Caithness-based musician recorded debut single weeks after setting up her home studio
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A MUSICIAN who is based in Caithness wrote and recorded her debut single just weeks after setting up her home studio and teaching herself production skills.
Zoe Sutherland also made a music video at Dunnet Head and edited it herself. "Its been a fantastic experience learning and trying this all on my own," said the singer/songwriter who moved to the far north from the south of England three years ago.
She has been writing music for over 10 years and is passionate about what she does and in trying to help others to "really give music their best shot." Zoe is holding four songwriting workshops at Lyth Arts Centre for youngsters aged between 13 and 17 in April and May.
Her debut single, Cold, was released last month. On one level it is simply about feeling the cold but also about "opening up to love again when your heart feels closed off."
Zoe has been involved in music since she was 16 and writes her own compositions on the acoustic guitar and sometimes on the keyboard. She previously released an acoustic album called Gypsy in 2018 under the name Xoe Zahara.
This year she plans to concentrate on writing and recording but she would also like to form a band and tour under the Fates name. She chose that name as she feels creating music is her fate. Zoe, who draws on myth and folklore in her songs, says having a band will give her "a bigger sound."
She and local musician, Stevie Taylor, will be part of the line-up at a music event for charity in the Park Hotel in Thurso on April 20.
Zoe, who is 33 next month, stays in Thurso with young son Heru but lived for 10 years in Australia and Bali. She is from Portsmouth and decided to relocate to Caithness for "good fresh air" after her parents moved to Lybster in January 2021.
She has been interested in music since she was young and used "to sing more than talk" when she was a child.
Zoe releases her music independently but has an online distributor who gets her material on music channels such as YouTube and Spotify.
