It will be a “dream come true” for former Fife fire fighter Stevie McCrorie if his debut album goes to number one in the official UK music charts.
In an interview with The Courier, the winner of BBC talent show The Voice 2015 said the release of his album Big World on Friday January 8 was the “next important step” in his music career.
And yet the 30-year-old feels “anxious” about how it will be received and admits that anywhere in the top 10 will be an “amazing achievement”.
He said: “It’s been an anxious week. I feel really proud of the album. I believe it should get the reaction it deserves. But a lot of it is all about timing and luck. To get the chart position that I want for it is a bit of an unknown. If pre-orders are anything to go by, the album will be well received. On Tuesday it was in the top three iTunes pre-orders. That’s pretty good. It’s a good sign.
“But it’s not going to be easy. Adele and Justin Bieber are holding the top 10 at the minute. They are strong. I’m really excited about the release, but it’s been pretty tough going!”
Stevie, of Alva, Clackmannanshire, was famously entered for The Voice by his colleagues in the Kirkcaldy fire service and they have been giving him good humoured “stick” about where they think the album will chart.
All four judges turned for his audition and, under the mentorship of Kaiser Chiefs frontman Ricky Wilson, he thundered to victory last April, backed by The Courier’s ‘Vote Stevie’ campaign.
He immediately became the show’s biggest success story when his debut single – a cover of Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine’s Oscar-nominated track Lost Stars hit number six in the official UK charts and number one in Scotland.
Now, with the release of Big World, Stevie hopes that, in addition to having an extraordinary voice, he can be proved as an accomplished songwriter in his own right.
The last few months have been a whirl wind of TV, radio and press interviews as well as live performances ranging from T in the Park to The Courier Business Awards.
He has also spent considerable time commuting up and down to London to record the album, armed with a notebook bought for him by Ricky Wilson full of lyrics and melodies which had buzzed in his head for years.
With the new series of The Voice launching on Saturday January 9, Stevie added he had been pleased to received “good luck” messages from Ricky Wilson about the album.
Stevie will be performing live acoustic sets and signing copies of his album over the weekend of January 9 and January 10 at HMV stores in Stirling, Edinburgh, Livingston and Glasgow Braehead.
*A full interview with Stevie McCrorie will appear in The Courier Weekend magazine on January 16.