Jamie Rafferty found his voice by writing through other people first

The idea of a person being able to pull a song from some mystical place in the universe is incomprehensible to some. Jamie Rafferty was one of those people until he started writing songs himself. For the Scottish singer and songwriter, words always mattered as much as the music itself, but discovering himself as a songwriter has been a lifelong journey. Born and raised in Croy, a former mining village about 20km northeast of Glasgow, Rafferty grew up without the expectation that he'd end up on the path he finds himself on today. While music was around him with a musically inclined family, it never seemed like a real option.His older brother was the first to learn guitar and the then five-year-old Rafferty – eager to follow in his footsteps – decided he had to play drums to accompany him, but after going to see a Noel Gallagher show at 14, guitars finally entered his life. The real heart of his work – songwriting – actually began much earlier though. The first music he recalls affecting him was a tape of the Beach Boys he found in his mum’s car. In fact, she’d introduce a wide spectrum of sounds to his formative mind. “My mum's a big music fan. She was a singles listener, but she wo...