HE has been playing the bagpipes since he was seven but Kevin MacDonald understands why the instrument can put so many people on edge.

The 39-year-old is a member of the Red Hot Chilli Pipers, a 16-piece band who play a unique fusion of traditional Scottish music and rock and pop anthems which they call ‘bagrock’.

But after 15 years of music – and hot air – Kevin agrees when Weekend suggests the bagpipes are a misunderstood instrument.

“Technically I’d say yes but I can understand why because bagpipes played not very well is horrible,” he said.

“Bagpipes played well and in tune with other instruments can actually provide something a bit different – and I hope that’s what we do.”

That is easier said than done because it can take months or even years to master the basics on the bagpipes.

Kevin added: “Anybody in the world could pick up a guitar and three or four hours later they can strum three chords or do something. Whereas with the bagpipes it can be six months, nine months, a year or even two years until you actually play something that doesn’t sound like a cat getting killed.

“That took me a year to 18 months so my mum and dad had to go through the tortures of listening to me.

“Some would argue I’m still learning 33 years after I started. I started when I was seven and I was a professional by the time I was 14 or 15.”

The Red Hot Chilli Pipers formed when Kevin and four friends were booked to play an annual ball.

They were bored of the usual format and the usual songs so they tried throwing a few rock songs into the mix.

Now they do between 160 and 180 shows a year worldwide and have more than 80 songs in their repertoire. Their signature track is Queen’s We Will Rock You and Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’ always goes down well live.

Kevin said: “We’ve grown over the years. This is our 15th year and the initial stages there was shock or a bit of surprise that the bagpipes could merge in with mainstream instrumentation.

“But now a lot of the people coming to the shows will have heard the band and are coming as fans.

“There’s always new people coming out of curiosity and there’s one or two who mistake us for a tribute to the Red Hot Chilli Peppers which it certainly is not.

“There’s two types of tracks. We’ll take traditional Scottish or Irish music and add a rock element or we’ll take a rock song and add the bagpipes to it.

“We see what works. We’re restricted to the nine notes on the bagpipes so sometimes we can’t play the songs because they have more than that.”

The novelty factor helped them get some big breaks in their early days too.

Kevin, who has just completed a tour of the US and Europe, added: “Playing Proms in the Park in 2013 to 30,000 people in London was amazing and opening T in the Park the following year was incredible.”

And Coldplay are at the top of their list in terms of dream collaborations.

Kevin said: “Coldplay actually play a lot of music in the same key as the bagpipes so we’ve adapted three or four of their songs.

“So we’d love to play with Coldplay on stage. You never know.”

Kevin was introduced to the bagpipes when he joined the 47th Culter Boys’ Brigade in Aberdeen.

He added: “I then moved from Aberdeen to Glasgow when I was 11 and I joined a community pipe band and you’re basically interacting with people of all ages from 11 to 60.

“I’m a chartered accountant in my day job but I’ve also been in pipe bands where to my left was a top Glasgow Warrior (a rugby union side) and to my right was a bricklayer. It allowed me to mix in social circles and understand that nobody’s really better than anybody else.

“You can say that’s the same with a football or a rugby club – all walks of life take part in it – but for me it’s pipe bands and it gave me a level of maturity when I was in my teens.”

Kevin was not so sure about telling his school friends about his passion though.

He said: “When I was in high school I didn’t tell anybody I played the bagpipes as it wasn’t a cool instrument and then when was 15 or 16 I played at the school concert.

“All of a sudden I was seen as the cool kid for probably all of 30 seconds – then I went back to being the nerd...”

DAVID MORGAN

Red Hot Chilli Pipers will be at the Parr Hall on Friday, November 17 at 8pm. 

Tickets are £22.50 (£24.25 inc online booking fee)

More details here.