Catching up with award-winning Glasgow poet Kevin P Gilday, he tells me that he is a bit sore from some hot-yoga that he did the day previous. "There will be no hot yoga in the show, I'm afraid. I don't want to get anyone's hopes up," he laughs.
It might be a surprise, then, to hear that Kevin's newest project includes singing about Glasgow's bleaker side, which is the main topic of musical conversation in his latest collaboration with The Glasgow Cross. His new album, Pure Concrete, recorded with the other half of his musical duo Ralph Hector from Iffy Folk Records, is a record centred on exactly that.
"The first song on the album mentions Duke Street, and the title track, The Sickest Man in Scotland, mentions The Forge, which is probably the first time that The Forge has been mentioned in a song," he says.
Gilday, who is from Dennistoun, recorded the album while living in Barcelona – an unusual juxtaposition, he says himself. "I had collaborated with a band called The Sea Kings a few years back, stepping in for a singer who couldn't make it," he explains. "It went great, and we released a song for Record Store Day, but the music I've made since then came about with Ralph the bass player, who I became very good friends with".
For those who don't know his work, Gilday is a writer and spoken word artist who has performed all over the world, including Glastonbury and Toronto. A jack-of-all-trades, he also works with young, budding Spoken Word artists around Glasgow with Sonnet Youth, and has taken multiple plays to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, including last year's Suffering from Scottishness. His work often returns to Scotland, be it the place or the national character.
"My career has went in the way where I do everything and it made sense that it would be something that combines elements of art into one project. We don't have much of a choice now but to be that 'jack-of-all-trades'.
"Ralph is actually a neuroscientist alongside his work as a musician and producer – it's quite funny, actually. Put a neuroscientist and a poet together in a room and apparently you get Pure Concrete."
"Ralph had said previously that he'd love to write music for my poems. We started to make some songs, then I moved to Barcelona. He came over for a week and we recorded them in Barcelona with a guy called Tony, who had a lock of John Lennon's hair.
"We recorded it in Barcelona but the poems were written in Glasgow, so maybe it was a matter of being homesick at that time and missing the city. I was recording a song about Dennistoun in a studio in Barcelona. It felt funny, with it being so sunny outside, but I think it's really nice".
Pure Concrete is an album that talks about what it's like to live in Glasgow, and the people that you may meet on an average Glasgow day. "I'm from the east end and these are all places that have stuck with me from childhood memories" says Gilday.
"When I was a kid, these places felt otherworldly and special and unique. I live in Dennistoun again. Now I'm older, all these places are right there on my doorstep but they have a mystique about them, They're still here and they still exist. The streets are still the same, full of restaurants and shops and people. I love that.
"The Glasgow I grew up with is full of amazing characters, full of amazing chat and stories. I adored that and wanted to respect that and put it into songs. The songs in the album are like that, and they're about the area, about the characters and songs and people."
Pure Concrete will be released in May, on Iffy Folk, and a tour is to be announced shortly after. "We're planning a stage show, with props and provisions and special guests on stage. "There will be some light audience interaction – nothing too scary," he says, laughing.
Pure Concrete will be released in May on Iffy Folk Records
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