For rising Scots singer Carrie Mac, touring with The X Factor winner Alexandra Burke was “amazing”. The tour brought her name out of Edinburgh and presented it to an international audience, but it still hasn’t quite sunk in that she was sharing a stage with one of the greatest singers on the UK music scene today.
She told STV: “It was amazing. Even from three weeks into the tour, once I’d known her, every time she would come out of her room or be in the cafeteria I’d still be like: ‘It’s Alexandra Burke!’.
“I don’t think it actually hit me until now, because now I’ve started to get withdrawal systems from touring and if I hear her on the radio I’m like: ‘Wow! I know her!’.”
The tour put Carrie through five shows a week for over six weeks, but she still had time to connect with her fans via social networking websites Twitter and Facebook.
From a humble ten Twitter followers her fans now number thousands and she tries to speak to them all.
“I try to write back to everyone on Facebook and Twitter because I think it’s important when someone takes the time out to write to you or likes your music,” she told STV during a visit to Kirkliston Girl Guides.
“It’s just something you should do.”
With the release of her new single, Till I See You Again, this is bound to become even harder as her fanbase continues to expand. Yet the road to that single has been a long one.
Carrie on up the ladder
She explained: “The interest started about 2008 because I won the Forth One to Watch award and it kind of went from there, but it didn’t really go really fast. It snowballed, but slowly.
“In 2009 I had an album launch that I put up myself, I had my own album, and I had a major record company [Universal] come up to see me. I got really good feedback from them and it progressed, but it wasn’t quite there yet.
“Then I met songwriter John McLaughlin in 2010 in January and we started co-writing songs together and taking my own songs and putting them in, and then it just went from there.
“Before I knew it I was making a video, I was on tour with Alexandra Burke, and here I am now.”
It’s not bad for a girl who only left her job at the coffee shop Beanscene in July of last year to focus on her music career. Now she is putting the finishing touches on her album before heading back out on tour and performing at this summer’s festivals.
For a taste of what she has to offer, watch her perform an intimate acoustic version of her new single Till I See You Again.
MORE FROM @CARRIEMACMUSIC
- A day in the life of Carrie Mac
- Carrie performs Till I See You Again
- Carrie inspires youngsters to reach for the stars
