Music is Love: Up close & personal

As the more musically-minded denizens of this wind-blasted East Fife town are perhaps all too well aware, the words “St Andrews” and “quality music scene” aren’t always synonymous. All too often, the connotations of our bubble reputation extend into the music sphere – it is unlikely that we will ever see the likes of Muse or David Guetta gracing Venue 1 with their presence in our lifetime. And one only has to mention the embarrassing fiasco of Tinchy Stryder’s headline(?!!) performance at Freshers Week to elicit a sigh as to the future of this apparent musical backwater.

Fortunately, salvation has come in the form of ‘Music Is Love’, a collaborative enterprise that serves as the unofficial Yellow Pages for musicians and talented folk in St Andrews. The collective began in less than auspicious circumstances, two years ago, utilising a small Market Street flat to hold an evening of local music, sketching and projections which ended up attracting a multitude of artists, music fans and various other creative ingénues. Clearly, these students had hit upon a rich vein of hidden musical talent that could be fostered and perhaps marshal into a vibrant St Andrews quality music scene. Thus, Music Is Love was born.

Kirsty Strang, head of and Music Officer for MIL, thinks the best part about the whole enterprise is simply “putting on gigs that people love – it sounds cheesy but seeing people really have a good time and a boogie at an event you’ve scraped together, it’s brilliant. Hard work, but brilliant.”

Now officially affiliated with the Union, Music Is Love has expanded into arranging equipment hire; running a fortnightly Open Mic night at Aikman’s; co-ordinated the first ever Eye O’ The Dug music festival; brought such diverse acts as Josie Long, King Creosote and Dry The River to town; and more recently, released the first Music Is Love Student Mixtape, showcasing the best of local student talent and a collaboration with ArtSoc for their Matchless Minds showcase at the Barron Theatre. What has remained paramount throughout the whole endeavour is the retention of that same grassroots heritage and ethos that sustained Music Is Love from the very beginning. Hamish Hawk, MIL mascot and local musician in his own right, says of the good example Music Is Love sets for aspiring St Andrews musicians, “I think what’s really great about MIL is that nobody says ‘I only like dance music’ or ‘I don’t like hip-hop’, if it’s good, we’ll listen to it. So yeah, I think there’s nothing more helpful for aspiring musicians than knowing there’s an audience, even in a town this small!

So, it seems that with MIL fast becoming a local institution, it looks like the future of the St Andrews music scene looks very lovely indeed.