University of Aberdeen student Daisy MacCallum has been selected to showcase her music-making on a tour which launched the career of Lewis Capaldi.
Daisy, who is in the second year of an English with Music Studies degree, is one of the acts selected for the 2024 Hit the Road music touring project.
Run by the Scottish Music Centre and now in its 11th year, the initiative aims to nurture the next generation of music stars and give them a platform to showcase and hone their live performance skills.
Performing as Daisy Mack, the 19-year-old singer-songwriter from Aberdeen is one of three budding artists, handpicked and whittled down from hundreds of applications, who will tour around the country in December 2024.
The Hit the Road project gives young musicians the chance to follow in the footsteps of acts like Lewis Capaldi and Be Charlotte who came up through the scheme.
Daisy, who says she has been singing as long as she can remember’ performs alternative/folk-pop music having initially honed her skills in choirs.
“I grew up singing with my family and singing in choirs. It’s something I’ve always loved doing,” she said.
“Over the years, I’ve performed in choir concerts, in school musicals and ensembles, and at University, a cappella. I’ve grown up playing the piano and the guitar.
“I’ve performed some of my original songs at the Aberdeen Arts Centre over the last few years, which have been great opportunities for me. Hit The Road will be my first time touring.
“It is a fantastic opportunity for me to perform my songs around Scotland and to work with professionals in the music industry. I’m very excited to take my songs out there with me.”
Each of the acts is also given the opportunity to perform a hometown gig and so Daisy will headlining The Tunnels on Thursday 12 December.
Daisy is using her English with Music Studies to support her songwriting. She adds: “My songs are inspired by a mixture of real-life and my imagination. I have always loved writing, and I love telling stories through my songwriting.
“My love for writing lyrics is one of the reasons that I study English with Music Studies. I won a lyric-writing competition for the reopening of the Aberdeen Music Hall where my lyrics were put to music and performed by a choir at the reopening; it definitely had a positive impact on me and helped me realise that writing songs is something I really love”
Daisy’s success with Hit the Road follows on from her selection in 2022 as a participant on the Pitching Up project by PitchPlay Music - an international music publishing service - where she attended ‘Songcamps’, working with other young musicians to write and produce songs based on real briefs for music required by music artists, labels, TV, games and more.
Since its inception in 2013, Hit The Road has been instrumental in aiding the journeys of aspiring young musicians across the country, offering a platform for growth, networking and artistic expression and supporting over 300 musicians across 120 live performances and hundreds of industry sessions.
Hit The Road Project Manager Michael Cassidy said: “Hit the Road makes a vital contribution to the ongoing vibrancy of Scotland’s live music industry, helping develop and support a pipeline of talent and giving participants their first taste of life on the road.”
For more information and tickets visit www.hittheroad.org.uk.