Trainspotting star Ewen Bremner set to launch his own band in Edinburgh

He is in the midst of making a movie about one of Scotland’s best-known music moguls.
Ewen Bremner as music mogul Alan McGeeEwen Bremner as music mogul Alan McGee
Ewen Bremner as music mogul Alan McGee

But Ewen Bremner, star of the new biopic of Creation Records founder Alan McGee, has revealed plans to launch his own band during a break in filming.

The Trainspotting favourite will be taking to the stage of Leith Theatre to unveil music and songs he has written over the past couple of years, mainly in his adopted home of New York.

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Bremner and a specially assembled band of Scottish musicians will be performing under the guise of his musical alter ego, Exitman, in the latest night staged by the Edinburgh arts collective Neu! Reekie! in the city.

The group’s “soul, punk and samba” set will be the first time Bremner has staged a public performance of his songs, although he has put on a few secret gigs for friends over the years in his home city, most recently at Artisan Roast coffee shop on Broughton Street.

It is hoped the launch gig on 19 July will pave the way for a full album to be recorded with his bandmates.

In an exclusive interview, Bremner, 47, revealed he has been writing songs since he was growing up as a teenager in the Portobello area of Edinburgh and studied music at night school in London before pursuing a career as an actor.

However he admitted he had always been wary of performing his material in public until recently.

“I’ve always felt a bit squir­rely and awkward about being an actor who writes and makes stuff,” he said.

“It’s been important to have something to put myself into when I’m not acting, which generally involves quite a lot of energy and a lot of focus. That energy has to go somewhere. It’s a bit difficult to calibrate your life and your brain between the two extremes of filming and not filming.

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“With some film projects I might be working on them for six months, but am only actually working a couple of days a week, so it’s good to be making music stuff to avoid losing the plot.

“I’ve been writing and recording music since I was a teenager, but over the last year or so I’ve just thought it was unacceptable to be putting my energies into it if I can’t deliver it with a guitar.

“The name of Exitman comes from the idea of a character who stands outside every bar, nightclub or cinema; a kind of symbolic figure who offers guidance or escape, depending on whether you are a saint or a sinner.

“I’ve written a collection of stuff that I now feel ready to put out.

“The band has been sort of thrown together just to do the Neu! Reekie! event, but we will be working towards recording together. We’re trying to work out the sound and road-test it to get it into shape before going into the studio.”

Michael Pedersen, co-founder of Neu! Reekie!, said: “Ewen’s an artist we’ve been fervent to work with in any of his braw artistic capacities. Most folks are aware of his dazzling deftness as an actor and we’ve had the privileged of showcasing that [him as Spud] at our Trainspotting 21 night a couple of years back in Leith Theatre.

“However, presenting his musical outputs has been an ongoing conversation and ambition of ours.”

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