REMEMBER Remember founder Graeme JD Ronald releases his first new music in five years next week. Twelve-track album Danielle is the soundtrack to a short documentary by Gareth Warland, who was shortlisted for the young director award in Cannes earlier this year.
The poetic record sees Ronald (inset) return to Mogwai’s Rock Action label following Forgetting The Present, Remember Remember’s third album, described by veteran music critic David Peschek as “a pinnacle, not just for the band but for Scottish music”.The instrumental group went on hold soon after the 2014 album’s release.
Now Ronald’s elegant compositions soundtrack tells the story of Danielle MacGillvray, a runner, horse rider, volunteer firefighter and mother to Peter, who lives with her in the Outer Hebrides. The 27-year-old is one of around 110,000 people in the UK with multiple sclerosis (MS), which affects the nerve cells of the brain and spinal cord.
The project, Ronald’s first film soundtrack, comes after a period of transition for the Scottish musician, who now lives in St Louis, Missouri, with his wife and son.
Since Remember Remember’s break, the Glasgow School of Art graduate has been establishing himself as a sound designer and audio/video artist, working for podcasts, art festivals and with Nottingham-based games developers Dambuster Studios on Homefront: The Revolution.
Ronald’s background and artistic sensibilities made for a good fit with Warland, though the director didn’t pull his punches giving feedback.
“The very first thing I wrote for Gareth was for a scene where Danielle is talking about her symptoms,” says Ronald. “I whipped out all the classic Remember Remember stuff that I used to: the bells and glockenspiels, that Steve Reich type of thing. Straight away Gareth said: ‘No, this is totally wrong for this.’” Ronald adds: “It was quite brutal but it was honest too, which I really liked. Immediately I realised that this would be a different type of project to me just writing music that pleases me; that the music had to be sympathetic to the story and it had to realise another’s vision.”
Figures show Scotland has among the highest prevalence of MS in the world, with around 10,000 people living with the condition. Experts point to genetic and environmental factors, with Scotland’s cloud cover meaning people often don’t get enough vitamin D. Danielle, who says she has a “deep-rooted sense of belonging to the islands”, addresses the issue in the film.
“The phrase she uses is maybe it’s ‘home’s fault’,” says Ronald. “That sealed the deal for me in terms of wanting to work on the project, that ambivalence; that the place you love may be contributing negatively to your health. That struck me on a deep level.
“Plus, me being away from home and watching these beautiful images of Scotland, there was a certain amount of me channelling my own home sickness into it as well. The film made me reflect deeply on our connection to where we come from, and the extent to which it defines us as people.”
Now Ronald’s son attends nursery, the musician hopes to score more films in the future – and he’s not giving up on his beloved band. “I’m reluctant to call Remember Remember finished,” he says. “I much prefer to think it’s simply on this hiatus.”
Danielle is out on November 29, Watch it here bit.ly/Daniellefilm
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