Elgin's Hollywood export Kevin McKidd in new charity single
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AN ELGIN-BORN Hollywood actor is today releasing a charity single along with an old school pal.
Trainspotting and Grey's Anatomy star Kevin McKidd, who went to school at Seafield Primary and Elgin Academy, is releasing "Leave a Light On" to raise cash for foodbank charity The Trussell Trust and Help Musicians Northern Ireland.
The idea for the fundraiser song formed when Kevin and old school friend James Reid were left shocked by reports of empty food banks. After a chat with Small Faces and River City actor Iain Robertson, a plan was hatched to pull together their old team from a highly successful collaboration in 2012, The Speyside Sessions.
Kevin, who now lives in Los Angeles with his family, sings lead vocals on the song along with Northern Irish singer Mairead Carlin.
The song was composed and produced by James and comes out today with an accompanying JustGiving fundraising page.
Produced under lockdown conditions in home studios and with various recording set-ups, the new project presented some challenges for mixer and engineer Scott Cameron, from Armellodie Records. It involved 13 backing singers – one of whom had to sing into an iPhone under the stairs, and one who had to sing by moonlight to avoid seagulls joining the chorus.
Kevin cobbled together a temporary studio and sang into a basic microphone plugged into his laptop. All the files were then processed and compiled to fit the song parts together.
The original Speyside Sessions album went straight to number one in the iTunes World Music Charts in six different countries. Proceeds from the album go to Save the Children, for which Kevin is an ambassador.
While growing up in Elgin Kevin was a member of Moray Youth Theatre. He later became involved in the Bedlam Theatre Company as a student at the University of Edinburgh and it was there that he decided to pursue acting as a career.
