In contrast to the mellow tone of their soothing, jazzy voice, post-lockdown life has been a bit of a whirl for Glaswegian singer Hannah Findlay: signed to Island Records as Terra Kin, regular writing sessions in London, sampled by producer du jour Fred again.. on his track ‘Hannah (The Sun)’, and, most recently, crowned BBC Introducing Scottish Act Of The Year from a pool of 500 entries.

There is a calming self-assurance to the tracks released so far on their debut EP Too Far Gone. But behind the easy tranquillity of the music is a lively, restless mind (Findlay’s forearm is tattooed with the words ‘i wonder’). ‘I’m always saying I don’t know what I am or why I’m here,’ they say. ‘I was so existential for a child, asking “why am I on this planet?” When I look back at the songs I was playing as a young child, I wonder where was all of this stuff was coming from?’

^{Pictures: Kai Gillespie}

Findlay’s first musical steps were in musical theatre (always playing a role, they note). ‘I was always too shy to sing as Hannah; I was always dressed up as somebody else, that little bit of separation. Maybe that’s why I have an artist name now, “terra” meaning earth and “kin” meaning kinship or child.’ Findlay originally hails from Cambuslang, just to the south-east of Glasgow, where they were exposed to their dad’s music taste and gran’s singing. Hearing the finger picking-style guitar playing on The Beatles’ ‘Blackbird’ was an early epiphany; after that, it was off to Rutherglen Town Hall for group guitar lessons. ‘I wouldn’t cite The Beatles as a massive influence to me in my current style, but I said to the teacher that I wanted to learn to play this song. He said “slow down, it’s actually quite difficult”. But I got there!’

By their own admission, Findlay hated high school and left as soon as feasible, pursuing a musical education at Riverside Music College in Clarkston, UWS in Ayr, and via cultural exchange to Tilburg in the Netherlands. ‘I had a lot of time to sit and play guitar,’ they say. Returning in 2019, they formed a band, which fractured during lockdown (‘the silver lining was self-discovery’). Terra Kin was born, showcasing a seductive sound in the company of multi-instrumentalist Norman Willmore and ace jazz trombonist Liam Shortall.

‘I think it would be overstepping the mark if I called myself a jazz musician, especially in Glasgow with the Conservatoire producing some amazing jazzers,’ says Findlay. ‘I find it really hard to decide exactly where my influences come from. Everything’s managed to worm its way in somehow but I feel like the main genres are jazz, folk and ambient music. I’m also against things being 12 seconds long and all that rubbish. I want to write a song that is seven minutes long and has a half-hour music video. It’s about challenging that attention span and making sure you’re doing things because there’s a story behind it.’

Terra Kin plays The Road To The Great Escape, Glasgow, Saturday 6 May; Too Far Gone is out now on Island Records.