Future sound

Our column celebrating music to watch makes its debut this year with Kirkwall-born fiddle player Eric Linklater. He talks to Fiona Shepherd about leaving home for the big city, thwarted tap-dancing dreams, and his path back to creativity

Orkney fiddler Eric Linklater has had an on-off love affair with traditional music over the years. But that relationship is definitely on again following an approach from Celtic Connections head honcho Donald Shaw to compose a piece for the festival’s prestigious New Voices strand. ‘It was one of those moments where you go, “fuck yeah!”,’ says Linklater. ‘And then afterwards you think “can I actually do it?” Imposter syndrome and all that.’

Linklater, now 27, is no imposter, with an impressive 20 years of playing experience under his belt. A fiddle epiphany came in his early primary school years. Enraptured by Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, he took lessons from local legend Jennifer Wrigley, absorbing traditions from home and away, and recording a debut album at the age of 17 (prematurely, he now admits) before moving to Glasgow for a period of study at the Royal Conservatoire Of Scotland.

‘That was the start of a whole other journey,’ he recalls. ‘For so many students, when you leave home all these big questions start hitting you (where you sit religiously, politically, your love life), but which I could just put in the back of my mind because I was playing fiddle all the time. And then I got hit by this world that was very exciting and challenging. I was quite overwhelmed and not really sure artistically where I was going at that point. I struggled with the first couple of years in Glasgow, but looking back now, it was such a nice time. Coming from an island, I still find it a novelty that there is McDonald’s and Marks & Spencer.’

Mid-course, Linklater suffered a stress-related bout of tendonitis, forcing him to stop playing and divert to other modules which reflected his wider interests, from Scots song to Shakespearean classes. ‘I tried to do tap dancing, but they wouldn’t let me!’ He graduated in 2016 as the recipient of the Martyn Bennett scholarship for upcoming artists, returned to Orkney and ended up staying for six years. ‘I really thought I had missed the boat,’ Linklater admits. He credits his duo with pianist Jennifer Austin and reaching Radio Scotland’s Young Traditional Musician semi-finals last year as his path back to creativity. ‘I ended up moving back to Glasgow and playing my fiddle again like I hadn’t for years.’

Linklater has become a regular on the city’s folk-session scene as well as flexing his compositional muscles at Celtic Connections. His New Voices commission, ‘Out In The Flow’, written for strings, piano, guitars and percussion, is inspired by his Orcadian heritage, the creative state, and his wild swimming in the waters around the islands. ‘It’s something I can’t escape in Orkney and it’s very inspiring,’ he says. ‘We all find the sea quite amazing, and there’s so much stimulus from that.’ As to next steps, he says, ‘it would be nice to take a bit of time to fill the well again, take a new stimulus, and maybe use the project for some recording.’

Eric Linklater plays at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall as part of Celtic Connections’ New Voices, Sunday 5 February.