BEGINNINGS
Born into puppetry and brought up in the arts, Ewan spent his summers from a very early age tagging along with his parent doing giant outdoor pageants and performances. He briefly studied Bharatnatyam under the influence of his mother and sister who as a family went with their pappy to india where he went to school for about 6 months at the age of nine. His interest ran away from him when he saw one of the local kids getting beaten by their teacher and he then moved on to study Kaleri Pyatum with an amazing dancer and choreograoher of 'Midsummer Night Dream' Poppan, a short bouncy gent from Kerala.
It was at this time that not only did Ewan get the most disgusting dhiorea from eating chips in Div (the Gujurati equivilant to Goa) but he also creating with his fantastic sister Rachael their first ever musical production "The Star Wars Christmas Show" as a Christmas present for their parents.
ADVENTURES
At age eleven Ewan got his first work from his parents company "The Edinburgh Puppet Company" who later turned into "The Puppet-Lab". This work ranged from building his first giant puppet in Lisbon out of withies, muslin and bamboo, to doing forestry puppet shows with Rick Conte, Matt Rudkin and also performing a shadow puppet version of "Tam O'Shanter" as part of the Burns Celebrations in Alloway with Mother Kim Bergsagel and Actor Sandy Grierson
At the age of sixteen Ewan went off to Azerbaijan to create and perform a show for Scottish expacts as a St Andrews day celebration. During this period he also ran a shadow puppet workshop at the International School and performed a show for kids who had been exposed to radiation.
After this unique experience along with his family Ewan set off around the world, creating a show, for which he wrote the music for. It was an adaptation of the Tempest, titled "The Enchantment" in which he played Ariel "T he Spirit of the Island". This show was performed at special performances organised by the British Council in Kerala and Chennai, at the Delhi International Puppet Festival, Natrani in Gujarat, Phnom Pehn Puppet Theatre and Various locations in Thalaind, Canada, Australia and America. When in Gujurat Ewan also took the opportunity to pick up Kaleri Pyatum again, picking up movements that he still practices to this day.
"RUBY AND THE EMERALDS"
On return from this adventure Ewan attended Perth College, studying Music performance with his first instrument being Voice. Over this period Ewan created band "Ruby & the Emeralds" with fellow students Paddy Hare, Malcolm Devenny, Dominic Hardy, and Robert "Ruby" Maitland. Over the years this band became almost an obsession in relation to promotion and attempting to keep it all from going under. Over the years members came and went and the band got the chance to perform with 13 peice orchestra "Music at the Brewhouse" at Perth Concert Hall in 2006 and tried out many different bass players and performers until it finally sat comfortably in 2007 with additional bodies Rob Macneacail on Bass and Alex Audsmith on Percussion and Electronics on top of Paddy Hare on Saxophone, Dom on Drums and Ewan on Guitar and Lead Vocals.
The band grew strong with time and played some truly great gigs at festivals, clubs and Community events across Scotland, Including The Isle of Eigg Tenth Anniversary Festival ***** In which Ruby & the Emeralds were praised as "one of the highlights of the festival. The band went on to Record with Henrick Ekeus in November 2007, creating their first and only space age adventure "The Legendary Tale of Captain Baz", about a pothead explorer who loses his attachments to life and slips inside his own dream like state of being. They created a stage version of the Album which they performed at "The Leith Festival" at themes of the Album appeared sporadically throughout their timeline.
Their final most acheivement was to perform Knockengorroch festival in September 2009 after which the band called it a day to freshen up their ideas elsewhere.
RECENT STUFF
Outwith the band Ewan discovered a talent for guitar making, crafting a twelve string guitar at Norman Reeds School of Guitar Making. He has kept on with his composition, writing songs for shows including "Puppet Lab's" "The Wee Tartan Shoppie", "The Gift", A short film by Tereza about the Big Man and worked on Gaidhlaig melodies with Joe Acheson for a welcome song for The Big Man Walking on new years day in Edinburgh which he also sang out of a cherry picker to thousands of people outside Holyrood Palace. In the later days of his band Ewan created his own press titled 'Brikolage' a free zine which he promoted alongside his Night Club "The Big Freak", a zany mix of music arts and crafts, baking, fancy dress, themes and all sorts of fun games.
Most recently he, along with Reem Behzad, Paddy Hare and Rachael Macintyre recieved a grant from Puppet animation Scotland to build a five minute show for 'Manipulate festival' which he performed in February 2010 and November 2009 at the Traverse and Carnegie Hall in Dumfermiline. The performance is part of many short peices which he and fellow performers Paddy Hare and Sister Rachael Macintyre plan to develop. Their next performance is in london at 'The Little Angel Theatre' in London as part of a The Puppet Grinder Cabaret.
He is also Performing as part of "Southern Tennent Folk Union" playing percussion, singing and playing bluegrass.
Biography