Now Playing: LUSA

Innes Strachan has already conquered the world once as part of electro-trad pioneers Niteworks, now he's launched brand new project LUSA and their first single 'Probably'.

Today sees the release of ‘Probably’ - the brilliant first single from new electro-pop act LUSA by Innes Strachan.

He sat down with me ahead of the release to talk about how the project came together, who is involved, and the inspiration behind the music.

LUSA has teamed up with vocalist Beth Malcolm and co-songwriter, Donald Macdonald to create a debut album they describe as “emotive electro-pop songs and synth driven electronica.”

Co-produced by Andrea Gobbi, there are also contributions from long term friend and fellow Niteworks band member Ruairidh Graham on percussion, Laura Wilkie on strings, Keir Long on piano and a spoken word piece written by poet Colin Bramwell and delivered by actor Lorne Macfadyen.

Strachan has seen success with Niteworks by co-producing, writing and releasing three critically acclaimed albums, sold out iconic Scottish venues and headlined festivals all over the world.

Having always had aspirations to take on a new musical direction outside of the traditional music scene, a shock diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) in 2020 was the catalyst to push on with this and the idea for LUSA was formed.

LUSA aims to raise awareness of the condition and to highlight that a career in music is possible living with a chronic illness such as MS.

Innes said “When I got the news of the MS diagnosis, it was quite a scary prospect to come to terms with. One of the things that got me through - aside from my family - was to try and turn it into a positive; kick on with what I wanted to achieve and make sure I didn’t hang around waiting for things to happen.”

In the podcast he talks about his condition, the music, and background to ‘Probably’ - one of the most exciting pieces of new music this year so far.