AMY DUNCAN

Amy Duncan has been writing and performing songs since the release of her debut album Pilgrimage in 2006, discovered by US label Plain Recordings through Myspace. Her music has since featured on BBC3’s Lip Service and the Netflix reboot of Charmed.

With Creative Scotland support, Amy collaborated with producer Calum Malcolm (Prefab Sprout, The Blue Nile) on Cycles of Life (Linn Records, 2013). That same year she was selected by Showcase Scotland to perform at the Eastern Canadian Music Alliance, and appeared in the Made in Scotland Showcase at the Edinburgh Fringe in both 2013 and 2014. Her 2016 release Undercurrents, featuring her own string arrangements performed by members of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, was also funded by Creative Scotland.

Her self-produced albums The Hidden World (2020) and Cocoon (2021), released on her label Filly Records, received national radio play on BBC Radio 2, BBC 6 Music and BBC Radio Scotland. “The Whole Town” was listed in The Herald’s Top 100 Scottish songs of 2020 alongside artists such as Lewis Capaldi, while Cocoon, written during lockdown, was highlighted in the Standout section of The Musician magazine.

A classically trained double bassist, Amy plays bass on her own recordings and writes all her own string arrangements. She recently performed with the National Theatre of Scotland’s acclaimed June Carter Cash: The Woman, Her Music and Me (written by Charlene Boyd, directed by Cora Bissett), reuniting her with Bissett, her former bandmate from the 90s punk/folk outfit Swelling Meg.

In 2022 she collaborated with writer/director Ben Harrison on Undertow Overflow, a Creative Scotland-funded project blending songs and short stories. The show toured Scotland to critical acclaim, receiving 4-star reviews in The Scotsman and The Stage, and was later performed internationally at Romania’s International Performing Arts Festival of Târgoviște (Babel Fast) in 2023.

Amy’s ninth album, Wake (2024), was created with lyricist David Paton and produced by Mark Freegard. Her forthcoming release, Greetings From Gartnavel (due January 2026 on Last Night From Glasgow), also written with Paton, offers a strikingly personal insight into his experiences with schizophrenia. Combining sparse arrangements, piano, guitar, double bass, and off-kilter textures from Graeme Miller, the album was recorded, mixed and co-produced by Freegard with support from Creative Scotland. A limited edition signed blue vinyl is now available to pre-order.