PERFORMER SU MAKES BREAKTHROUGH WITH RELEASE OF FIRST ALBUM

Another Wick-born artist found a musical path to Dundee, following a period when she also stepped away. Su Shaw who records as SHHE has been lauded for her debut album release on One Little Indian last year.

Su took a step back following a few years when she performed as Panda Su. “At that point I was living in Fife and working my way towards an album, but I wasn’t happy with what I was producing. I decided that the best thing to do would be to walk away.”

A catalyst to getting back was learning production. Su realised that much of her frustration came from not being able to relate to producers how she wanted her music to sound.

“I didn’t have the terminology or the knowledge. I had been working so could buy my first interface and studio set-up. I started experimenting and the first song I wrote, recorded, and produced was called Eyes Shut, which ended up being the first release as SHHE.”

By that time Su had moved to Dundee and found herself at the heart of a new creative community. “That seemingly small step across the Tay Bridge was quite life-changing. I ended up moving in with dancers from Scottish Dance Theatre, even though I had never seen a dance show at the Rep.”

Eyes Shut and those new flatmates proved to be fateful. Su had fallen in love with the space in the Westward printworks and collaborated with dancer Harry Clark to shoot a video there.

“I had been out to Iceland for a residency, and on my return I decided

I was going to give music all my attention. A week later we put the video out and my friend Davie Miller from Finitribe posted it online. Someone from One Little Indian records saw it and got in touch that day saying that they wanted to talk to me. I went to see them in London the next week and signed.”

Su also namechecks Andrew Mitchell as something of an inspiration in the way that he has decided to go in a direction that might not be obvious but works for him. “The way he chooses to present his music and the venues he chooses – it’s so beautiful.”

The size of Dundee is regularly mentioned by creatives as “just big enough” to be able to realise projects, and also keep in touch with everything that’s happening through organisations like Creative Dundee.

“They also actively encouraging people to get involved. I am heading to Iceland on a project on the connection between sound and landscape. No matter where I go now, it’s genuinely great to know that I’ll be coming back to Dundee.”

SHHE is out now.