Singer songwriter Roddy Woomble lives on Iona – population 80

Living on the small Scottish island of Iona, it is sometimes easy to forget what is happening everywhere else. Towards the end of February this year I was following the coronavirus story like everyone, watching the developments, and wondering what would happen. I often make pancakes on Sunday mornings and invite my friend Mike and his family round to eat them. That weekend Mike brought round his own cutlery and plates to eat off, and not because mine are usually dirty. The advice was to take precautions, and that advice had now reached the remote islands and was being practiced. It’s the small things that make you aware that a change is around the corner.

The following week, of course, Scotland, and the rest of the UK went into lockdown, which was to last three months. Schools were cancelled, as were all concerts, events, offices, cafes etc. I make my living from playing concerts, travelling around and singing songs to gatherings of people, and then selling them CDs and records afterwards. This was not going to happen for the foreseeable future and all my shows were postponed. Like others who work in the creative arts, there followed a few weeks of anxiety until the government eventually announced a grant scheme for the self employed. I was now being given money to stay at home – which sounded like quite an easy thing to do.

When everyone had settled into lockdown, my home life wasn’t too much different. I’ve lived here for over a decade and have my routines – a daily long walk, read books, listen to music, work on songs, cook and bake, housework, watch films. The only change was homeschooling my son, which like many parents I really enjoyed doing. One of the other advantages was that with no people coming onto the island and just the people living here on it (population – 90), the island which is usually quite busy in April, May and June (relatively speaking) was empty. You had the place to yourself, and the remoteness and isolation was amplified (in a good way). In months of long daily walks I saw no other people. I’m assuming other locals were going out and about, but you never bumped into them. Very occasionally in the local shop. Thankfully deliveries still made it to the shop most days. It’s not a big shop, but it has everything you need. At one point there were rumours of no more wine more or toilet paper. Luckily both rumours proved false. Many islanders got busy in their gardens. The two island hotels have large gardens which normally supply their restaurants with produce, but since they were both closed they made it all available for the community. The local fisherman, Neil, also had plenty of lobsters, crab and langoustine to sell with the absence of any tourists.

Lockdown offered a pause for us all – a time to reflect, to stare out of the window – to look inward. I began looking through all my old writings, to bring some of them back to life and to write new things. I’m known first for songwriting and playing in a band of course, but I’ve done my share of other writing too. Between 2007 and 2011 I wrote regularly for a number of newspapers and magazines. I had a column called ‘On The Road’ in The Sunday Herald newspaper where I basically rambled around Scotland, and beyond, and wrote about these travels. This led to another monthly column entitled ‘Woombles Way’ in the hill-walking magazine TGO. I also wrote some restaurant reviews for The List, and even contributed a few columns for The Idler. Writing became an unexpected yet very satisfying sideline to music.

I started to think about collecting them together, maybe even trying a podcast, and a friend suggested a Patreon page – creating a creative space that I could manage myself, where I could share my new (and old) writings and my audio recordings – a place where I can preview songs, poems, show paintings, anything really, and importantly it doesn’t all have to fit into one particular area. So I can write about growing up in France, or in Scotland or America. I can write about climbing hills in my thirties, or playing punk rock shows in my late teens, or my favourite restaurants, or all the poets and musicians and records I love, or the beer I’ve just drunk, or the sunset last night. I can switch from the Isle of Mull, to the Left Bank of Paris, New York to Los Angeles, the Orkney Islands to Iceland. I can talk about songs and songwriting and lyrics and meaning, my favourite film directors and my favourite place to get fish & chips in the north east of Scotland. I might also be quite boring sometimes, but there is a temporary aspect to the whole thing that is quite appealing. It’s like playing a gig rather than recording an album.

I’ve called my Patreon page ‘A Journey Without Plans’ which I decided on because as I started to write, and to look over past writings, and also as I started to record myself talking (through my new microphone), it dawned on me that not knowing where I’m going, or what I’m doing is the common thread that ties much of my creative work together. Almost all the best things I have done have been unplanned, and I’m hoping this venture is no exception.

So it started as a lockdown project, but I’m hoping that ‘A Journey Without Plans’ develops and takes me somewhere new and unexpected – helps me to navigate the next stage as I, like everyone else, adjust to this re-wiring of normal life.

Roddy Woomble is the lead singer of the band Idlewild.

Read more of his musings and support his Patreon project ‘A Journey Without Plans’ here.