Growing up in the Scottish Highlands, Morrie Dolan never imagined herself becoming a musician. Surrounded mostly by traditional ceilidh music, she felt disconnected from the musical world around her. It wasn’t until she discovered a college brochure offering music classes once a week that something clicked. That small step opened a door to something much bigger, meeting people who shared her taste, learning guitar, and eventually moving to Glasgow to study music full time.
Morrie’s journey hasn’t been a straight line. It’s been shaped by grit, growth, and a deep love for music. From busking on Glasgow’s streets to refining her songwriting in her bedroom, she’s carved a path that feels entirely her own. Her sound doesn’t fit neatly into one box. Somewhere between folk, country, pop, and jazz, each song feels like a new chapter, unpredictable but honest.
What sets Morrie apart is her raw passion and thoughtful process. She describes songwriting as her daily therapy, often sparked by unexpected moments of inspiration like watching a series, discovering a new artist online, or simply experimenting with new chords on her guitar. Every voice memo, every scrap of a lyric holds potential in her hands.
While she’s had to toughen up through early experiences like street performing and open mics, Morrie hasn’t lost her drive. She dreams of doing music full time, collaborating with other artists, and one day going on tour, starting as a support act and working toward her own headline shows.
With no set theme or rigid message, Morrie’s music is driven by feeling and story. Whether it’s a personal reflection or a song inspired by a TV character, her work is grounded in sincerity. As she continues building a wider audience beyond friends and family, one thing is clear. Morrie Dolan is an artist on the rise, writing her story one song at a time.
Can you tell us about your journey as an indie musician? What inspired you to pursue a career in music?
This is a kind of long story but I’ll try keep it short. Music had always been a part of my life, in the Scottish highlands the only music direction seemed to be Scottish traditional ceilidh music, at that time I was more of a white stripes kind of girl and didn’t ever consider a life in music, I never really considered having a life at all. I remember finding a brochure for college doing music 1 day a week while still attending high school.
This changed it all for me, going here made me see that not everyone up here plays trad music and actually meeting people with the same interests as me. From here I got better at guitar, wrote songs in my own time and 3 years later I’m moving to Glasgow to do a HND in music. It took me a long time to come into myself and find who I am as a person, an artist, and a performer. Meeting Martin Stephenson to record my first EP really set it all off he welcomed me encouraged me and validated a lot of concerns around this career path.
How would you describe your unique style and sound as an artist? What sets you apart from other musicians?
This is a difficult question for me, maybe because of my varied music taste in general, but I think I do have a very unique style, it’s multi genre, to me it’s just music. But I guess it could be described as country, folky, jazzy, pop? Honestly it’s anything and everything each song is so different. I guess that sets me apart, whenever I’m asked about my genre like at a party or something I usually don’t answer and ask someone else who’s heard it to describe it for me.
Could you share some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced as an indie musician and how you overcame them?
I would definitely say beginning my journey busking and playing open mics were difficult challenges, singing on the streets of Glasgow is a very vulnerable place and you need thick skin to handle it, I did not have that going out there for the first time, people can be brutal and mean but it’s just taught me not to care what other people think, I play the stages now like no one is listening because the ones that like it will be there to hear it. I think a big challenge that I’m still facing is just building my profile and having the kind of audience that want to come to shows I’d really love to reach outward from friends and family and have true organic fans who are there for the music so I’m just working really hard and promoting my work and myself to become someones new favourite.
What is your creative process like? How do you approach songwriting and composing music?
Everyday I wake up and I can’t wait to write a new song. When I’m away from home I get excited thinking about what I am going to create. I try different methods but my most regular process is starting with feeling inspired wether that’s listening to an album that day, or scrolling on social media and seeing someone new with a new song they have written. I always begin with chords and my guitar, im always trying different things and regularly just play around while watching TV.
Sometimes I look up new tunings or try something a bit jazzy or go back to the basics. Once I’ve found something comfortable that I like the sound of I will just hit record on my voice memos and see what I come out with. From there I’ll play it back and see what can be used. I always think everything has potential, whether it’s for this song or another. I’ll listen back to the recording and type the lyrics back on my phone. Once I know a rough structure, this helps me to continue writing and improving. I always try to see what is making it a good song vs a great song. Some of my writing is just for me and to process feelings, emotions, and past conflicts or situations—it’s my therapy!
I love trying out new songs live and seeing if it’s a positive reaction and if people like it (no one’s booed me off stage yet so that’s good) I could talk about writing music all day but I usually sit on the songs for a few days and listen back to my simple recordings to see if im finding new lyrics or something that works better.
Are there any particular themes or messages that you aim to convey through your music? What inspires your lyrics?
I am an avid music listener and lover, I take a lot of overall inspiration from the bands and musicians I see live which widely vary in genre which I think separates me out of the crowd- I go from seeing bands like Korn to Bella White to Taylor swift there is no in between. I take inspiration from everything and everyone to be honest. I usually just jump into a song and figure out what it’s about once I’ve got something down.
I’ve enjoyed setting up more direct tasks for myself in example with a recent song ‘down’ – I had just finished watching the show Yellowjackets (I think I spent 2 days straight watching the whole show) and began writing a song relating to the characters and this really helps me to focus my storytelling and finding a new perspective. So no I don’t really have any specific themes just whatever comes to me and makes sense to the words to begin writing.
What are your long-term goals as an indie musician? Where do you see yourself and your music in the next few years?
My goals as a musician is to be able to do this full time and make a living from it, I want to create for a career, write songs for myself and other people and with them. I love being on stage and the idea of a tour sounds like a dream supporting a larger artists is my current goal however a headline tour would be amazing – although I think I have a lot of time to work hard before I see that happening. I would also love to begin collaborating with more musicians as that’s something I don’t have a lot of experience in.
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