburgh. As well as supporting the likes of Lucy Spraggan, Teddy Thompson, Otis Gibbs, Ricky Ross and Justin Townes Earle, Roseanne was previously selected by Steve Earle for a Scholarship at his songwriting camp in New York for three consecutive years. Her debut album features a duet with Steve and was recorded in Brooklyn with Teddy Thompson on production duties. Roseanne is a previous winner of the prestigious International Songwriting Competition (judged by the likes of Lorde & Tom Waits) in the ‘Lyrics Only’ category for her song ‘Amy’. Roseanne has also been nominated for the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk award as well as for UK Song of The Year at the AMAUK Awards. Both of her albums & EP releases have been met with great enthusiasm from critics and fans alike, and her tours across the UK and further afield have won over a huge number of new fans.
Ethereal vocals, poignant melodies and stirring lyrics describe the work of 26-year old award winning nu-folk musician Zoë Bestel, hailed as one of the Scotland’s most fascinating young singer-songwriters. As well as numerous BBC radio and TV performances, Bestel has captivated audiences across Denmark, Germany, Finland, Norway, and the Czech Republic, with festival highlights including Orkney Folk Festival, Cambridge Folk Festival, and Celtic Connections. Encouraged by the resurgence of ’70s folk, where lyrical stories and emotive music unite like-minded individuals at gatherings, Bestel aspires for her music to capture this spirit, inspiring listeners to connect with nature and deepen their roots in the present.
Scotland-based songwriter and composer Kai Swarvett has been working in the field of music for visual media and wellbeing and has performed internationally as a singer-songwriter and musician. From ambient dreamscapes to full orchestral scores, Kai has a diverse palette as a composer and multi-instrumentalist and has developed a unique songwriting style, spinning tales of surreal imagery in a world of folk-jangling indie sound.
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