Chemikal Underground Announces “The Fruit Tree Foundation”- featuring Scott Hutchison (Frightened Rabbit), James Graham (Twilight Sad), Rod Jones (Idlewild) and more

9 of Scotland’s finest artists launch a brand new collaborative record as part of 2010’s Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival.

The musicians wrote the material over the course of a few days in an isolated Perthshire farmhouse, focusing on issues relating to mental health and wellbeing.

The album is now being commercially released by Chemikal Underground Records.

Featuring: James Graham Twilight Sad), (Scott Hutchison (Frightened Rabbit), Rod Jones (Idlewild), Jill O’Sullivan (Sparrow and the Workshop), Emma Pollock (The Delgados), Karine Polwart, Jenny Reeve, Alasdair Roberts and James Yorkston.

The Fruit Tree Foundation is a new independent project in Scotland led by musicians Rod Jones and Emma Pollock in partnership with The Mental Health Foundation, Scottish Wave of Change and Breathing Space Scotland. The project has grown from the annual Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival (1-24 October 2010) and aims to raise awareness of mental health and wellbeing and challenge perceptions of mental health problems by creating great art.
This ambitious new project sees some of Scotland’s finest and most exciting artists from the indie and folk music scene come together to explore the relationship between creativity and mental health by writing and producing a brand new album; featuring unique pairings and one-off collaborations between some of our most intriguing song-writers.
The album was exclusively available at two special concerts in Edinburgh and Glasgow last year and is now being released internationally by Glasgow’s seminal record label, Chemikal Underground and will be available to buy for the first time since the concerts in October last year.
Chemikal Underground’s Stewart Henderson:
“While collaborative albums can often be well-meaning, but inevitably patchy affairs, this is emphatically not the case with The Fruit Tree Foundation. For as much as the cause the album supports is an incredibly important one, it really was the strength of the album itself which knocked us out, perhaps not surprisingly when you consider the caliber of those involved. It’s an extraordinarily cohesive piece of work, one which seems to have brought the best out of all the artists and which stands on its own two feet as an album full of intelligence, insight and, most importantly, compellingly great tunes.”

Musician Emma Pollock:

“Writing the new music in the house in Perthshire in such an intense way really brought home to me the inclusive nature of music and how it always manages to convey an energy all of its own. All 9 of us walked in on the first day really quite unaware of what we were about to do, but ultimately the music written carried us all along and the atmosphere in the house was always really positive. Music takes you out of yourself and you can become engrossed in its mood and momentum. This change of perspective can be a wonderful thing and I love the fact there’s so much music out there for us to dive into any time we want to go somewhere new.”
Head of The Mental Health Foundation in Scotland, Isabella Goldie:

“Music is able to engage people on such an emotional and personal level. It can help you feel less alone, feel you belong or just make the day seem a bit more special. We all have songs that mean something to us and music is able to engender memories like no other art form. It’s impossible to imagine a world without music; it plays such an important part in our lives. It can help us form identities, express ourselves and provide meaning. “The artists on this album have come together under the banner of mental health to explore what mental health means to them and to challenge some of the stereotypes that we attach to people that experience mental health problems. We may not all develop mental health problems, but if we are fortunate enough not to, we are likely to have people close to us that will. This music project gives people a chance to reflect and consider what we can all do collectively to improve mental health within our society”.
Breathing Space Scotland National Coordinator, Tony McLaren:

“Breathing Space Scotland is delighted to sponsor the Fruit Tree Foundation. Music for many people is an instant way of taking Breathing Space. We can all relate to listening to a favourite song on the radio and feeling it lift our spirits. Music can be an instant mood lifter, a way of unwinding and keeping stress at bay.

PARTNERS
The Fruit Tree Foundation partners include The Mental Health Foundation, Scottish Wave of Change, and Breathing Space Scotland with additional funding support from Awards For All and Merchants House.

The Mental Health Foundation is a leading UK mental health charity that conducts robust research, provides practical solutions to help everyone lead mentally healthier lives, and works to raise public

awareness and improve mental health services for the entire population. The Foundation is proud of the vital role it plays in hosting, developing and managing the Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival and the Fruit Tree Foundation.