Rising East Lothian musician ‘struggled with confidence’ before taking to stage

A young East Lothian musician who ‘struggled with his confidence’ has opened up on his journey to the stage.

Blake McCann, 19, performed in front of a crowd at The Tower Inn in Tranent for the first time last year. After battling anxiety throughout his teenage years, Blake admits he was ‘shaking severely’ and ‘having second thoughts’ as he prepared to walk out.

Now, he’s looking to the future and working on original songs inspired by his own friendships and challenges. Blake, from Prestonpans, says he began to find confidence after his brother Dean handed down a guitar to him.

Inspired by the likes of Gerry Cinnamon, Paolo Nutini and Jake Bugg (and of course his brother) Blake says he’ll be ‘taking every chance he gets’ with the support of his mum Angie, girlfriend Ellie and everyone else around him. Speaking to Edinburgh Live, Blake told us: “Music came into my life at different ages to be honest.

“I remember having a little bongo drums set when I was younger that my mum had given me, they sat in my room and I’d just smack them. My mum has a clip of me singing the JCB song when i was around six-years-old that she’ll never let me live down.

“When I was at Preston Lodge (High School), I picked up the guitar for the first time. My brother Dean gave me one of his guitars when I was 17, I grew up listening to him playing in his bedroom all the time.

“The chords started coming along out of nowhere, I kind of surprised myself a little bit. I started recording little videos playing along to songs and showing them to friends.

“They had nothing but praise as they never expected it from me.”

Blake began whistling along, before adding his voice. From there, he says his confidence began to flourish.

As a young boy, Blake admits he didn’t even want to speak or read a book in front of the class. He recalled: “Confidence wise I’ve always struggled, growing up battling with anxiety.

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“I’d like to say music has been a sort of escape for me to test my confidence and show other people who’ve had the same story that it isn’t so bad after all, if you can put your mind to something and give it your all even if it doesn’t work, you can always look back on it and tell yourself you tried it.”

Blake took to the stage in front of a crowd for the first time on September 27 last year at an open mic night in Tranent. Admitting it was a ‘massive step’ outside his comfort zone, he went from sitting in his room singing songs ‘to a brick wall’ to a crowd of over 45 people.

Looking back, he added: “I remember tuning my guitar before and my hands were shaking severely to the point that I was having second thoughts about it all.

“When it was my turn everything went as perfect as you could describe it. I was actually doing it all and speaking to real people out loud over a mic.

‘Music has been a sort of escape for me’

“Describing the songs I was about to perform, telling people little back stories, having a laugh with the crowd, you name it. When it came to the end of the performance, I had received the biggest round of applause from everyone in the pub and it was absolutely surreal, took my guitar off and got the biggest hug from my Mum and Auntie Tracy.

“It all got a bit emotional as it was a big weight off my shoulders being able to do this all and doing it so well.”

Since then, he’s performed at pubs and open mic nights around the area and was even in the line up for EH32 Live. Blake says his mum, Angie, has been a massive part in getting him to the stage.

From lending a hand with buying equipment, or making sure she was in the crowd at his shows. He continued: “I would give the biggest shout out to my mum, wee Angie, for helping me get to this point and supporting me with equipment when my money was tight – which she’ll be getting repaid back!

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“She’s been to the majority of all of my shows even when she’s battling her own things she’s able to always make time for me. Also my girlfriend Ellie is always the person behind the camera, and gets the greatest recordings and photos.

“She’s always the one hearing my learning songs and murdering them at the start, but she’s still stuck with me. One of my childhood best friends Ben shows up to as many performances as he can, and gives constructive criticism but he means it all as love!

“My mate Gregory, I sent him my first ever recording to and he saved it and sent it to a groupchat. I had no choice but to show people, and he made me post my first video on social media so without him there more than likely wouldn’t be any videos.

“All the venues I’ve performed at as well, and people who have been there from the start of the social media stuff – I’m just grateful for it all.”

Blake plans to ‘take every chance he gets’

Looking to the future, and Blake hopes to release some original music. He’d also like to play some bigger venues, and hopefully have some physical tickets for his own memorabilia.

He told us: “I’ve got some originals that I’ve been working on and trying to perfect and make them just me.

“Everything in the songs I’ve been making have got deeper meaning behind the lyrics from growing up, friendships, challenges. I would like to try and hopefully expand my venues that I’m playing at and go from playing in pubs, to hopefully playing in bigger venues and clubs.

“Getting my own tickets that I can print off as memorabilia would be unreal for me I think. But you never know what the future might hold, I’ll be taking every chance I can get and hopefully it’ll keep opening up new doors for me along the way.”

You can watch some of Blake’s performances on his page here.

‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’

‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source uk.news.yahoo.com ’