Time to Create: Inside Scotland's recording residencies & retreats

From KNOCKvologan to Moniack Mhor to Black Bay Studio, we are seeing an alternative to the traditional writing and recording experience. Popping up on Instagram posts, shouted out in the middle of sets and printed teeny-tiny on the back of records are these Highlands & Islands studio spaces and retreats. While hunkering down in a studio in some remote, picturesque part of the world is absolutely not a new phenomenon, the idea of a retreat has often felt quite nomadic or elite, and not entirely practical or accessible to emerging artists or communities underrepresented in the arts.

Recently, though, it feels like there's been a shift. In this busy, noisy, unrelenting world, it's no wonder the distance is so appealing. Singer-songwriter Misty-Jo was part of a songwriting and recording retreat called First Stages run by Moniack Mhor in Kiltarlity in the Highlands. The programme is dedicated to supporting emerging artists to take their first steps into the music industry. The fully funded retreat, supported by the Scottish Government through the Youth Music Initiative, brought together 12 young people from across Scotland who might have previously struggled to have their work heard.

For Misty-Jo, the experience allowed her to reconnect with the idea of music as a career and a vocation. “I studied music but you get sucked in by day-to-day life, having to pay rent, having to work on the side," she says. "What was magical about the retreat is that it was really a time to disconnect from everyday life, it really pushed me towards music in a way I didn't know I needed.”

Glasgow-based folk duo Amulet took part in a more specialised residency at KNOCKvologan Studios on the Ross of Mull. The distinctive pink granite from the region formed the focus of the project where they made music in tandem with the landscape and locals. Bandmember Joseph Flower found that the residency not only gave them dedicated time to create, but an opportunity to speak to people in the area, which made a big impact on the music they created.

“Miek and Rutger, who run KNOCKvologan, are good at making sure that the residencies are very connected to the community," Flower says. "We spent a lot of time with people who work and live there, like people in the pub who would sing us songs… and stonemasons, people who were working with the rock.” These interactions became part of the creative process, with field recordings and music shared by locals used in their live performances that formed part of the residency.

Knowing the community was part of it and being invited to shows helped ground them in their work: “It’s something about the pressure," Flower says. "Not pressure in a bad way, but like pressure because you tell everyone what you're going to do and then you're committed to doing it.” 

Inverness-based Lomond Campbell recorded Kathryn Joseph’s SAY Award-nominated WE WERE MADE PREY. album at Black Bay Studio on the Isle of Lewis. Describing it as “otherworldly,” recording at the residential studio one November, he was fortunate enough to experience the thrill of the Northern Lights while there. “You do really feel like you're right at the edge of something and you're about to fall off the map,” he says. “It does have an impact on you, it feels like you can make as much noise as you want.” One of his key takeaways was how productive the experience became. “I don't think I've worked as quickly on a record before,” he states. “So completely getting away from everything and just throwing yourself into your work can be really fruitful.”

Hen Hoose founder Tamara Schlesinger had a similar experience at Black Bay where 12 members of the collective wrote and recorded The Twelve together in just one week. “The reason we did a residency rather than a traditional studio experience is that idea of 'return to home,'" she says. "I think the return to home to decide what you're eating for dinner, and you know, if you have kids, for example, doing bedtime, and all these kinds of distractions, that was all removed.”

Fellow hen Jill O’Sullivan found inspiration in being removed from her usual surroundings. “Usually I write while looking out my tenement window, so the opportunity to go somewhere else and look out a window to see sheep, various seabirds, seals, the sound of waves hitting rocks and the sea in general was a unique, visceral experience for me." She continues: "It was more or less unique for all of us; we were unified in that new experience and drawing from it while we wrote. I personally think that helped us make a cohesive-sounding album despite the diversity of musical genre amongst the hens.”

Across all of these experiences, it seems the retreat is less about solitude and more about connection – with the self, other artists, communities and our relationship with space and place. Dedicated time free from distraction and responsibility, and the opportunity to connect more deeply with people and place allows creativity to be prioritised, nurtured and given the care it needs to flourish.

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Follow Misty-Jo, Amulet, Lomond Campbell and Hen Hoose on Instagram at @mistyjoofficial @amulet.scroll @lomond_campbell @hen_hoose

Find out more about the residential studio spaces and retreats at moniackmhor.org.uk / knockvologan.net / blackbaystudio.com