Hey Skotty is the new project from musician Skotty Fairclough that's part of his grand scheme to bring more happiness into the world.
Skotty calls it his 'happiness project' and the idea is simple: write and release music that makes people feel happy, then see how far the good vibes spread.
He released the first song, 'Wonderful Morning', back in August and says this is just the beginning. “It's something quite new for me and I really, in this instance, wanted to let the song do its own speaking, and it did, it really has,” Skotty says.
“It's travelled and continues to travel, it's a bit of an unfolding story. As a circle of happiness that was the whole idea; to write something to see if it would induce happy feelings in other people, but I wanted to see if that would do a full circle and enrich my world by having all those positive things said to me about my music.”
It's all about a reciprocal exchange of positive emotion that is passed on from listener to listener. The project came about at a point in Skotty's life when things were, well, not so happy and he made a choice to be the change he wanted to see in the world. “A few years a go I hit a really bad burnout,” he explains.
“I literally did too many shows, too much in a short space of time and I struggled to get back up. I never really wanted to give up music and I was still playing and actively writing records, picking up the pieces and trying to break back into a hard-rock market and it just wasn't working.
“I could see myself going right back down, it was kind of an internal feeling. I really had to meet my maker in that way.
“With Hey Skotty, I really wanted to write something that captured the feeling of happiness, that when you play it it sounds like happiness whether you're into hardcore or the blues or whatever.
"Something that is broad that you can listen to it, appreciate and acknowledge that it sounds really happy. The idea was to capture that feeling, put it out there and see what that in itself brought back.”
'Wonderful Morning' is the first single from Skotty's upcoming EP 'Play Nice', which is due for release around March/ April next year.
The next single will be called 'Sunshine' and will be out in February. “Hey Skotty for me is really the culmination of all the years of experience, education and expertise put forward into something that ticks all the boxes in terms of how to do it and how to do it well,” Skotty says.
“It's a really different space to see kids dancing, grandparents dancing, parents dancing, businesses sharing my video as motivation to their staff; I think that's a great contribution as a person, not just as an artist. Ultimately the product I sell is happiness, so how could I not be happy?”
'Wonderful Morning' is available now. Hey Skotty performs at Creative Jar Community Christmas Concert (Cabarita Beach) 15 December.
