Singer, author, matchmaker.
All three of those words describe Colin McIntyre, aka Mull Historical Society.
There’s the new album, Dear Satellite, for one thing, as well as last year’s successful debut novel, The Letters Of Ivor Punch.
As for the match-making…
“It’s a couple called Nick and Reneau,” chuckles Colin, who plays King Tut’s on Thursday.
“They’re based in Austin, Texas, and Reneau had actually come to see me in New York in the very early days (of the band). She met Nick on a dating site because both of them liked Mull Historical Society on their profiles and started talking about it.
“They got married on April 8 this year, with a copy of Ivor Punch at the ceremony, It’s really nice to be reminded that your music connects people and means something to others, because that’s one of the main reasons you do it.
“Another couple got engaged at a show at the QMU one year, so I’ve got a good track record at match-making – I should start asking for commissions!”
When he’s not playing Cupid, the Scottish troubadour has a host of other projects to be getting on with. Currently music is the most pressing matter, with his King Tut’s gig set to see him bring his latest album, Dear Satellite on tour.
His seventh record, it’s one of his most direct and poppy efforts yet, and he’s eager to perform songs from it at Tut’s, a venue that holds many memories for the singer.
“I absolutely love playing King Tut’s, it’s like a spiritual home for Mull Historical Society,” he says.
“Although Mull (the place) has been a big part of my identity, it was Glasgow where I came up with the name and a lot of the songs on Loss were written while I was a student in Glasgow or working in a call centre there.
“King Tut’s was always a place where I’d go and drop demos in, or watch bands. It was actually where I heard I’d got national radio play for Barcode Bypass (his first single, in 2000).
“It’d been picked out by NME and then I heard Jo Whiley had played the whole lot of it one afternoon, while I was sound checking at Tut’s. It’s a special place and you can’t beat a Glasgow audience, so it’s always a highlight of any tour.”
It’s always a location that brings back memories of nights after the show, too. That includes a night when he took New York’s too cool for school guitar slingers the Strokes out and introduced them to whiskey.
“One of the first tours I ever did was with the Strokes and we went to Tut’s,” he recalls.
“I’m not a whiskey drinker, but they wanted to get initiated with it and I don’t think they’ll ever forget it – we ended up singing each other’s songs while sitting on rubbish bins on Sauchiehall Street.”
Much has changed in those 15 years, though. The singer is now a dad of two (one track on Dear Satellite, This Little Sister, was inspired by his kids) and mixing his songs with a literary career. His desire to make music continues, though, and this time he wanted something that was to the point.
“I did want an album that would feel direct, even down to the artwork, which is stripped back,” he explains.
“It’s maybe not stripped back musically but it’s certainly direct, and that’s maybe down to learning things over the course of the past several albums. I think with this album I wanted it to be concise, and at 36 minutes it’s the punchiest album I’ve made.”
Despite only having released Dear Satellite this year, and being hard at work on the follow-up to The Letters Of Ivor Punch, he’s also got yet another new project coming up. Field Stars will feature more electronics and beats, along with female vocals on some tracks.
Despite the different styles, Colin feels the creative spark all comes from the same place.
“I know when something feels real to me, whether it’s a pop song or a line for the novel,” he says.
“I have separate places to go when I work on these things but a lot of it comes from the same place – someone mentioned at one of the book events that my album titles to date, like Loss or The Island, could actually be a summary of the book.”
Mull Historical Society, King Tut’s, Thursday, £14, 8.30pm
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