Time and tides

With Scotland’s Year of Coasts and Waters 2020 upon us, Michael Alexander speaks to several people influenced by the sea in and around the East Neuk of Fife

The Year of Coasts and Waters highlights our connection with the sea and waterways.

Whether it’s his sea shanty sounding accordion or the acoustic accompanied voice that sounds like it’s come straight from the corner of a cosy harbourside pub, the heart and soul of renowned singer-songwriter Kenny Anderson, aka King Creosote, has never been far from the sea.

The Crail-based Mercury Prizenominated musician, who grew up in St Andrews, is descended from a long line of East Neuk fishermen on his mum’s side, and he admits the sea must be “in his blood”.

But the 53-year-old, who plays Perth Concert Hall on Wednesday March 11 with a live accompaniment to the film From Scotland With Love, isn’t completely sold on the notion that the sea influences his music.

“I find it odd,” he tells The Courier when asked about the evocative nature of his sound.

“I like being at the sea. Don’t get me wrong. I grew up in St Andrews. My mum’s family are from Crail so I’m always in the sea in the summer. I’m maybe not so keen on the boat side of it.

“But when people have said they listen to such and such a track and it’s very evocative of Fife and the coast, I’m like ‘wait a minute if you take a Scottish accent and an accordion, it’s hard to not think of that is it not?’”

Kenny, who has famously clung on to his East Neuk roots, puts the link down to the “breathing, whoozy” sound of the accordion that sounds a bit like the waves. Lyrically he accepts he has maybe been “more influenced” by the sea than he thinks.

But from the perspective of the East Neuk, where the sea was once the lifeblood of thriving fishing communities, the father-of-three also perceives the sea in grander philosophical terms.

“I like to think of the coast as being a real sense of adventure whether you embark on it or not,” he says.

“There’s a sense of adventure when you live on the coast because you are looking out towards what – towards Denmark? What’s over there on the horizon?

“It’s very different I would say to being landlocked, and I don’t enjoy being landlocked. I need to know that I can step into the sea or get on a boat or not – I need to know the option is there.”

Inspired by his fisherman grandfather and the generations that went before him, Kenny and his Cellardyke-based friend Sean Dooley decided to go halfers, spending £600 on a dilapidated 1903-built “Fifie” fishing boat a few years ago. Still in his 40s at that time, it wasn’t so much about becoming a sailor, he says, more a case of wanting to “learn some man skills like joinery” and all the stuff he’s “useless” at.

Working in conjunction with the Scottish Fisheries Museum where Kenny’s partner, Jen, is assistant curator and where Sean is a boat builder in the boatyard, they transformed it into a beautiful vessel which now takes pride of place as the oldest boat in Anstruther harbour.

But while Kenny still enjoys pottering about the harbour, the boat-owning experience has also left

Even if they are not consciously thinking about it, they are aware of the rhythms of the sea – tide going in and out...

him more convinced than ever that he is a “landlubber”. Not only was his confidence knocked for a while when he broke his ankle in the boatyard a few days after starting the project, it has also reminded him about the dangers of the sea.

“It’s amazing how dangerous even a rope is on a boat,” he says. “When the boat strains and you’ve got your hand