Our retreats include an intensive five-day programme of masterclasses with our multis award-winning Writers In Residence.
~ OUR SEVEN DAY ITINERARY ~
SUN - arrive by boat to Inverie, Knoydart for the welcome dinner
MON to FRI- daily masterclasses, writing challenges for solo and collaborative writing
FRI EVE- Perform your newly written songs at the Knoydart Hall
SAT - board the morning boat back to Mallaig and your onward journeys
The End of Retreat Concert invites the Knoydart residents to watch you perform your newly written songs live!
The fee includes your accommodation for six nights in a beautiful house on the shore of Loch Nevis and breakfast, lunch and dinner (bar one night).
£1,850 | only 11 places on each retreat
SHELLY POOLE
&
PAUL STATHAM
24th - 28th April 2023
SOLD OUT
It is so wonderful to announce the return of Shelly Poole and Paul Statham to Knoydart for their second Songwriting Retreat.
Shelly is a highly respected award-winning songwriter and has worked closely and had hits with talents as diverse as Janet Jackson, Roachford, Massive Attack, Jack Savoretti, Mark Ronson, Gary Barlow, Westlife, Ronan Keating, Boyzone, Paloma Faith, Michael Gray, Zucchero, Giorgio Moroder amongst many others. Shelly also continues to write with produce and mentor new and emerging artists and has recently composed and supervised two feature film soundtracks – My Old School and Dragged Up Dirty.
Paul is a multi-platinum selling songwriter and producer whose commercial pop compositions have contributed to around 30 million album sales. These include the lead single 'Here With Me' and the title track 'No Angel' from Dido’s US and UK No 1 album ‘No Angel’ (24 million sales) and 2 co-writes and productions on Kylie Minogue's international No 1 album ‘Fever’ (7 million sales).
BOO HEWERDINE
&
DARDEN SMITH
15th - 19th May 2023
SOLD OUT
Simply two of the finest songwriters to grace this planet and they're going to be together in Knoydart as your Writers In Residence!.
Boo is one of the busiest gigging musicians around, playing upwards of 200 live shows every year. Sometimes referred to as ‘a musician’s musician’, his songs have been covered by over 50 other artists. These include Eddi Reader (who recorded Boo’s Ivor Novello Award nominated song Patience of Angels), kd lang, Natalie Imbruglia, Hepburn, Marti Pellow, Swan Dive and Suggs.
Darden Smith is a Texas-based musician and artist whose career of over thirty-five years continues to evolve and grow. He has released seventeen critically acclaimed albums and toured extensively in both the US and Europe. Among his other diverse projects, Smith has composed a symphony, scored three full-length dance theater works, produced a documentary for BBC2 Radio and written music for film and TV. His visual art is in both private and corporate collections as well as the Library of Congress. He is the cofounder and former creative director of both SongwritingWith:Soldiers and Frontline Songs, which bring collaborative songwriting to veteran and healthcare communities. The Habit of Noticing: Using Creativity to Make a Life (and a Living), a collection of his writings, photos and drawings, was published in 2018. His latest work, Western Skies (2022), is a sprawling multimedia collection comprised of a book of photography, lyrics and essays, an album of new music, a separate spoken word album (Western Skies—The Essays), videos, a suite of lithographs and a theater performance piece that brings together the music, writings and images.