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best girl astrophysicist: the best girl athlete interview;

If I’ve timed this right, you’ll be reading this post on Katie Buchan’s 16th birthday. However, unlike other Scottish teenagers, Buchan will be neither chilling out on her Easter break right now or cramming for upcoming exams. Instead, she’ll be busy psyching herself up for a gig at Aberdeen’s St Machar’s Cathedral, as part of a run of what she describes as “some unusual shows in cool venues” across Scotland.

Carve Every Word, Buchan’s first album under her performing name of Best Girl Athlete, has had the Scottish music press buzzing this year and not just because of the singer’s tender age. There’s the musical pedigree too: Buchan is the daughter of well-kent Aberdonian singer-songwriter CS Buchan, who gets to take the credit for discovering her soft, yet extraordinary, voice. Katie began singing backup on her dad’s live and recorded work when she was just 14 as her voice simply suited the songs like nobody else’s. Although Buchan Senior’s musicianship and songwriting definitely plays a part on Carve Every Word – the album was also released on his Fitlike Records imprint, which was set up to promote independent artists in the north east of Scotland – this is a beautiful debut, which hints at exciting things to come from a songwriter growing into her talents.

That tour of unusual, cool venues? It hits the Pipe Factory, a gorgeous 19th century building turned-East End art space in the Calton, on Saturday night. With Glasgow’s fave Aberdonian import Sarah J Stanley and Philip Joseph Rae in support, it promises to be a very special night indeed.

How did you get started writing music and performing?
I think it was a couple of years ago that I started performing with my dad. At the time he was performing under the name CS Buchan and I would join him onstage doing the odd song and recording some vocals for him. It was more towards the the end of 2014 when we started performing under the name Best Girl Athlete, and probably around the same time when I wrote the song “Talk”. Most of the songs on the album are written by my dad, although we collaborate and I have a say on song arrangements and do all the harmonies. The next album will definitely have more of my own songs on it though and I’ve written a few already that I’m really happy with.

Three words to describe your sound…
Electronic Death Rap …only joking…

Scottish Indie-Pop

What influences you?
That’s difficult as my dad is influenced by lots of stuff like The Beta Band and James Yorkston where I probably come from a completely different place and listen to a lot more little-known Scandinavian indie bands like Highasakite. I also love female-fronted bands like First Aid Kit and Haim. However, I would say that Best Girl Athlete is very unique as I don’t set out to sound like anything in particular.

Otherwise, (and I know it’s very teenage girl of me) I am inspired by Tumblr: for fashion ideas, and ideas of fun things to do when I have time off. I also find most of the music I listen to by listening to the radio, there’s nothing better than hearing an amazing song on the radio, then finding on Soundcloud that the rest of their album is equally amazing.

Your debut album, Carve Every Word, came out at the start of March. How has it been received? Has anything surprised you?
It’s been really well received and we’ve had lots of really positive feedback, which was lovely to see. We’ve had a lot of really good album reviews on blogs and on the radio, which is also pretty cool as they’re usually the places I would go to find some good alternative music. I’ve been really pleased with all the exposure as I would love others to see that Scotland has some really great music to offer that is not just in the central belt. Actually, I wouldn’t say that anything has surprised me that much as I didn’t really have any expectations in the first place as I’ve just been doing this for enjoyment really and never had an agenda.

The album’s also getting a dual release on Minty Fresh in the States. How did that relationship come about?
The song “Leave it all Behind” was picked up by Minty Fresh for a song placement and they were very interested in the voice behind the song and wanted to know if there were any more tracks. It was at that time that I had started to do more stuff with my dad and we were able to get some material together which would eventually become Carve Every Word and thankfully the label really liked it.

What is the coolest thing to of happened so far in your musical career?
There’s been a few really cool things that have happened in my short musical career. We released a 7″ vinyl with IndianRedLopez, which was “Leave it all Behind” by CS Buchan on the B-side and “Any Given City” by IndianRedLopez on the A-side. “Leave it all Behind” was selected for Topshop store playlists which was really cool as I love Topshop and was a bit of a thrill for me.

More recently, Carve Every Word was reviewed in The Herald, alongside Noel Gallagher’s new album, and we had a more favourable review than Noel’s. It was funny because I was actually going to see him in Glasgow that weekend and had just bought his album.

Where do you see yourself in five years time?
I have no idea. Where I would like to be is still in music, writing all my own material, with more albums released. However, I’m at a point in school where I’m making a lot of difficult decisions about what I’ll be doing in five years’ time, so university-wise I’ve pretty much made up my mind about studying Physics with Astrophysics. But as a final answer, I’ll be at uni, studying Astrophysics, but also performing under Best Girl Athlete, and have another album out.

What have you got coming up in terms of tour dates, releases etc?
Well, we’ve actually just released a new single called “Hills”, which is on iTunes with an accompanying video which has me going round on a giant hamster wheel. Worth checking out obviously. We are currently shooting video for the next single “Seven Seconds” as well.

As for tour dates, we’re doing some unusual shows on a very small Scottish tour in some cool venues. We play St Machar’s Cathedral on the 16th April, which is also my 16th birthday. The next day we play the Scottish Lighthouse Museum in Fraserburgh, followed by The Pipe Factory, Glasgow on the 18th which is a really cool old building and art space. We’ve also had the offer of going to Holland, Belgium and Germany later in the year but we also hoped to go to America this year so we will just have to wait and see!

What are you listening to at the moment?
The last song I listened to was “Troubles Will be Gone” by The Tallest Man on Earth. Such a cool guy. However I’ve recently been enjoying the music of Broods, a brother-sister duo from New Zealand, I’ve never really ventured into music like that of Broods, but I’m really liking it.

Finally… what would your athletics event be?
Ooh, that’s a hard one. I’d probably have to say Pole Vault, because it looks really fun and I’m rubbish at running. Best Girl Athlete is maybe a bit of a misleading name, haha!

Best Girl Athlete plays Glasgow’s Pipe Factory on Saturday, 18th April: tickets are £8 in advance. Carve Every Word is out now on Fitlike Records.

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