NEW YEAR is a busy time for anyone, but for Keith Easdale it spells pandemonium.
Not only will the Stepps-based musician juggle gig dates with the traditional Scottish band Calasaig, he will also perform at Celtic Connections, produce score music for a new film - and perform for UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in New York.
And
all this after recently completing the band's fourth album, due out this Christmas. But Keith insists he is not one for complaining.
"I'm lucky - I enjoy it. It sounds a bit cliched that if I was a millionaire tomorrow I'd still be doing the same thing - but I would. I love it. It's not a money thing at all. It's being able to do what I want to do, play music," he says. "Either that or stubborn. I don't know which."
Perhaps it's an interminable sense of humour that keeps Keith going - or, as he suggests, the endless mugs of coffee downed while in the recording studio. But establishing the reasoning behind musicians' actions can often prove challenging, and Keith admits he is no different.
He has never been able to put his finger on why he first started playing traditional Scottish music, but having made his first album at the tender age of 16, it's clear the methodology works.
"I learned the pipes when I was six at piping classes in Cumbernauld. I don't remember a great deal about it, but for some reason I always wanted to play the pipes," he says.
"By the age of nine I started to hear various folk groups of the day. Then I was fortunate enough to go to Stornaway for my secondary education, which introduced me to Gaelic culture and made a big difference to me musically. After playing in a folk group there, and making my first album, I started touring. I got the bug and said: this is it - this is what I want to do."
Now 32, Keith can play a whole array of musical instruments, ranging from the whistle and flute to the mandocello.
His most recent acquisition, a Victorian-era pedal harmonium imported from the United States, required just a touch of Easdale tender loving care before it could be used on the latest album. You get the impression it will not be the last of Keith's musical experiments.
FILM
January, for example, will see him start production work on the score for the new film May Day, written by Robin Hardy, known for the Wicker Man.
It's taken five years for the musician to reach this stage. However, now that the notes are securely down on paper, Keith can't wait to get in the studio.
But the professional musician is used to variety. Currently teaching at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and the Piping Centre in Glasgow, Keith has toured for the last five years as piper with the Scottish Fiddle Orchestra. Add to this hectic itinerary the jet-setting schedule of Calasaig - which this year included gigs in Canada and Russia, and next year includes northern Denmark and the Netherlands - and you can understand why coffee-drinking is one of Keith's favourite past-times.
But does the musician find time to relax? Keith laughs. With his last holiday merely a two-day motoring trip to Ireland, it seems he is not one for taking it easy. Even his passion for motorbikes involves hard graft. And while most of the nation enjoy lounging in front of the TV, it's good old-fashioned Radio 4 that this man favours - and he's not ashamed to admit it.
"The shipping forecast, The Archers, that's what I like. There's something really comforting about turning on the radio and hearing the BBC World Service, no matter where you are in the world. You can't beat it," he says.
And when he's not tuning in to the dulcet tones of the BBC, Keith spends his time reading. Historical novels are what gets the musician's imagination running,.
However, when he really wants to relax it's not high-brow biographies, but comic books that Keith turns to.
It seems the hectic schedule hasn't affected his ability to enjoy the simple things in life.
Does he ever regret becoming a musician? "There are times when you say I wish I'd listened to my dad and got a proper job," he says. "But that soon goes out the window. You can stand in the most bizarre places, or wake up in a hotel room and think, what is this all about? Why am I here? But then it hits you and you think no, this is great."
Getting to Know You
First record: An early album by the Cambuslang-based Scottish folk group, Ossian.
First car: Never owned a car - always stayed faithful to motorbikes.
Favourite holiday: A two-day motorbike trip to see my sister in Ireland last year.
Favourite TV show: Don't watch TV. Big Radio 4 fan.
Current book: Commando comics.
Famous person you would most like to meet: They're all dead!