Meet the Dundee-born musician who recorded a deeply personal album inside historic Angus kirk
A historic kirk just across the road from a Dundee-born musician’s family home has become the heart of a deeply personal new album.
Craig MacLeod, who releases music under the name VULIN, recorded and produced his debut album Kirk Road inside St Marnock’s Church in Fowlis.
Released on 31 July, the album explores fatherhood, family, grief, identity and the places that shape us. Craig was born in Dundee, grew up in Arbroath and is now based in Fowlis, where he lives with his wife and daughter.
Rather than trying to remove every background sound, Craig allowed the atmosphere of the kirk and surrounding village to become part of the music. Some sections were even recorded during Storm Arwen, with the sound of trees hitting the building captured while work on the album was taking place.
The opening track, Òrla, begins with Craig’s young daughter opening the church doors and entering the building. Her voice and footsteps can be heard echoing around the kirk after Craig left the microphones recording.
It became a special moment within an album closely connected to Craig becoming a husband and father, putting down roots in Fowlis and reflecting on his own upbringing.
Speaking previously to Discovery Music, Craig described Kirk Road as being about “family, belonging, and trying to understand ourselves through the people and places that shape us.”
The album also arrives during an exciting period for Craig following his collaboration with Billy Boyd, better known as Silibil from the Scottish rap duo Silibil N’ Brains.
Craig and Billy knew each other while growing up in Arbroath.
Their musical paths crossed again when Billy approached him about creating music connected with California Schemin’, the James McAvoy-directed film inspired by the remarkable true story of Silibil N’ Brains.
The pair later released the collaborative EP Lost Soul, which combines Craig’s folk and indie sound with Billy’s hip-hop background. It includes a reworked version of Arc, a song that also appears on Kirk Road.
Craig attended the Dundee premiere of California Schemin’ at Dundee Contemporary Arts and described the experience of watching his friends’ story reach the big screen as emotional and surreal.
Six years after the release of his first solo EP, Tethered to Sleep, Kirk Road represents another major chapter for the former music lecturer and member of indie-folk group Dante.
By recording the album somewhere so closely connected to his home and family, Craig has created a record shaped not only by its songs, but by the building, village and moments of everyday life captured within it.
Kirk Road by VULIN is available now.
