With winter nights drawing in what better place to meet up for a girly chat than in a lovely coffee shop on the coast? The girly chat was with singer/songwriter, Yvonne Lyon, the coffee shop was her favourite place to write songs and you’d never have guessed we hadn’t met before this moment. 

However, with a lot in common including a love for hot chocolate we settled down to talk about the ABCs…Album, Burnsong and Charity work.

Yvonne grew up in Quarriers Village, Renfrewshire in a large house with a piano, where her love of music began. After picking up her dad’s guitar at the age of fourteen and finding how natural it was to her, she says: “it was almost like I had to wake up to the fact that this is what is in me and this is what I should do”.

After giving up a career as a music teacher to focus on singing and song writing, her fourth album, Ashes and Gold, was released last month and she was very honest about how tough she found the writing process.

“The last album I really enjoyed writing and it felt very easy, the songs came very easily. This one I struggled with. I think I put quite an expectation on myself which in retrospect really paralysed me. I was almost too scared to write, there was a fear of failure.

Musically, Yvonne has many inspirations. “I grew up with a lot of church and gospel music but when I was at uni I discovered Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, and Beth Nielsen Chapman…I’m also a huge Radiohead fan and U2 fan, so quite diverse. I think my taste in music probably comes through in my music because I don’t like to write in the same vein all the time. The albums are quite eclectic in style, although there is a kind of folksy rootsy feel running through them.”

Yvonne performed at the Scottish Parliament in a St Andrews Day concert through the Burnsong project.

“Burnsong seeks to promote the creation of songs in Scotland and helping to encourage songwriters and get them together. It is in the spirit of Burns but is for any genre of music at all.”

Over 400 acts entered the contest and ten were chosen as finalists, one of which was a duo. They were then sent on a residential song writing trip for a week from which she’d just returned the day before.

“We went to a house in Dumfries under the supervision of Joe Bennett from Bath Spa University and producer Chris Blanden and were given the challenge of writing a song a day. Every morning at ten o’clock we’d have to play our song, get a critique on it AND it was recorded at the same time by Chris. That was really nerve-wracking, I felt like I was ten again letting someone hear something for the first time.

“We also did a gig at the Scottish Parliament on Monday and got to meet the presiding officer. We were doing a lot of rehearsals and having to work together but we pulled it off I think.”

After such a gruelling week, what did she hope would come out of this experience?

“I think I’ve gained a lot already. I’ve learned a lot, particularly from Joe, Chris and the Burnsong housemates because we’ve all come at it from a different place. We’ve learned from each other about our own journeys and where we’re going and I’ve gained a community of musicians which I didn’t have, with a lot of different lines of experience. I’ve made connections with Burnsong and the people who are involved in that. I’ve also had the chance to play live on national radio and play in the Scottish Parliament, so I’ve gained a whole load of experience in a week and a half.”

Another area which takes up a lot of Yvonne’s time and is dear to hear heart is charity work. She visited Cambodia with Tearfund; has been involved with another Christian charity called Life 2 Romania since her student days and recently performed in a concert to raise money for Stop the Traffik.

However, one of the bigger projects she was involved with was when she had the opportunity to go to Yorkhill Children’s Hospital to take part on one-to-one song writing sessions with sick kids.

“I found that the kids themselves had such an insight into things and such an amazing attitude to what they were going through. One that I don’t think I could have had. The songs they were writing were brilliant wee songs and coming from different perspectives so we decided to record an album of them. We recorded it ourselves and put out the Yorkhill Sessions which is a great wee CD and all the proceeds go directly back to the Yorkhill Youth Services. Hopefully there’s still stuff going on there creatively for the kids at Yorkhill, because I think that’s such an important part of the healing process.”

As we were nearing the bottom of our cups of hot chocolate, one question remained…what does the future hold?

“Well, the future at the moment is Christmas!” she laughs.

“After that and New Year I’m really hoping to get into promoting the album properly. I have a PR company promoting it and I’m hopefully bringing on board a friend who would like to do more in the way of promoting. He’s based down in London so I’m really hoping it’ll be a UK wide thing.

“I’m amazed that I’ve got this far and that I’m still able to do what I do so anything from here on in is a bit of a bonus

“There are also two former Burnsong housemates that I’m linking up with and we’re doing a tour in March. We’re called New Fangled Folk and we’re all dipping into the folk world but we’re all in a slightly different genre even within that so it’s quite an exciting wee trio.”

It felt like catching up with an old friend and Yvonne’s warmth and gentle nature came through in person as much as they do in her songs. She made the interview easier by having a knack of linking perfectly into my next set of questions with her answers and we had a great laugh too.

If you’d like to find out more about Yvonne, or would like to purchase any of her albums, visit Yvonne Lyon Official website or Yvonne Lyon Myspace.

Also, the featured video on my page is a song called “Everything’s Fine” by Yvonne. Go on…have a listen. You won’t regret it.