Q&A - Cortnë

Cortnë is an authentic young alt-pop singer-songwriter from Glasgow’s Southside, currently living between Glasgow and Edinburgh, drawing inspiration from past relationships, feminism and religious imagery. With tracks featuring dreamy harmonies, crisp airy guitars and driving drums, it’s easy to see why she’s been championed by BBC Introducing Scotland, BBC Radio Nan Gàidheal, Amazing Radio, Scotland on Sunday and The Skinny.

The young artist has established herself through an array of performances across Scotland with gigs in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Inverness, Dundee and Dumfries. Cortnë has appeared at Belladrum and the first-ever Dundee Pride, as well as supporting the likes of english duo Medowlark, Lauren Hibberd and ROE at SWG3’s Poetry Club and The Sisterhood at the iconic King Tut’s since starting out.

Cortnë - Eve cover art

Read our Q&A with Cortnë below:

What was the first instrument you started learning? When did you get into music?

I started learning guitar at a music summer club when I was in primary school. We learned Livin' on a Prayer by Bon Jovi and I practiced every night and asked for a Bon Jovi CD for Christmas that year haha! After that, I was on and off getting guitar lessons and teaching myself. As for when I got into music, well that's kind of been around for my whole life. When I was around 4 years old we used to have this big cassette player in the living room and my mum would play the ABBA Gold album on it and I remember hearing it and thinking "I want to do this". I also used to collect the free CDs my gran would get in the papers and learn all of the songs on them off by heart which has led to me knowing the words to some very random songs.

Your recent release 'Eve' is out now. Can you tell us more about this project and the team behind it?

So 'Eve' is part of my debut EP 'Florescence' (out 13/10/23) which I had the pleasure of working with a group of very talented musicians that I am lucky enough to call my friends (Aidan Spiers, Ryan Hughes, Adam Frew, Sabrina Mandulu, Moilidh NicGriogair, Rosi Tudhope, Drew Young, Jamie Reid and Jack Dorrian) it was so lovely to have them all on board. The songs were produced by Jamie Holmes who honestly made them come alive, it was really nice to work with someone collaboratively who just wanted to make the tracks sound as good as they could. Lewis J Smith snapped the single artwork and the EP artwork which I can't wait to reveal. For 'Eve' in particular, Rhianonne Stone has produced the music video which is all about celebrating women! The video is out in September and I'm so excited for it. And for all of the musician admin like PR, gig bookings, radio plugging etc. I do all of that on my own which is a bit crazy with a full-time job but definitely an interesting and important part of the industry to learn about.

If you could change one thing in the music industry, what would it be?

Fairness. It would be really nice to see musicians being paid more and being given more transparency in general. Some people doing great work on this are Pop Girls Scotland, Jo (Josephine Sillars) and Rachel (Kohla) do amazing work to make sure women in Scotland are given a platform and have created such a wholesome community for women in music. There are other artists such as Be Charlotte (who runs female-only songwriting camps), Brownbear (who speaks up on inclusivity in the Scottish music scene), and Sanjeev Mann (who recently started an accessible venue petition) who are all doing amazing things in an attempt to make the music scene a better place to be.

What advice would you give to others like you starting out in their career?

Take every opportunity you can and do what makes you happy. I should probably mention that I work for two youth music projects Music Plus and Hit The Road so definitely check them out too. I myself was a participant on Music Plus when I was younger and honestly without that experience I genuinely don't think I'd be doing what I am now.

If you could trade places with any musician in the world, who would it be?

This is a really hard question haha! I'd like to have the best of both worlds and be someone successful but also someone who could still go to Tesco without anyone actually knowing who they are. I think maybe someone like Lucy Dacus would enable me to live my Hannah Montana dream lifestyle.

When can we catch you playing live next?

My EP launch is on Friday the 13th of October at The Glad Cafe in Glasgow. It's going to be a really special night, there are some very talented support artists yet to be announced and I'll be playing with a full band so it's all very exciting. Tickets are £8 and you can get one here: https://offaxisgigs.com/product/cortne/

Follow Cortnë here