Q&A - Lewis Fergusson
This week we caught up with Lewis Ferguson, singer-songwriter based in Dumfires & Galloway. As well as being an accomplished recording artist, Lewis Ferguson has performed extensively across Scotland including on STV. He has supported music legends Martin and Eliza Carthy, Mike Heron (The Incredible String Band), and Alabama 3 during their UK acoustic tour. He also supported the great Folk singer Dick Gaughan who commented after seeing Lewis play live: “He was great!”
Tell us about your background in music?
I was fortunate to be brought up in a household where good music was being played. From blues, rock and roll, folk, world, soul, rock, along with great indy music influenced by my peers - a vast array of artists that still inspire me today. I was a bit of a worrier as a teenager. I was given a guitar at age 14, I think to give me a channel for expression, which is where it all began. A few of my friends also played guitar and so I started ‘jammin’’ once I could play a few chords, that’s when things really opened up. By my late teens my father passed away and my creativity took a new form, a new purpose - I started to write songs. Around that time I was awarded a grant from the Prince’s Trust and also The Hollywood Trust which allowed me to purchase music equipment for playing live and book recording time. I then went travelling around the world, with my guitar on my back! Since then I have been involved in various music projects from independent releases, working in bands and supporting some stellar artists including Dick Gaughan, Martin & Eliza Carthy, Mike Heron, and Alabama 3. I’ve had some great media experience along the way: radio airplay on BBC Scotland and BBC Cambridgeshire, I was featured in the daily record and I played live on STV. It’s been an adventure.
What motivates you to create?
The experience of making music in the here and now is heaven, that feeling of forgetting time. I think it is also is a way of expressing and making sense of the past and also the wonder of where the creativity is going to go.
Who is your dream collaborator?
It has to be Bob Dylan, by far.
Where do you see yourself in five years?
I try and focus on the here and now. “I tried to write a 5 year plan, but those years slipped through my hand!” (A quote from one of my songs). With music, for me, it is a journey, sometimes I’m driving and other times I’m “freewheelin’”.
What's coming up for this year ?
More gigs, more recording, more song releases and more forgetting time!