Q&A: Kirsteen Harvey

This week on our Artist of the Week Q&A, we caught up with Izzy from Scottish alt-pop band racecar to talk about their latest album, Pink Car—a bold fusion of nostalgia, coming-of-age themes, and genre-blurring sounds. With festival-ready anthems like Zephyr and Fall Leave, the album expands on their signature style with a fresh, dynamic energy. As they gear up for a packed live schedule and an album launch show, racecar is set to make 2025 their biggest year yet.

Check out our Q&A below:

Q.1. Congratulations on your upcoming tour later this month! You’ll be playing to a sold-out crowd at The Poetry Club in Glasgow — that’s huge! How does it feel to have such incredible support from a home audience?

Oh it’s absolutely amazing! I can’t believe it to be honest! I always find putting on headline shows a little scary, and I get quite nervous on the run up- but the response for the shows, and in particular the Glasgow date has been totally mind blowing! I think it’s going to be pretty special seeing so many people in the one room, who are there to see myself and my wonderful band, play tunes that I just wrote at home! There was quite a lot of people singing back the lyrics to most of the songs at the first couple of dates in Galashiels and Aberdeen last week, which is the first time I’ve noticed that, so that was actually incredible to see - so yes I am so excited for Saturdays show in my hometown!  

Q2. Your latest single, “Burning On,” was released recently and sounds amazing! What sparked the inspiration for the song, and what influences helped shape its sound?

This song was actually only written a few days before I was set to go into the studio for recording the new E.P, so it was sort of a last minute addition, but I think it is my most favourite track we have ever done! The song has a really euphoric and positive sound to it, which intentionally matches the meaning and lyrics of the track. It’s a tune I wrote about finding my groove again, feeling ready to just go after things, getting your mojo back, and just taking the ‘reins’ of life (which felt quite fitting for going into the studio, new music, new sound, new wave of releases), so it’s a pretty uplifting one! Like most of my previous recordings, this song and the whole E.P was recorded with some of the most amazing musicians - Carron Miller, Gavin Lamont, Steven Dempster, Laura Wilkie, and Jamie Savage who engineered and produced - they all came in and helped shape the individual layers of the tune. I wanted a catchy intro through the guitar hooks, and a big ‘uplifting’ build in the track from the vocals and fiddle, so we did a lot of takes and layering before piecing it all together!

I had quite a random list of reference songs that included things like ‘I Know the End’ by Phoebe Bridgers, ‘Mansion’ by Nina Nesbitt, but also some more Scottish Trad/indie folk tunes from bands like Elephant Sessions when coming up with the intro hooks. It all kind of came together as we recorded it, but I couldn’t be more buzzing with how it sounds. 

Q.3. Your music often delves into themes of Scottish identity. How do you weave Scottish pride into your songs, and how important is it for you to showcase Scottish culture through your music? 

Well I come from a family of Scottish trad musicians, my dad is a banjo player and my grandad was fiddle, both playing in ceilidh bands for as long as I can remember - so it’s been a very prominent part of my life (we have quite a noisy house). When I first started writing and making music when I was was 17, so there has been a lot of figuring out what sort of music I want to do, and the sound has obviously changed a fair bit since the start (I took a lot more influence from pop/singer-songwriter and country when I was younger!) But over the last 7/8 years, there has been a huge growth in terms of my sound and influences, and actually exploring my Scottish roots through my own music.

I do a lot of Burns Night gigs, and sing a lot of Scottish folk songs both online and elsewhere - and because of my family, the more traditional music scene is one I have been watching and loving for many years. So it has actually felt quite important over the last few years to make music that is connected to this in some ways. It’s been intertwined by exploring lyrical themes of travel, homesickness, appreciation for places here in Scotland, and drawing on the themes of nature, landscapes as well as the actual sounds and melodies. I also absolutely love travelling and exploring Scotland, I am very fortunate to have seen and spent time in so many parts of this beautiful country - so that definitely shows in the music too! I think merging my love for Scotland, with my family musical roots, and with the newer modern sounds that we have been making in the studio is a really exciting and fun thing to do! It all feels very natural and right for me. 

Q4. Over the past year, you've had a phenomenal rise — gaining recognition from icons like Amy MacDonald, Marti Pellow, and Lewis Capaldi, while also supporting incredible Scottish artists like Trail West and Nathan Evans. What have been some of the standout moments in your career so far, and how does it feel to be acknowledged by such legends of Scottish music?

Oh it’s definitely a bit mad! To have people who you watch and listen to, like or share something you have posted is always totally wild, so theres definitely been a few ‘WHAT?!” Moments when my phone has buzzed! I do a lot of covers on TikTok and things, just from the floor in my house, it’s always funny to think that some of these people have actually watched them, It’s really encouraging as a independent artist. It’s also been amazing to have done so many gigs with Scottish artists I totally love and look up to, and actually working with them as a musician myself now is just such a great feeling that younger me could only have dreamed of  - I think the Scottish music scene is incredible, its go so much going on, but in a good way it actually feels like quite a small world, so getting to work along side and make more and more connections within the scene is so lovely.

Theres been a lot of pinch me moments but I think the stand outs in my career so far has got to be doing the National Anthem at Hampden for the National Women’s Team a few times, this mini headline Scottish Tour we are currently on, recording and releasing the Wee Tunes from Home E.P, and gigging with the likes of Skerryvore, Trail West, Siobhan Miller, Cammy Barnes, Nathan Evans and Saint Phnx….I can’t list everything but this could go on and on. 

Q5. Last year, you gave Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ‘Em” a unique Glasgow twist — it was such a creative take! Are there any other songs you'd love to cover and reimagine with a distinct Scottish flair?

Haha, I think doing the Scottish TikToks is always something I will do, although most of these are pretty unplanned and just come as an instant idea that I then rush to quickly film and post - so who knows what could be next

Q6. Your "Wee Tunes from Home" EP struck a chord with so many listeners, blending traditional Scottish sounds with a modern edge. How do you find the balance between honoring your roots and pushing your sound in new, exciting directions

Making the Wee Tunes from Home E.P was such a lovely and exciting project, definitely up there with one of my favourite things I’ve done. There had been loads of people asking online for full length versions of songs like ‘Caledonia’ and ‘Wild Mountain Thyme’, and then because I did the anthem at Hampden, I wanted to record ‘Flower of Scotland’ to have something special out there from that incredible experience (my dad also has a recorded version of Caledonia that I grew up listening to, so of course we got to keep it going!). We honestly went into the studio and did the guitar and vocals together as live-takes almost, I think we only did a couple then just picked our favourite. Then Laura Wilkie came in and added the most beautiful fiddle arrangement on to them. I added my original song ‘Place To Be’ (a tune about a wee island in Scotland) to that E.P as well, it felt like it fitted in perfectly with the covers.

The response to this E.P is mind-blowing, as a independent artist I didn’t expect so many people to listen and connect with my version of these tunes and ‘Place To Be’ as well, but they did - I get messages from all over the world about them which is crazy! Releasing these more traditional songs in my own style and voice, has allowed me to reach so many more people, who have then found my other original songs, and even stuck around for all of the new and exciting things happening now.

Making music that honours my roots, whether that’s through new versions of well loved Scottish songs, or incorporating sounds and lyrics relating to Scotland in my new original music, has becoming a huge part of what I am doing, and I am over the moon with the love it has had. I will always continue to intertwine both aspects now, and I think that doing a lot more of the more traditional Scottish songs, has really influenced the sound of my newer original tunes in a really fun and exciting way, and I am definitely wanting to embrace a lot more of that going forward! 

Q7. Your debut EP “Unpredictable” at Chem19 Studios — a place renowned for producing iconic Scottish records. What was it like collaborating with Jamie Savage and Paul Savage, and how did the studio's creative atmosphere influence the sound of your upcoming EP?

I have been so lucky to have been recording at Chem19 with Jamie since 2019, so I feel like I have pretty much grown as a person and as an Artist with the studio and with Jamie, which is really nice! It’s extremely easy to communicate ideas (which I very often don’t know how to get across but he knows!), and I think having a great studio space like Chem19 and people there like Jamie and Paul - who have seen me and the music change and improve through the years to get to where we are at now - makes the process so much more enjoyable and creative. For the upcoming Senses E.P,  I went in with just my acoustic guitar and vocal parts, so pretty bare bones. We tried out a lot of different sounds, there was many trial and error moments and retakes - but it was all very much a collaborative process, between myself, the studio, Jamie, Paul, the incredible musicians mentioned above, and I just love what came out of it all (as usual), this E.P, alongside some of the more folk and Scottish releases like the Wee Tunes From Home E.P, feels exactly like where I want my sound and style to be at the moment, and I want to continue to weave these two style of projects together! 

Q8. Finally, beyond your tour and new music, what exciting plans or projects do you have in store for the rest of the year?

So I will be releasing my new ’Senses’ E.P by summer 2025, a couple of the tracks have been released as singles on the run up to the tour but theres a final project with that which will be my main focus for the next couple of months, and I am so excited to finally release it!! After that myself and the band have a few festival gigs around Scotland currently with Live in Loch Goil, Sound of Iona (and more in the pipeline). And then hopefully we will be back at it with recording of original tunes (an album would be the next dream I think)…but I also would like to do a follow up E.P to the Wee Tunes from Home E.P, and possibly get some Robert Burns songs recorded in full, which has been something I have talked about doing as a wee side task for a while now! There’s definitely gotta be another few headline shows dotted in too, especially with how much fun I am having on these ones. But who knows what will pop up from now! I feel like you never know the minute sometimes so I just go with the flow and see what happens!