For Fans Of: Ten Tonnes, Gerry Cinnamon, Tom Grennan
As a young child, Callum Beattie was given a choice. His single dad laid out two options for his summer holiday that year. Tenerife or a road trip from their home in Edinburgh down to London and back. Choosing the latter, they stopped off at as many gigs and festivals their finances would allow, and that’s where the 26-year-old’s love of music truly began.
His father’s record collection of inspirational musicians influenced Beattie to make the most of their tight lifestyle. The likes of Elton John, Deep Purple and Fleetwood Mac showed him how to turn misfortune into melody as he saved up for an acoustic guitar and began writing his own originals. These quickly developed into anthemic pop ballads about Scotland and his appreciation for his father, and would later carry him close to stardom.
He began his career by playing as many shows as possible, and even using his hi-vis work jacket to blag his way backstage at festivals. On the other side of the security barrier, he’d hand out demos to any act who’d take them. This included Kaiser Chiefs. In an interview with Source, he recalled “I said ‘I promise you one day I’ll be playing on that stage’, the band thought I was nuts and got me to sign my autograph. When I moved to London my management asked me, after I had been signed, is there anyone you would like to write with, I said Nick [Hodgson]. Two days later Nick sent me a text with a picture of the autograph I gave him and the rest is history.”
In 2017, he self-released his debut EP We Are Stars, whose emotive title track became his breakthrough. A local DJ remixed the track and it was send to the independent dance label 3beat, but they were more intrigued by the original. Eventually tracking Beattie down, he was signed immediately. Since then, he’s written multiple songs with Hodgson, including his 2018 hit single ‘San Antonio’.
This year, he’s been drip-feeding his latest batch of exhilarating pop ballads. March brought the infectious summer bop ‘Connection’, which speaks reconnecting with himself after the end of a 10-year relationship. It was written in Berlin; the city Beattie chose to find solace in as he looked for the same inspiration David Bowie found there. He clearly found it as July’s ‘Without You’ tells of the mixed emotions following the breakup. His most recent track, ‘Easter Road’ puts the relationship to bed for now and says goodbye to Berlin as he delves deeper into memories closer to home. The piano-led, melancholy song tells rough stories from his hometown but how these anecdotes were nothing out of the ordinary for him.
“It’s in my bloodstream, it’s who I am” is in fact a future alt pop star, and more people ought to know.
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