SCOTTISH musician Ali Stott has had something of a unique career trajectory.

Despite studying music at university, the band he was in eventually broke up and so he took a year off from the industry to focus on his dog-walking business.

But with lockdown affording him the chance to get back into things, he’s just released his debut EP Forgiveness.

“I think eventually I realised I always wanted to do music and thought I need to go for this so spent a few years building it up, giving up by business and just focusing purely on songwriting,” the 32-year-old (below) told The National.

The National: Ali Stott has just released his new EP. 

“I actually started out doing classical music as I was playing clarinet as a kid but then started getting interested in more powerful notes and went towards heavy metal.

“That was my first experience writing music and it’s how I learnt drums and things like this. Going from that, it’s quite common to soften up and go towards more folk stuff which is what I’ve done.”

Following his early interest in music, Stott took a year off from music after the band he was in fell through and credits a focus on meditation and yoga as helping him find his way back to songwriting.

“I gradually got more into folk music and stuff and realised at the start of lockdown that if I wanted to do music, I need to just go for it and so gave up my business and turned to that.”

He’s now released his debut EP – Forgiveness – and hopes it will be the catalyst for bigger things.

Stott explained: “It’s a collection of four songs that try to show a good balance of what I do, I go towards the darker end of things but some of them are lighter.

“It’s all about exploring real honest truths with a focus on honest songwriting. I think it’s a big blend but I try and restrict myself as well so as not to do too much.”

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The musician says he believes an EP is a good way to get things started although he says he has got aspirations of making an album one day.

“I’m playing the odd gig and the plan is just to get some more of those. I’m organising some small tours towards the end of summer with a few different people,” he says.

“I’ve been playing with a saxophonist recently and a pianist and have got some female backing vocalists so it’s all quite open and collaborative.

“I tend to make the songs, play them myself and then take them out to other people so I write them so they are accessible for other people to play on.”

And on those aspirations of an album, Stott says he has plenty of material to choose from having spent so much time writing music.

“I have a huge back catalogue to record and release and Eps are definitely the way for now because it’s small packages I can get out.

“But definitely an album one day. Hopefully I can get a band together and move forward from there.”