A TALENTED musician is rubbing shoulders with Scotland’s top artists after his debut album was nominated for Scottish Album of the Year.

Callum Easter’s Here Or Nowhere is one of 20 albums on the longlist for the prestigious prize, alongside artists including Lewis Capaldi and Karine Polwart.

The former Dunbar Grammar School pupil, who mastered the album at Edinburgh College, spent months working on it before its release in April last year.

He said: “It’s great to be up for the award.

“It feels good and it is nice to get the recognition.

“I was right on the cusp for this year because the album has been out for a wee while now.

“It feels a bit strange looking back but it is quite good and I am just about to finish the next one.

“The funny thing with this album is that I recorded it all, mixed it all and even mastered it.

“I played everything on it and it was mainly due to budget and the time it took to do it all.

“It is quite a learning curve but it is great to get in the final 20.”

A judging panel of industry experts will now narrow the 20 albums down to nine, with the winner of a public vote rounding off the shortlisted top 10.

The Scottish Album of the Year (SAY) Award ceremony will be broadcast on October 29.

The winning artist will pick up a £20,000 cash prize, with the nine runners up each being awarded £1,000.

Each shortlisted artist will also receive an exclusively designed piece of artwork from The SAY Award Design Commission.

Callum, 33, who grew up in Dunbar, released the album – described as “a sparse, stark, deeply personal and by turns hopeful, menacing and despairing clutch of intuitively retro-futuristic songs united” – on the Lost Map label, with work now well under way on the follow up, which will be released by Moshi Moshi Music.

He said: “It’s coming along, it’s getting there.

“I find it is like everything where there are ups and downs.

“I have had a little tricky bit but I think I’m getting through it.”

Despite Here Or Nowhere being his debut album, Callum is no stranger to the music scene.

He played organ with Dunbar-based indie band The Stagger Rats before the band split seven years ago.

Now based in Edinburgh, Callum, whose mum Gill Last, dad Lawrence Easter, and younger sister Lawren Fraser still live in Dunbar, was determined to continue working in music, as well as taking on jobs with the Edinburgh Playhouse and the Scottish Parliament.

He said supporting his family through music would be the “dream” but that while he was always a fan of music it was not until his early 20s that he started trying to sit down and play something.

He added: “My grandfather played the clarinet.

“He passed away a few years back and I got a lot of instruments from him – all the stuff he would not loan me at the time!

“I’ve got xylophones, glockenspiels and he played the clarinet but I am not so good on the ocarina.

“I just tried them out and I think he collected instruments.”

Details of the SAY award and how to vote for Callum will be available on www.sayaward.com