Gillebride MacMillan
... is from the Milton in South Uist. He comes from a family with a strong Gaelic background. Gaelic is his first language and Gaelic songs and traditions were always an important part of family life. He stars as Gwyllyn the Bard in Starz Outlander where he regales those in Castle Leoch with traditional Gaelic songs and tales. In Starz Outlander, Gillebrìde sings traditional songs and a song specially composed by Bear McCreary.
How would you describe the human behind the artist Gillebride MacMillan?
I was brought up as a native Gaelic speaker and I was surrounded by the language and culture in my childhood. I was therefore immersed in the Gaelic music, poetry and culture of South Uist. The nature, history as well as contemporary issues have an impact on my song-writing. I now live in Glasgow and teach Gaelic at Glasgow University but I go back to Uist as often as I can.
I feel very fortunate to teach and sing in Gaelic and I hope that my success encourages people to see the worth of minority languages and cultures. I have had so many opportunities through Gaelic that it would be great if more people were drawn to the language and culture. Of course, being in Outlander and then being the Gaelic langauge coach for Season 7 has been fantatsic in getting people to know about my music.
"Meadhan-oidhche" sounds great and very traditional, what's the story behind the song?
Summer in the Outer Hebrides is very special. Our home was near the sea - the Atlantic Ocean - and on a calm summer evening the sun doesn't set until 11pm - there will then be a few hours of semi-darkness before sunrise again. It is a romantic song with elements of love, nature and transquility.
"Joined by Karen Matheson of Scottish Super-group Capercaillie", how was it to work with Karen?
I wrote a song in memory of Eilidh MacLeod who was sadly killed in the Manchester Arena bombing of 2017. Eilidh was from Barra and so I wanted a singer with Barra connections to sing the song since it was such a special song.
I thought that Karen would be wonderful and she did a perfect rendition of the song. I wanted to make sure that Eilidh's parents were happy with my song - which they were - and so I wanted to make sure that it would be as good as possible in memory of Eilidh. Karen's interpretation of the song brings out both the sorrow and longing but also the love and affection within the song.
Singer, songmaker, poet and writer, what's your favorite part of creativity?
I grew up as a singer of traditional songs but I strongly believe that we have to create new songs in Gaelic. At the moment, I am particularly keen to develop songwriting - not only my own, but to develop Gaelic songwriting in general. I have a BBC Radio nan Gàidheal radio series where we showcase new Gaelic songwriting. It's important that we still continue to tell our story in Gaelic through song.
As a songmaker, who inspires you most or where do you take your inspiration from?
I am often drawn by a particular phrase or event and I create songs based on things like that. It might just be a couple of words that inspire me but I am often drawn to tell people's stories. These could be people who are downtrodden or unable to tell their own story. As songwriters in any language, we have an opportunity to tell people about speacial people and events that they may not otherwise know about.
Any chance to see you somewhere live on stage?
I will be performing in
Edinburgh's Storytelling Centre on 21st February,
The Glad Cafe in Glasgow on 24th Feb,
at Ceolas festival on South Uist in early July 2023 and
I'll be perfoming at Fergus Scottish Festival, Canada in early August.
More dates to come too!
... and finally, what are your plans for 2023?
I am delighted with the reaction to the album so far. I will be busy with a number of concerts and promoting the album. Thoughts are turning to the next collection of songs as I have a number of songs already written that I will put on another album. So, more music coming soon - but listen to this album first 🙂
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