FOR piper and whistle player Ali Levack, becoming an overnight success has been more than 10 years in the making.

The Dingwall-bred 26-year-old was last weekend named as the winner of the BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year award. He fought off competition from other established artists including Gaelic singer Josie Duncan of Inyal and fiddler Mhairi Mackinnon. However, it has been a long haul to get to this point – but one that continues to inspire and excite Levack. The award brings with it a new set of responsibilities, and the Project Smok star freely admits to having had his eyes opened since Sunday night’s success.

“I had a wee celebration on Sunday night – Project Smok were playing at the Seshtival Club at the Renfrew Ferry with Talisk and Elephant Sessions, so we got to play with our pals and it was great having my family there with me.

“Monday was a bit more of a coming-down-to-earth day so I had a meeting with Pablo [Lafuente, the guitarist and fellow founding member of three-piece Project Smok] just to discuss future plans and what to do next for the band and for myself. We were discussing how I now have to be a bit more mindful of the responsibility the award carries with it.”

That will not, however, mean a dilution of Levack’s uncompromis-ing style of playing but rather an understanding that with a raised profile comes new issues – and new opportunities.

“I’m planning on a solo recording at some point this year,” says Levack. “And we’re in talks with agents just now as well as planning tours and things for Project Smok. We have plans in place to tour as support for Edwyn Collins as well as a Scottish tour at some point as well.”

READ MORE: Over 125,000 attened Glasgow's Celtic Connections festival

The links with the former Orange Juice frontman go back a long way and are underpinned by the pair’s links to the village of Helmsdale on the east coast of Sutherland. Collins’s family originate from the area, and he was a regular visitor before eventually leaving London and making his home in the highland village in 2014. Levack’s family are also originally from Helmsdale and he met Collins at an early age, resulting in a musical partnership across the generations.

“When he released his first album after suffering two brain haemorrhages back in, I think, 2010, he invited me down to London to play in the foyer at his album launch. I got to record in his studio there as well,” says Levack. “I was only 16 at the time but since then we’ve kept in touch.

“And then this year he invited us up to Helmsdale to record in his studio, so myself and the Project Smok guys [Lafuente and bodhran player Ewan Baird] went up there earlier in the year and recorded our album Bayview, which was released last week.

“We were delighted to get it done in such an incredible place. It was an amazing experience, an amazing studio – all analogue gear, vintage microphones, everything. It was only afterwards that I realised the microphone I was using for my whistle was the same one Edwyn had used for the vocals on A Girl Like You!”

Quite apart from Levack’s decade-long friendship with a genuine icon of Scottish pop music, Project Smok have been making quite a name for themselves over the past year with intricate melodies allied to driving rhythms garnering them fans across the country. With the release of Bayview, the band are now looking to further establish themselves on the scene with more festival slots and tour dates. But as well as a planned solo recording, the award is likely to mean Levack is inundated with artists asking him to play on their records.

“I hope so,” says Levack. “I did have an acceptance speech all prepared but as soon as you get up to the microphone, everything falls out of your head. But I was going to mention that if Lewis Capaldi ever needs any whistles on his records then I’m definitely available!

READ MORE: Lottery win for Glasgow Jazz Festival and other Scottish projects

“But the bread and butter for myself, like so many traditional musicians based in Glasgow, is the ceilidh scene,” adds Levack. “This award will help, but I’m so grateful for the amount of ceilidh bands I get to play with. I reckon half the musicians out there wouldn’t be able to do music full-time if it wasn’t for the ceilidhs, just with the amount of work they generate.”

Glasgow, and its thriving scene, has always been a big draw for Levack. He moved down to study at the Royal Conservatoire but for him, the draw was always the city and its music rather than the course.

“I started chanter lessons at nine,” says Levack, “but I was mentored by my grandfather Donald MacKillop and got lessons from him every day. I more or less lived with my granny and grandfather in Strathpeffer from nine until 14, and during that time I also had tutors such as Norman Gillies and John Burgess and then, when I got to 14, I moved away from Dingwall Academy to the National Centre for Excellence in Traditional Music at Plockton High School.”

LEVACK continues: “At Plockton, I started getting lessons from Iain MacFadyen and Hamish Napier, who started me on the whistle. It was just the best move for me at that time, getting to play music every day. It was just after I left Plockton that my grandfather died and I took a year out before deciding to move to Glasgow and enroll at the RCS.

“I studied at the RCS but what I benefited most from was simply being in Glasgow. By the time I was two years into the course I was finding it hard to balance the academic side of the course with full-time gigging. So I really had to decide what I wanted to do. I left the course on good terms – I still keep in touch with Finlay MacDonald [head of piping studies at RCS] but I wanted to be a full-time musician.”

READ MORE: Clyde Built Radio shows community power at Barras launch

It’s not a decision Levack is likely to regret. For him, the ever-changing nature of being a professional musician is one of the greatest benefits of the path he has chosen.

“Every week is different. Every day is different,” he says. “Things change year by year. I spent six months living in America and working at Disney, I worked at Hardie’s the bagpipe maker for a year, just for a change of scene, and then came back to the music full-time. It’s good to have the ability to make these choices.”

Inspired as a youngster by the whistle playing of Flook’s Brian Finnegan, Levack has an appreciation of the dynamics that make a great player. And for him, one of the keys is finding your musical soulmate – the artist with whom you have a connection and a rapport that transcends a simply professional or personal relationship. For him, that means Project Smok guitarist Lafuente.

“Everyone has their go-to guy who they click with and for me that’s Pablo,” says Levack.

“Like Jarlath Henderson and Innes Watson seem to be clicking right now, or Ryan Young and Jenn Butterworth. It’s so special and organic. It can’t be forced. Everyone mixes so well together and so these relationships can build and change. I’m living with a guitarist just now – Craig Irving, previously with Manran and Talisk – and we’re looking to do something in the future. It’s really good how it keeps changing.

READ MORE: Alternative rockers Twin Atlantic return with new album Power

“But just now, myself and Pablo have an understanding that is pretty special. He knows what I mean without me even having to explain it. Pablo just knows what I’m trying to get across intuitively.”

Awards aside, Levack is a special talent. His ability to captivate and hold an audience marks him out as something far from the norm and, backed by Lafuente and Baird, Project Smok have been one of the highlights of the past 18 months.

There is a lot more to come from Levack and this award is really just the beginning.