They may both be beside the sea but that's about all Los Angeles, California and Troon, South Ayrshire have in common.

There probably aren't many who have swapped the former for the latter, but then U.S singer-songwriter Addie Brik isn't like most people.

In 1998 she left the City of Angels behind to move to Europe, eventually settling on the Ayrshire riviera.

She tells the Herald: "I got record deals in Europe and began, in the late 90s, being more interested in what was going on here, musically.

“It seemed more interesting with the bands coming out of here and all the sounds and the ethos.

“Everything in LA was very… not that I don’t like R&B, and it sounds rude to say it, but if you listen to a Janet Jackson record or something there was just a certain sound, a more commercial sound, in America and it seemed there were things that were more experimental and interesting going on here.

"It's very beautiful here."

Brik has quite the backstory. Discovered by Peter Gabriel of Genesis fame, she was signed to Geffen records and released an album produced by Andy Gill.

She was also present for the birth of one of the world's most successful bands - the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Brik explains: "I had a little studio called the Crooked Cue that was just my rehearsal studio for my band.

“At the time the Red Hot Chili Peppers weren’t even the Red Hot Chili Peppers, I think Flea was in an LA punk band called Fear, and there was a band called What Is This? (featuring original guitarist and drummer Hillel Slovak and Jack Irons).

“They’d all grown up together and they were all rehearsing there – a lot of people rehearsed at my studio.

The Herald: Flea of the Red Hot Chili PeppersFlea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers (Image: Newsquest)

“It was just meant to be a joke, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, they were rehearsing there the first night they had a show (at a club owned by Paisley-born Brendan Mullen), they just did it because they were all pals.”

The Chili Peppers were known for their hard-partying ways, an excess which would tragically lead to the death of Slovak, with frontman Anthony Kiedis almost going the same way.

For Brik though, who was never a drug user, there was no real sense of being in the eye of a storm.

She says: "I guess it seemed kind of normal at the time, we were all just really young and having a good time and it was really free in Los Angeles. Everything was really cheap and it was just a laugh.

“Nina Hagan was around. A lot of music, a lot of fun. Fishbone was on that scene too. It was just great music.”

Brik releases her new album That Dog Don't Hunt on Friday (November 25), with the record recorded largely in Troon at the height of lockdown.

It's a sound very much borne of the time, featuring as it does meditations on authority and the direction of society.

Brik elaborates: "I had to do a lot of it alone or remotely. We had the National Youth Choir of Scotland sing on a song called Retromingent, but that had to be done remotely.

“So it was an unusual record. There were brief periods of time where you could get outside, so some of it was done together and a lot of it was done remotely.

"I guess for every action there’s an opposite and equal reaction, as Newton said and it just seemed to me that the western way of life is evanescent, we’re just experiencing so many changes – some of which don’t seem like progress.

“I don’t think progress for progress’ sake is always really great because there doesn’t seem to be any discussion about the externalities of progress – like corporations being made people and things like that.

“I’m not really so sure losing everything in old-fashioned things is a good idea, especially if there’s not a real discussion about the pros and cons.

“I’m not really political but you look at how kids are growing up compared to me – when I was a kid I used to just go out of the door in the morning and you’d come home for dinner.

“I don’t think children can do any of those things that we got to do when we were little and that seems really sad to me, and maybe not very good for us as a society.

“As a writer you have to talk about what’s on your mind, and certainly with all of the so-called lockdowns there was plenty of time to think about it.

"I didn’t necessarily like what I was seeing in society but I wasn’t in a city and I could really focus and buckle down and write.

“I was talking to people all the time, I was talking to musicians and we were seeing each others’ faces and having laughs and stuff.

“For people in a city or who are lonely it would have been much harder, but I really took the time to hone in on writing.”

Addie's new album This Dog Don't Hunt is available now