WRITING & JOURNALISM
I'm a freelance writer and Books Editor at The Skinny. I've worked with sites, magazines and papers writing about everything from music and mental health, to industry trends and green energy, though more often that not it's rock music and books. I live blog events, which can be found at heatherwrites.co.uk. Get in touch via the contact page for any commissions or event coverage queries.
View some of my favourite articles and projects below.
The Skinny // APRIL 2018
IRVINE WELSH ON NEW NOVEL DEAD MEN'S TROUSERS
Renton. Begbie. Sick Boy. Spud. Twenty five years ago, the foursome began their journey into the cult classics with the publication of Trainspotting in 1993; a quarter of a century on, they’re back together yet again in Dead Men’s Trousers, but one won’t make it out alive.
As we chat in a bustling CCA in Glasgow, Irvine Welsh is in the middle of his book tour to promote what he says will be the last time we see the gang on the page. He’s (not so) fresh from a special launch event in Leith put on by Neu! Reekie! and Edinburgh International Book Festival. “It was all my mates basically,” he laughs. “So it was all fun and games.” Read more.
The Skinny // January 2018 Muriel Spark 100: The Prime of Muriel Spark
"She’s by far the best Scottish writer in the last 100 years,” says Alan Taylor, journalist, friend and now editor of the late, wondrous Muriel Spark. “In fact I think the best Scottish writer since Robert Louis Stevenson, and I’d be very happy to argue with anybody who wants to argue it with me!”
2018 marks the centenary of Muriel Spark, and with it comes a year of celebrations dedicated to one of Scotland’s most acclaimed writers. Born in Edinburgh, Muriel was educated at James Gillespie's School for Girls, then navigated her way through writing, briefly teaching English, and fully focussing on the craft more seriously post-war. Beginning with poetry and literary criticism, her conversion to the Roman Catholic Church in the 1950s was, to her mind, key in her development as a novelist. Read more.
Photofantasm //
Spoondog Entertainment Group
Photofantasm Soundgarden: Nudedragons to King Animal is a book dedicated to rock pioneers Soundgarden. It features commentary and recollections, highlighting the Seattle band's rebirth via hundreds of pages' worth of photographs, graphic art, anecdotes, interviews, and reviews. In a truly collaborative effort, fans, artists, musicians, authors, photographers, and other notable personalities all help chronicle Soundgarden's performances across the globe from 2010 to 2013.
My review of Soundgarden's triumphant return to Download Festival is published in this book, alongside other contributors such as Duff McKagan (Guns N' Roses), Korn, Myles Kennedy (Alter Bridge) and Serj Tankian (System of a Down).
photofantasm.com.
Upset MAGAZINE //SEPTEMBER 2016
COVER Feature: Twin Atlantic: “We wanted to try and scare ourselves.”
In Glasgow there’s a spaceship. It glows every spectrum of the rainbow on dark and drizzly nights, and inside it is a stage that’s a bucket list goal for most bands in these parts. In May 2015, Twin Atlantic walked triumphantly onto that stage after years of hard work, and saw off their ‘Great Divide’ tour run in style.
Read more.
Upset MAGAZINE // JUNE 2016
Cover Feature: Pierce The Veil: “We Won’t Ever Stop.”
Time flies when you’re having fun. Turns out Pierce The Veil have been enjoying themselves so much of late that they didn’t even know that 2016 marks their tenth birthday as a band until others pointed it out. But now they know, and there’s all the more reason to celebrate, with new album ‘Misadventures’ marking not only a landmark for the band, but a new chapter going forward. It’s been a long road here, and no overnight success story.
Read more.
Upset Magazine //
Henry Rollins: “I have to impress myself and I’m not easily impressed.”
The nature of the spoken word tour is pretty simple: you must speak. But it’s not as easy as it sounds, even for the chatterboxes among us. There must be stories and points that keep people interested, a life lived where people want to hear about experiences they themselves may never have, expressions of opinions that will make them chuckle knowingly. Hello, Henry Rollins. Read more.
DIY Magazine //
Biffy Clyro: Dot To Dot
Biffy Clyro aren’t exactly new kids on the block. Seven albums in (plus a hefty stash of B-sides, EPs and then some), they’ve headlined festivals aplenty before, but 2016 saw years of work click together, taking them to a whole new level. ‘Ellipsis’ stormed to Number One in the UK, they returned to Reading & Leeds to top the bill for a second time with a fire unlike ever before. Though the year’s almost over, for Biffy, it’s barely begun.
Read more.
THE LIST //
Interview: Synyster Gates – 'It was just those "what if" moments. What if we did this? That would be hilarious'
Avenged Sevenfold returned without warning. Launching their own artificial intelligence bots, performing in virtual reality then dropping their seventh album The Stage in full with immediate effect, they showed that the downtime hadn't dampened their ambitions to do something that little bit different. A couple of months on, The Stage World Tour has begun. 'We've got a lot of shit going on,' laughs guitarist Synyster Gates, on the tour's elaborate set-up... Read more.
Track Seven //
Alex Lahey: Graduation
Alex Lahey sold her 1999 blue Corolla to make music. It was her first car, and it was a price worth paying to fund her debut EP, 2013’s B-Grade University. In the summer of 2016, she won the chance to open Splendour in the Grass, sharing a bill with The Cure, The 1975 and The Strokes. Her confessional on rejection, ‘You Don’t Think You Like People Like Me’, has been met with widespread acclaim, and B-Grade University is the quintessential capturing of the 20-something experience. Read more.
Upset Magazine //
Petal: “The things that make you different, make you powerful.”
Music is a force that speaks to you. It can lull you into conversations, it can open your mind to lots of different ideas, it can even work as a kind of diary, letting you figure out things through its path. Kiley Lotz has used Petal’s debut as a vessel for a lot of personal experiences, finding writing a way of articulating thoughts she couldn’t otherwise pin down. In turn, ‘Shame’ is an utterly wonderful and assured expression of some of the most vulnerable experiences in life.
Read more.
The Dangerous Women Project //
Keeping the Door Open: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Dangerous Women
Every November, Scotland gets a little bookier than usual thanks to Book Week Scotland, but for this year, it also got a little dangerous. Bringing together a group of brilliant women to discuss their lives as women in public, the working world and literature sector, it was an evening set to learn and inspire. Read more.
Sky News
"On air, online and on mobile, Sky News has plenty of ways to follow the General Election as the results are announced. We will have presentation teams across the country and, for the first time ever, you'll be able to see what goes on behind the scenes in the newsroom."
I was part of the Sky News coverage of 2014's Scottish Independence Referendum, and 2015 General Election.
Get me at @heathermmcd on Twitter, or via the contact page.