New York, NY (Top40 Charts/ Gordon Duthie Official Website) Aberdeenshire's Gordon Duthie is not all that he seems. On the face of it he seems like an ordinary 25 year old man in love with football, comedy films and of course his long term partner Siobhan. He is a recent International Marketing Management MSc graduate of the Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen and has worked in the local energy industry, like many of his peers. However, despite all of this Duthie has been undertaking a music project - which was kept secret until recently - his entire adult life and this has culminated in the anticipated release of his debut album "Shire and City" which has now surfaced into the public domain (available to buy on 18/06/2012).
Duthie began producing his self funded album seriously in 2008, but only decided to make this public in 2011 - after he had finished university - with the creation of numerous social network profiles, a personal website and the music video for his song "Hide":
Gordon Duthie - Hide (North Aberdeenshire
Music Video) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fG_6taHdQlY
The Aberdeenshire musician has seen a steady increase in followers on Social Media and this even led to him having a Twitter debate with alternative music stalwart
Ben Folds on the distribution strategies being trialled by the music industry. Duthie wrote a thesis and dissertation on music distribution strategies whilst at university and although Folds had a different opinion, his closing remark conveyed respect for the Scotsman's fighting spirit "Lastly @GordonDuthie you seem like you got a lot of heart - good to talk to you".
The underdog spirit is rife in Duthie's work, with the subject matter and production location of his debut album having a focus on an area not particularly known for it's alternative music culture. Duthie outlined this in an interview with STV in which he was talking about his video for "Hide":
"I'm hoping the video gives that part of Aberdeenshire some exposure, and my lyrics are related to the time I spent there growing up and the experiences I've had. I love to make music and it's something I'll always do as a hobby so it'll just be a bonus if It does well. I thought it would be interesting to focus on Aberdeenshire for my music video because the area is not given a lot of exposure; there hasn't been a music video filmed there before to my knowledge and it would be great to be able to raise the profile of the rural landmarks."
However, well travelled Duthie's work does extend past his beloved home region and delves into diverse topics such as the 2011 English Riots and even includes a collaboration with spellbinding Ohio (USA) vocalist Kristen Johnson:
Gordon Duthie - Sadness
Brings us Together (feat. Kristen Johnson): http://soundcloud.com/gordonduthie/sadness-brings-us-together
Duthie has even had a feature dedicated to him on an FM radio station in Sunderland, England; highlighting his cross-appeal in other geographical areas. Online commentators have also drawn comparisons with popular artists such as Nick
Drake and Gruff Rhys, therefore accentuating that Gordon Duthie is certainly not a one trick pony:
"I have a lot of different influences so it's hard to pinpoint one particular artist or genre; I'm hoping my album will show how I've attempted to make it a smooth transition from one song to the other and structured the album a bit differently; each song is very different but they hopefully blend together well. There's no specific style as such and the music is quite alternative."
