Findlay Napier ain’t just all about the tunes, he wants you to get cozy with his words too. “It’s like diving into the Internet Movie Database while watching a flick,” says the Highland folk singer about his latest project, a combo of an album and a book.
“The goal is to draw folks in a bit. They can dig into the stories behind the songs.” Clocking in at 154 pages, Napier’s book for his fresh album, Outsider, is more like a picture book – the singer-songwriter’s version of a user manual. “It’s got the full lowdown on the record, with bios of all the ‘cast and crew’, and then there’s a couple of in-depth essays,” he explains.
“Jen Anderson from The Bothy Society record label suggested it might be cool to learn more about the songwriting process. She asked for a paragraph or two. And 10,000 words later…” Well, not exactly. The book, part of a new series by The Bothy Society, is chock-full of photos as well as words. There are even guitar tabs for the die-hard fans who want to strum along to these folk tunes themselves.
“I wrote a whole piece about recording from the singer’s perspective,” he says. “I spent my younger years devouring Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett, so I struggle to take myself too seriously. The back of the book is like a songbook, with lyrics and chords above them. I used to adore the idea of just grabbing a book and playing along, with the chords right there. It never had the fancy chord shapes. So I included all the shapes for that one teen who might read it and figure out the chord.”
The Arran-based singer also found inspiration in comedian Stewart Lee’s writing, especially his recent book The Life and Near Death of a Stand Up Comedian. “He has notes all through it. Sometimes it’s half a page of text and half a page of notes. I thought that was pretty funny. I learned a lot from that book, and that’s what I aimed for.” In reality, Napier’s book is partly a reaction to the fleeting nature of music releases in the digital age, where even big album drops come and go without ever being touched, opened, smelled. Vinyl revival or not, most new music in 2025 is just digital mist.
Napier, hailing from Grantown on Spey, shares a quote from Jen Anderson about missing having something tangible to read when she puts on a new album, cracks open a bottle, and sits by the fire. “Folks ain’t buying as much physical stuff these days,” he notes. “So this book is like a stand-in for the album cover. A lot of people on Spotify don’t pay, but some do, and we get a tiny slice of that.”
Spotify claims they paid artists £7.7 billion last year, but for artists like Napier, who hustles hard and wears many hats (teaching and leading music workshops), it’s peanuts. “I’m pulling in about £15 a month,” he says. “Back in the day, I’d sell around 15 CDs at gigs plus some merch. That kept the lights on or gas in the tank.”
The demise of CDs isn’t solely on streaming services. Another culprit? Cars. “Musicians have been chatting about this since 2007,” Napier explains. “The car industry phased out CD players when everyone had iPods. The CD was on its last legs, if not already dead. And even those CDRs from the ’90s are starting to fall apart.”
Whether you’re listening or reading, the lyrics on Napier’s new album delve into the title. “All the songs are about folks who see themselves as outsiders but maybe aren’t really. There’s even one about an old audio gadget, Amberola Blue, a wax cylinder recorder that’s obsolete now, of course.
“At some point, everybody feels like an outsider. I know I have. I’ve made choices like singing in a Scottish accent, which automatically puts you on the outside compared to going for an American accent. But when I heard Ian Dury singing in his Essex accent, it hit me how authentic it sounded.
“Artists like John Prine, Joni Mitchell, Nick Lowe have always danced to their own tune. So when you look around, you realize this idea of being ‘in’ is nonsense. Nobody’s truly on the inside. Everybody’s scrapping to fit in. Maybe if we all embraced ourselves a bit more, the world would be a brighter place.”
Outsider is available now. Head to thebothysociety.com for Album Books. Findlay Napier’s upcoming gigs include Orkney Folk Festival on May 22, Irvine Folk Club on May 28, King Tuts in Glasgow on June 23, Ely Folk Festival on July 13, and Birnham Arts Centre in Dunkeld on November 7.
