A TV sitcom star is swapping high rises for house music as he prepares to release a new dance tune to raise money for a mental health charity.
Ford Kiernan, who played Jack Jarvis in cult Scottish comedy Still Game for 20 years, has ventured into new territory by collaborating with Aberdeen DJ and producer RYZY.
The idea for the song Coffee Man came about after Kiernan looked at some teabags in his sink and thought about how much of a mess they made.
He said: “I had been at the kitchen sink one day and had this idea for a thing called Coffee Man.
“I jumped on TikTok with it while I still had it in my head.
“I don’t know where it came from, to be honest.
“I was standing in the kitchen thinking how much of a mess tea bags make in the sink. I started thinking, ‘Tea bags in the sink, tea bags in the sink’.
“That’s how these things happen if you’re a creative type.
“Sometimes these things just bubble up in your head until you’ve no option but to try to record it.”
His video had 60,000 views within hours and before long, 500,000 people had seen it.
The Chewin’ The Fat star travelled to La Sierra Casa, near Alicante in Spain, to work with The View frontman Kyle Falconer after a conversation.
Kiernan said: “I’d been to a few of Kyle’s gigs and he asked me last year if I wanted to come to La Sierra Casa.
“I started to lean towards dance music after a few days. I liked the progressions and the way things build.”
It was Falconer who set the wheels in motion for the partnership between Kiernan and RYZY.
RYZY said he ignored the call at first but phoned back when he received a text from Kiernan.
He said: “Ford came up within a few days of that call and we got going.
“He’s a great writer and a great comic, but I was so impressed by the musicality.
“He was really going for it with the ideas, and we were bouncing off each other, no bother. We realised pretty quickly we had something cool and the song took place over a weekend.
“We always had Still Game on in the house when I was growing up so at first it was bizarre to be working on something like this with the guy who made it.
“But I always take things as they come and he’s super down to earth and has been brilliant to work with.”
Kiernan is not chasing chart success but is hoping the proceeds go to the Scottish Association for Mental Health (SAMH).
Kiernan said: “Mental health is a growing concern and a lot of the impact of the pandemic is only becoming evident just now.
“It has caused a lot more ongoing damage than we realise and we should be paying a lot more attention to it.
“Some people might think we’re over the pandemic, but as far as mental health is concerned, I don’t think we are.
“Coffee Man isn’t a crack at the charts. It’s a hobby that will hopefully return some money for charity – and keep me smiling at the same time.”
Hazel McIlwraith, director of fundraising and major appeals at SAMH, said: “SAMH is absolutely thrilled to be the chosen charity beneficiary for the Coffee Man song.
“We’re deeply grateful to Ford for his generous support and recognition. His contribution is invaluable in raising both funds and awareness for Scotland’s mental health, which means so much to all of us at SAMH.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here