Marcas Mac, Gaeldom’s “King of Pop” (Rachel Kennedy, Rapal) returns with third single alongside Kerry-born Gary Keane of London-based collective Electric Pineapple.

The new cut is slated for a 28th May release, with the video, a LUPUS&LEO production, to follow on 29th May.
The song is the third single to be released by Edinburgh-based Marcas, cementing the place of pop music within the ever-renewing Gaelic musical canon. Mòd Gold Medal-finalist, Marcas has once again contributed vocals, lyrics and melody, recorded locally in Edinburgh, with Keane working his magic remotely, as per ongoing Covid 19 guidelines. The new track brings the Gaelic Language firmly into the Gaelic mainstream and with it’s catchy hook and contemporary sound.
The digital release will feature across all platforms where music is bought and streamed, incluidng iTunes and Amazon.

Marcas says: “Nochd picks up where Fichead ‘s a h-Ochd left off, this time articulating contemporary LGBTQ experience in Gaelic. This time the song focuses on body image, an issue which has massive importance to the queer community. The mainstream media, as well as the gay press, really do have impact on how we view ourselves and find others to be attractive, with their upholding of a number of physical ideals and aesthetics, which are rarely inclusive.”

The song certainly resonates in the present moment with such debates regularly featuring in the the media – print, online, television and radio. These themes also featured in the song ‘Dumbbells’, which Marcas co-wrote and performed alongside Bogha-frois at Celtic Connections. Marcas was due to represent Scotland at minority language song contest Liet International in 2019, before it was called off due to Covid.

Marcas continues: “The song is a prequel to Dumbbells, in that it describes that moment when a relationship goes wrong and the person being rejected looks inwardly, asking “what did I do?” “what’s wrong with me?”

Despite the poignancy of the lyrics, the video, reaches a positive conclusion with a cameo from Marcas’ partner in life and art, the artist and filmmaker Joshua Wilson, with whom Marcas is one half of the duo LUPUS&LEO.

With Wilson behind the camera, the video was shot at home on Marcas Huawei phone.

“We brought the 90s back with the lighting and smoke machine” jokes Marcas. “Unfortunately the dry ice also set the smoke alarm off at 4am, but hopefully the neighbours will like the song! The black labradors who live next door were singing along anyway!”

Nochd

Trosg - Siùbhlaidh Mi Air Sgèith (Live)

Trosg - Sìos Dhan An Abhainn (Live)

Seata phort gus blasad den chuirm 'Diuchdadh' aig Cùirt an Aodainn air Oidhche Shathairne, 26mh a' Mhàirt, a thoirt dhaibh. 

A set of puirt as a wee taster of the 'Diuchdadh' performance at Eden Court on Saturday, 26th March. 

Trosg - Puirt-à-Beul (Calum Tàillear / A' Mhisg a Chuir an Nollaig Oirnn / Am Pige Ruadh)

Marcas Mac is set to blast onto the commercial scene as a solo artist, bringing the Gaelic language to the pop music landscape whilst challenging listeners to consider just what Gaelic music is, or could be, in the first place.

The song – ‘Fichead ’s a h-Ochd’ – was commissioned by National Library of Scotland, with Creative Scotland funding, for their Revisit the Gaelic 1980s series, placing it firmly within current retro trends, with the synth-heavy sounds of the decade showcasing Marcas’ signature smoky vocal. With lyrics by Marcas, the Gaelic banger was co-written and produced by Lochaber-based music supremo Nick Turner and recorded at Watercolour Music during lockdown, observing strict social distancing guidelines. The doyenne of Gaelic song Mary Ann Kennedy provides backing-vocals, rounding out the creative trio.

Situated within a larger multi-artform project, ‘Fichead ’s a h-Ochd’ is the flagship offering from Marcas’ ground-breaking COR project, which the commission spawned. The lyrics are inspired by never-before-heard testimony, gathered from sources including Kenna Campbell OBE, Mary Ann Kennedy, The Scottish Book Trust’s Rosemary Ward and Bòrd na Gàidhlig’s Jim Whannel, who related experiences of being part of Scotland’s then Civil Rights movements - one seeking to establish Gaelic-medium Education and the other to remove Section 28. The numerical title of the track – fichead ’s a h-ochd is twenty-eight in Gaelic – references the latter, but whilst the retro-yet-contemporary vibe of the track shirks the ‘trad’ moniker, it remains part of a wider-Gaelic song tradition.

“If one song ever summed up the fate of Gaelic within the education system it is, without doubt, Runrig’s ‘Fichead Bliadhna’, says Marcas, referencing the 1979 hit from their Highland Connection album. “’Fichead ’s a h-Ochd’ picks up that narrative, but instead of recounting the experience of a curriculum devoid of Gaelic, here we find ourselves a few years down the line as dawn breaks on the newly-established Gaelic-medium education in Glasgow and Inverness.” 

So, the song fills a void in the folklore, with many young Gaelic singers now having benefitted from the opportunities those campaigners sought to endow them with. As the key-change shifts, the young man at the centre of the song’s story looks back on his first day at school, now aged twenty-eight, considering how far Scotland has come in terms of Gaelic and LGBTQ equality.

The song is housed on a brand-new digital platform, which includes testimony, literary references and film and television clips of the era, alongside brand-new poetic works by Marcas, some of which he has brought to life through film. “Some of the filmpoems evoke the 1980s and use found footage to illustrate them,” he explains. 

“Others are more reflective of these contributions to Scottish public life in recognising their legacy, that which we benefit from in contemporary Scotland.” 

“The COR project is of a very high calibre,” says Graeme Hawley of the NLS, who selected Marcas for the commission. “I love the look and feel – Marcas has absolutely nailed the aesthetics. I think it will be of huge interest to Gaelic speakers.”

The song will receive its first play on BBC Radio nan Gàidheal’s Feasgar on its 28th October commercial release date and will be released to radio after that initial spin. The date linking to the title is auspicious, without doubt, with Marcas, like his father, born on the 28th of his birth-month and brought up in a house with that number.

Marcas Mac - Fichead 's a h-Ochd

Gaeldom’s King of Pop, Marcas Mac returns with a new single -  Bruidhinn – slated for a Burn’s Night release. The song, commissioned by Ceòl is Craic, for their Bòrd na Gàidhlig-funded December Ocaidich showcase, has been given a pan-Celtic pop remix by Welsh-born, Manhattan-based Rod Thomas, known to music fans as Bright Light Bright Light, bringing Gaelic music fully into the chart-friendly mainstream.

Released digitally across all platforms where music is bought and streamed, Marcas will donate from the revenue to CHAS – the Scottish charity supporting children and young people in hospice care – as part of the #Burns2021 fundraising campaign, giving the release a community ethos, which all of Scotland can buy into, regardless of language.
“The song itself is in response to the constant abuse and marginalisation of Gaelic and other minoritised language-speakers in the press and online,” says Marcas. Indeed, it certainly responds the present moment with the Scots Language this week coming under fire from its detractors, catching the attention of celebrity advocates like Michael Sheen and Janey Godley, in articles published this month in the Scotsman.

“This isn’t news to anyone who speaks Gaelic,” responds Marcas, though the abuse faced, particularly on Twitter, rarely makes the headlines. “What recent coverage has also demonstrated, though, is that prejudice of this kind also goes hand in hand with misogyny and other issues,” as seen recently by the targeting of poet Lennie Pennie and singer Iona Fyfe.

Marcas refuses to be beaten down, though. Whilst the song confronts the mistruths and recurrent tropes which plague Gaelic and other threatened languages in the UK and Irish press, it also serves as a call to arms to speakers across these islands to take pride in their languages and cultures and continue to speak them.

“To continue being yourself and do what you love is no small thing,” continues Marcas." That’s what lockdown has demonstrated for me. It’s been devastating in many ways, but out of the isolation and the tensions surrounding it, I don’t think I’ve ever been this busy creatively.” The video accompanying the single, created by Marcas himself, includes cameos from some of our minoritised languages’ most steadfast advocates, activists, raconteurs and creatives, such as Dolina MacLennan, Ruairidh Graham (Niteworks) and Fiona J. MacKenzie (Gaelic), Lennie Pennie, Iona Fyfe, Billy Kay and Steve Byrne (Scots), Sam Ó Fearraigh and Riocárd Ó hOddáil (Irish), Custal y Lewin (Manx), Lowenna Hosken (Cornish) and Rod Thomas (Welsh).

“In a lot of ways the language in question doesn’t matter,” reflects Marcas. “The misguided complaints about tax-payers contributions, the common pot, road-signs... they all feature whenever any of these languages feature in the press. The song calls it out for the ‘butarrais’ (nonsense, in Gaelic) for it is.”

The #Burns2021 campaign, of which the song’s release, has been figure-headed by TikTok star Locheil Cameron and Marcas is proud to have been invited to take part, alongside a number of Scottish creatives on the platform, including Littlest Chicken and Nati Dredd.

“CHAS is an incredible charity and, more than ever, it’s imperative to support our children and young people at a time when medical support is understandably diverted towards battling Covid-19,” explains Marcas regarding his motivations for taking part. “I had this song in the vault ready to go and so it was a case of waiting for the right moment and the right reasons.” For Gaelic and Scots, the time is certainly now.

Check out the EPK for the digital download, video, lyrics and translation. For further information about the single and interviews, contact marcasmac@hotmail.com. For further information about #Burns2021, contact info@locheil.com

Marcas Mac

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