MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards 2021: Mec Lir

Congratulations to Mec Lir who have been nominated in Album of the Year sponsored by Birnam CD in the MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards 2021. Vote here! Vote now!

We asked Adam Rhodes of Mec Lir the following questions.

Tell us about yourself
We started playing together in 2014 when Tom and Dave were asked to form an act to play at the Festival Interceltique de Lorient that Summer. It was almost meant to be a one off thing, but we had such a good time we decided to keep it going. It's a band where the main focus is having a bit of fun. We like to push the envelope as far as we can to see what happens, but without getting in the way of the tunes. This is still trad music, so the tune remains front and centre, no matter what we've lashed in behind it!

Why are you involved in Scottish music?
We have all been involved in playing trad music from a very early age, for most of us it's something we were brought up with. Although Greg is a native Highlander, Tom, Adam & Dave are originally from the Isle of Man. Tom & Adam made Scotland their home after studying music here, Adam during the last Ice age and Tom a bit more recently!

Any particular career highlights?
A big one for us was reaching number 1 on the UK iTunes World music charts with Livewire, and managing to stay there for several days. We also hit the top 50 general iTunes charts too! We never expected it to do so well, and it made all the hard work we put into making the album worth it.

What are your plans for the future?
We're really looking forward to playing the new album live with all the various album guests at Celtic Connections in January. We haven't really been able to gig the album properly yet, so getting all the guests up on stage together should be some craic!