Shaun Milne from the Good Stuff Inbetween Podcast, sits down for an interview with one of this year's Artists - Keith Morrison
“It was a sunset out of the studio here,” says Keith Morrison, gazing out the window of his Wee Studio in South Dell on Lewis. Beyond the glass, the evening light glimmers across Loch Dhikbadail, while the Atlantic stretches to the horizon.
“To see the sun setting here and then rising in Vegas, coming up and reflecting off all these glass buildings...” he trails off, contemplating. “Yeah, just different chapters of my crazy life. I’m very fortunate.”
For Morrison, life has been a whirlwind of late-night sessions and international tours, captured in candid videos on the Wee Studio’s Instagram feed.
One week it’s the quiet glow of the Hebridean dusk; the next, the electric glare of Las Vegas. “I pinched myself a lot,” he laughs. “I remember the first time I got to the Pacific Ocean. We were driving across the States and ended up in Santa Cruz. The first thing I did was take off my shoes and socks, walk straight into the ocean and just stand there. ‘Hello Pacific Ocean,’ I said. Nice to meet you.”
Those moments of wonder have been squeezed between frantic UK gigs with Peat and Diesel, the band’s trademark van weaving through motorways and service station breakfasts, and the skyscraper canyons of the US on tour with Heron Valley. It’s a life lived at full tilt yet one grounded in community, trust, and a passion for music.
Today, Morrison is at home in his happy place, the Wee Studio, surrounded by the clutter of a working musician: pianos and guitars, cables snaking across patterned carpets, merch piled in corners. Here, he can dial down the chaos, finding peace in the soundscape of his own making.
“I’m a really emotional, present person,” he says. “I love peace and quiet, soaking in atmospheres and vibes. I understand the magnitude of what we’re doing and I do my best to honour that - to accept it and make the most of it all the time.” Music, he says, was his first love. “When you’re a youngster, you’re just floating through life,” he says. “Music was the common language for me to pick up an instrument and be brave in it. My friends were musicians too, so it gave me confidence to speak to people at a young age, which I think has continued. Most importantly, it lets me connect with myself, to understand who I am, and to express myself.”
Growing up in rural Lewis, music became a lifeline. “It was hard to connect or be real or be you,” he reflects. “Music was my therapy, my expression, my creativity. You’d get wee snippets of it at rehearsals or jamming at someone’s house late at night, or little pub gigs where you had the best time. I fell in love with that.”
Running the Wee Studio is as much about the craft as it is about community. “There’s a lot of boring day-to-day work in running a business,” he admits. “But this whole path was to have an excuse to have good craic with my friends for the rest of my life.”
One of those friends is Alasdair White, the renowned fiddle player. The two met at primary school and forged a bond that has endured decades and continents. Together, they are founding members of the electro-Celtic band Face the West, which is marking 25 years since their debut album Edge of Reason - and poised to release new music this year including their latest single ‘A Harris Reel’ on 23 June.
But it’s the homecoming of White from New York for a special show at HebCelt that feels like destiny fulfilled. “HebCelt was huge for us,” says Morrison. “I remember myself and Alasdair watching Martyn Bennett there when we were about 14 or 15. It was the first time I felt real bass. I said to myself, if I don’t get up on that stage at some point, I’ve failed. That’s my goal.”
Years later, Face the West took to that same stage, a moment Morrison describes as a personal triumph. “Anything else is a bonus,” he says. “So to come full circle and play again with Alasdair at HebCelt, piano and fiddle, just the two of us - it’s really special.”
For their upcoming set, the pair have been diving deep into their shared musical past. “It’s very wholesome,” Morrison says. “We sit down and brainstorm, and Alasdair might say, ‘Do you remember that set of tunes we played when we were 19, down at the Sea Angling Club?’ We’ll phone my father to find the name of it, bring it out of the archives and make it really mean something. A lot of these tunes were created here, by people from here - that’s nice.”
Although White now lives in Manhattan, their friendship remains a constant. “Whenever Alasdair’s home visiting his parents, I’ll rush over and kidnap him into the car to come up to the studio,” Morrison laughs. “We’re both so busy, but those moments - when we get to play together again - are priceless.”
Their paths have crossed in unexpected places, too. “The last time I was in the States was with Heron Valley, and Alasdair was touring with Dàimh. We ended up at the same festivals a few times, hanging out after gigs. I even filmed a video for Dàimh around some train tracks, we got Mexican for breakfast and just enjoyed it. To be two island boys who grew up in villages next to each other, now seeing these places, meeting incredible people - that just didn't seem an achievable goal when we were young.”
“Hopefully,” he says, “if the teenage versions of Alasdair and myself saw us now as middle-aged men, they wouldn’t be too disappointed.”
Tickets for Keith Morrisonand Alasdair White performing at HebCelt are on sale now at: https://www.hebceltfest.com/booking
The extended interview of Keith’s interview is available to stream at the Good Stuff In Between on Spotify, Apple Music and other platforms.
