Montrose man Terry Meighan had been stacking shelves on night shift at his local Tesco for 12 years when he thought: “There’s only so long you can turn around a tin of baked beans so that the label faces the front!”
Now, seven years after jacking in his “dead-end going nowhere” job, the ambitious 41-year-old has just completed his audio engineering degree with first class honours at Perth UHI and is releasing his debut album and audio engineering business.
The former pupil of Lochside Primary School and Montrose Academy has “poured his heart and soul” into the production of the album.
Launching an album and business
He’s taken on every role in the project from start to finish from his home studio in Montrose called Euphony Studio Solutions.
His business is also about to launch as an online mixing and mastering platform for local bands to take their productions to commercially releasable industry standards.
Speaking to The Courier as he reflected on a “mental” few weeks, Terry explained how he’d always been into music as a youngster.
However, he never had the confidence to do anything about it until a few years ago.
When did Terry get his first guitar?
“I think my mum bought me my first keyboard when I was really young,” he said.
“I think I got my first guitar when I was in primary seven.
“But it wasn’t until about third year at the academy that I started to get into it.
“I taught myself to play. Loads of people at school would bring a guitar in each day.
“We sort of bounced off each other.
“We were listening to stuff like Oasis – the same as today.
“Even when I was picking my subjects I really wanted to do music.
“But because I wasn’t really that confident in my ability – you needed to do two musical instruments – I just wasn’t confident enough to pursue music.
“So I ended up avoiding that and went for art instead.”
What did Terry do after leaving school?
Staying on until sixth year and leaving in 1999 with Highers in art and PE, Terry said he couldn’t get a job for a few years.
He did seasonal work with Grampian Growers for about seven years, and ended up at Tesco.
When he decided he’d had enough of night shift in 2016, however, and wanted to pursue his musical dream, he’s glad looking back that he started at the bottom in college and worked his way right up to the degree course.
Pursuing his passion for music
“After playing, writing and singing for a few years, I knew it was time to get wrapped in about the production side of the music scene so I started working with different digital programs including Pro Tools, Logic and FL Studio,” he said.
“I’d been doing it as a hobby for a good few years.
“What I really just wanted to know was how to record music and make it sound like the commercial release myself at home.”
Ya dancer‼️ Got the last of my results back from Uni and looks like I'll scrape First Class Honours… The highest you can get 😎
Here's a wee album teaser…#debutalbum #indie #pop #rock pic.twitter.com/uUUDTqEuPS— Terry Meighan (@TerryMeighan) August 20, 2023
Terry gained his BSc Audio Engineering degree with first class honours at Perth UHI, one of the UK’s most highly regarded music colleges, having previously passed the HNC course with an A grade.
He earned his analogue studio ticket by being certified and trained on the MTA (Malcolm Toft Associates) 980 and 990 series which are world class, vintage large format mixing desks, as well as being trained on the more modern digital/analogue hybrid Neotek Elan console.
Who are his musical heroes?
His heroes and main influences continue being the likes of Oasis, Stereophonics, Rolling Stones, The Verve, Kasabian, The Music.
His cover of Bitter Sweet Symphony by The Verve has amassed around a quarter of a million views on ultimateguitartabs.com
Meanwhile, he made his latest album Life Lessons & Sunday Sessions, completely on his own, taking on the momentous challenge of doing every role in the project from start to finish from his home studio.
What inspired Terry’s debut album tracks?
“A lot of the lyrics are to do with break ups over my life and that, relationships,” he said.
“I was a bit of a hard drinker and liked a bit of a party.
“So that’s how the name of the album came about.”
Terry is planning to launch the album in September on all major streaming services.
At the time of this interview, he’s in the process of finalising distribution.
“I just really want to get it out there,” he said.
“If it takes off, superb.
“But it’s more a sort of business card for audio engineering business I’m launching as well so they can see the level of stuff I’ve been working at.
“Local bands – they’ve maybe got a pile of songs written down and they’ll be like ‘alright, he can take us up to that level and get them out there!’”
Building own websites
Terry is also building his own websites: One for the business, one for media, and another site for fans that’ll give links to buy the music.
“That’s what I’m doing just now,” he added.
“I’ve taken on every single role in the project myself from start to finish, which has been an absolutely monster of a challenge, but I’m glad I did.”
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