Kirkcaldy songwriter Willie Scott dug up a new hobby in lockdown when work dried up. It gave him a new lease of life and is now entertaining others too.
Willie, 44, whose work includes co-writing two songs on Fleur East’s recent album, took his love of metal detecting and discovering buried treasure onto YouTube to entertain friends and family.
But the channel – called Dirty Secrets Of Scotland – soon took off and has now attracted nearly 2000 subscribers in just a few months.
Willie said metal detecting has always been a form of escape, even more so when his career was put on hold due to the pandemic.
He said: “During the various lockdowns, my working life went into chaos.
“The only thing I could think of doing to escape was to go detecting. Then, even that was stopped, during the most stringent government restrictions!
“One day I decided to try my hand at video editing, to keep me sane and hopefully learn how to put some videos together for my friends and family to watch.
“I’m a musician, so I thought I could also make the music too, as all studio sessions with other writers and artists were off limits.
“So, I set about getting to grips with editing and making videos!”
Message in a bottle
A few months into making the videos, Willie stumbled on a Victorian bottle tip on one of his metal detecting trips.
“I soon fell in love with the wide variety of glass and stoneware bottles I was finding – it’s a similar buzz to metal detecting for me!
“It was then I had the idea to put my videos onto a YouTube channel dedicated to treasure hunting and call it Dirty Secrets Of Scotland.
“The channel took off much more quickly than I’d expected.
“I was delighted to find myself being accepted into the treasure hunting community on YouTube fairly quickly, with other more experienced YouTubers offering help and encouragement and even shouting out my channel in their videos!”
And after being asked if the theme tune he recorded for each of his videos would ever be made into a full-length song, Willie decided to do it and record a video too.
“The song is a thanks for the encouragement I’ve received and also for the subscribers.
‘No politics or depressing news – just fun’
“Metal detecting is an escape and my channel features no politics or depressing news stories – the videos are purely about treasure hunting and the thrill and the joy of the chase.
“The music video is just a bit of fun and I hope that people will get a good laugh out of it too. I know I did when we made it!
Dirty Secrets Of Scotland Theme is available for pre-order now and is officially released on August 20 on all major music platforms.