Interviewed by Jennifer Lund
Having just moved here from Australia, I’m oblivious to, but curious about, the local creatives around the west of Scotland. For the first issue of Fun Lovin Liminals, I caught up with Yvonne Lyon, a well-known singer-songwriter from Greenock.
Joining the video call with Yvonne, I had my interview questions locked and loaded, starting with “what creative outlet do you use when you’re not touring?”
I soon realised that a true creative is never boxed; they’re constantly spread out across various creative pursuits. This was evident from Yvonne dialling into the call from a writer’s retreat she was tutoring at in Inverness. Against such an inspiring backdrop, she shared her artistic endeavours with me.
“I’m a songwriter at heart but over the last 20 years I’ve done everything from being a music teacher to gigging on weekends”.
Her interest in the arts started long before that though. At the age of six, Yvonne would tap the keys on an old piano that she had scribbled and coloured the keys on. Although she was still too young to actually play music, she enjoyed the creative flow it allowed. As she got older, Yvonne started writing songs along with her piano sessions.
“Then I started playing guitar, that was my rebel stage!”, Yvonne recalled, laughing.
Creativity has always come naturally to Yvonne. Recently, when performing her new album, she included a spoken word piece in the set. When asked after the gig what the inspiration was behind the song lyrics, she admitted it was completely improvised.
Yvonne and singer–songwriter Boo Hewerdine also recently released an acclaimed album, Things Found in Books. As well as being album of the week on BBC Radio Scotland, live sessions of the album were featured on BBC Radio 4’s The Verb. On the show, Yvonne and Boo were commissioned to write a song about train journeys. They wrote and performed live ‘An Ocean of Sunflowers’, which was inspired by Yvonne’s experience as a teenager in Romania, staring out at fields of sunflowers as she caught trains across the country. Boo wrote based on his time on trains while touring the UK.
One of Yvonne’s career highlights was writing songs in Nashville with her songwriter hero, Beth Nielsen Chapman. “It was a full circle moment for me”, she shared, as she had first seen Beth perform at the Old Fruitmarket in Glasgow when she was only 18 years old.
“I remember thinking I wish I could write songs as well as her”.
It was not until Yvonne saw that Beth was hosting a songwriting masterclass at The Sage in Gateshead that they actually met. Yvonne’s song was chosen to be critiqued by Beth, and the pair worked on songs about grief. Shooting ahead 20 years, and Yvonne was sitting in Beth’s house in Nashville, co-writing songs.
“Whenever she comes to Scotland, we’ll meet for a catch-up. I’ve also sung live with her in Glasgow and at the Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh”, she reflected.
It was the songs about grief that were the inspiration for Yvonne’s studies when she was completing her masters at the University of the West of Scotland. Her thesis explored the power of song for people who were grieving. Working with a group of 10 bereaved individuals, Yvonne wrote an album and analysed people’s reactions to the songs, research that had never been carried out before.
“The research focused on meaning reconstruction. For these individuals, we didn’t want to avoid grieving, but putting your experience with loss into song form can be extremely powerful.”
Yvonne has many plans for expanding her creativity over the coming months, and as huge fans of her work, the Fun Lovin Liminals will keep you posted! In the meantime, you can check out Yvonne’s new album on her website: www.yvonnelyonmusic.com/.