Graham McGregor-Smith couldn’t be happier. At 61, he has finally fulfilled his lifelong dream – recording an album. The cover of Road to Anywhere features a photograph of Highway 50 in the US state of Nevada taken by McGregor-Smith when he cycled from San Francisco to New York for charity in 2017. He did everything else himself, too, from writing and performing the songs to the recording and artwork, albeit with some help along the way. In March, he will play at the Pizza Express Jazz Club in London to celebrate the release; he has a second gig in June.
McGregor-Smith, who is from Worcestershire, grew up listening to bands such as Ramones, Siouxsie and the Banshees and Simple Minds but looks back further than that for his own music. The album mixes 40s and 50s swing with some 60s bossa nova and 70s US country rock thrown in for good measure. “When I take the dog for a walk, I’m always humming swing tunes to myself, so it had to be swing,” he says.
There’s a reason his first album has been 47 years in the making. McGregor-Smith hit his first hurdle in the music business early on: his mother. “When I was about 14, my mum said: ‘Oh, Graham, I can’t wait for you to rebel. I’m wondering what kind of ear studs you are going to get and whether you’ll get a tattoo.’ That sent me into a tailspin because how could I possibly rebel in the conventional way when it was being actively encouraged by my mother?” He ended up rebelling by not rebelling.
“I guess it all goes back to my Sliding Doors moment in 1977 when I had to choose my A-levels – maths, business studies and chemistry,” he says. “I wasn’t interested in sport. My life was all about music, but the bands I was watching on telly seemed like they were from another planet. I just could not contemplate a life in music in the way that they had.” His focus was very much about becoming an adult and living a conventional life: “Going out to work, finding a wife, finding a house and a car, 2.4 children. So that’s the path I embarked on.”
McGregor-Smith went to the University of Manchester to study economics, specialising in accountancy and business finance. In 1983, he moved to London to train as a chartered accountant. By 1987, he was qualified, and by 1996 the checklist was complete: job, wife, house, car, two children. But it was clear that something wasn’t making him happy.
In 2007, his wife, Ruby, became chief executive of a FTSE 250 company. “Only then could I admit that I absolutely hated every single minute of the career that I had chosen,” he says. “It was important for us that one of us was around to bring up the kids.” He resigned and became a stay-at-home dad.
Once both children were at university, McGregor-Smith finally found the time to return to his true passion. In 2019, he started writing songs at home on his keyboard. In 2021, during the pandemic, he joined the Songwriting Academy, which connects songwriters, artists and producers around the world. There he met the producer, arranger, songwriter and musician Julian Hinton, who has worked with everyone from Rod Stewart to Seal to Stormzy.
In September 2022, three months after McGregor-Smith’s 60th birthday, the two men spent three months recording the album in Swindon and Reading with session musicians. The final album was mixed and mastered in 2023.
“The whole process was an absolute joy,” he beams. He is happier all round, “because I’m finally living a life of creativity. I’m so fortunate to be in this position. Every day is a creative day now, whether I’m thinking about marketing, social media or co-writing a song over Zoom.”
Plans for world domination are afoot. A second album is nearly finished. “Ultimately, I want to tour the UK, Europe and the US on rotation, but I appreciate it might take many years to achieve that.” First up is his album launch, in March. “If the teenage Graham could see me now, it would blow his mind,” he says, smiling.
Road to Anywhere by Graham McGregor-Smith is out on 12 March; mcgregor-smith.bandcamp.com
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