Kae Tempest, Lisa O’Neill, Tim Wheeler and now, Mark McCambridge. The list of musicians to have been granted a fellowship at the Seamus Heaney Centre – a tribute to one of Ireland’s greatest poets, based out of Queen’s University in Belfast – is esteemed.
Mark: “It’s a lovely, lovely honour. I mean, the work of Seamus Heaney is ingrained in the entire culture of this place.”
Two acclaimed scribes have also been granted the accolade this year – novelist, Caoilinn Hughes, and playwright, Conor McPherson. In all, it’s pretty good company to find yourself in.
The fellowship itself appears to be a relaxed, free-form arrangement. Mark has helped out in creative writing classes and is involved in an archive project of old Seamus Heaney interviews. He is currently putting atmospheric music to recordings of contemporary poets reading their own work, which will be pressed to vinyl. “It’s about amplifying the sub-text.”
Mark’s association with Northern Ireland is strong, as his music frequently demonstrates. New single, Looking For Love, the title track to his fourth album, is scattered with references to Belfast – Queen’s Arcade, Albert Bridge and Titanic Slipways. The song folds such landmarks into a nuanced, bittersweet conundrum, querying the human search for love in our dark, modern times. Mark is passionate about the sense of community in Belfast – “there’s a great kinship here” – and enthuses over a local arts scene in which “you can survive as a musician”.
But he hasn’t always felt such positivity towards his homeland. Growing up in Ballymena – birthplace to firebrand unionist politician, Ian Paisley, and actor Liam Neeson – had its challenges.
“I was raised a Catholic in a town that was 80% Protestant. So you didn’t really ever see that 80%. You went to a different youth club, you went to a different school. There was always aggro, this under underlying tension, especially growing up. Playing football was probably the only time that you really mixed, but there was still a lot of tension. There was just not a lot going on there. So as soon as I finished school, I left and I had always said I would never return.”
Mark moved around for a number of years, setting up temporary bases in London, Scotland, France and then Dublin. But from there, he found himself returning to Belfast frequently to do a lot of recording, or drawing musicians down to Dublin to play. So circumstance prevailed and Mark and his wife decided to relocate back to Belfast.
“It made sense in the short term and 14 years later here we are.”
The last Arborist record, An Endless Sequence Of Dead Zeroes, was recorded in eight days at Spacebomb Studios in Richmond, Virginia, with Matthew E White at the helm. The new album has taken a different course.
For one, it’s very much ‘made in Ireland’. The bare bones were recorded at The Meadow in Wicklow, a studio owned by the wonderfully named Fiachra Trench. Fiachra is a renowned string arranger whose credits include, quite astonishingly, Fairytale of New York, I Don’t Like Mondays, Days Like These. Impressive.
On bass, Mark pulled in Cameron Ralston from Spacebomb, who just so happened to be rounding off a European tour with the band Bonny Light Horseman in Dublin – “as is the want of American touring bands”. Lifelong friend, producer and collaborator, Ben McAuley, slotted in as engineer. And Eamon Ferris of The Waterboys played drums. Quite a line up.
“If you get the right players involved and the energy is right, then you don’t need to over-egg it.”
For production, Mark took the recordings back to Belfast. He’s invested in a home studio and was firmly committed to self-producing the album.
“I felt I’d gathered enough know-how over my years of working with Ben on the first two albums. He’s a good friend. I’ve know him from school days. But his full-time job is now looking after Van Morrison’s album. Apparently Van pays better than me.”
Arborist records tend to have a real intimacy to them and the new one is no different. You could easily imagine Mark working in isolation. But the truth is that he is keen to embrace the artistry of other musicians.
“A lot of the songwriting, I know it’s not exactly a standard structure, but there is a certain classicist element to my songwriting. I love classic songwriters and classic, classically crafted songs. And so there always is an element of drawing from that and then subverting it somewhat.”
Mark has a vast knowledge of the wider music landscape. He talks excitedly about a range of artists and labels, new and old. It’s intriguing to note the musicians he is most drawn to. I ask him about a recent gig that paid tribute to one of his biggest heroes – Mark assembled a band to perform Bob Dylan’s Desire album at the Oh Yeah Centre on Gordon Street, celebrating the 50th anniversary of its release.
“I love Dylan. He is strange. He’s flawed. He’s just a complete conduit for his art. His peak is lightning-in-a-bottle stuff. I read a lot of these blogs, one’s called Flagging Down the Double Es, where a guy just interviews people who have been in Dylan’s orbit. The sketch you get of Dylan is that he’s very otherworldly. He doesn’t engage with things. He could be described as difficult.
“A drummer said he was rehearsing with Dylan in the Nineties and was playing a fill, and Dylan kind of looked at him and said ‘don’t play that’. He tried something else and Bob turned and said ‘not that’. So he said ‘Bob, what is it you’re looking for?’ And Bob replied ‘Why are you asking me? I’m not a drummer. But I’ll know it when I hear it.’ He’s so much about feel and his albums are about just capturing something, almost learning the song on the road. He’s just a force.”
Another captivating renegade we discuss is Bill Drummond, the notorious artist-writer-musician-producer, most famous for his exploits with The KLF. Last year, Mark contributed the song, Are You Still The King?, to an Elvis-themed compilation album that Drummond conceived. It’s another of Drummond’s wonderfully off-kilter projects. The album, Stay, was recorded in The Curfew Tower on the Antrim coast by various artists in residence, celebrating the ‘Ghost of Elvis’ puppet that resides in the building. Of course.
“Bill bought it in 1995. It’s of like an old prison tower in the centre of this small village. It’s beautiful, really incredible. I actually spent all my summers in that village by the sea and this tower was always a spectral presence that I didn’t know much. I’d never been in… Bill is incredible. He never dwells on the past. He’s just always pushing forward. He’s just on to the next thing. It seems like he never questions things too much. He’s another who’s just a pure conduit for his art.
“So that was thrilling, to be honest. It was great fun. Completely mad. As an artist, you can sometimes get a little too bogged down in what you’re doing. With Bill, there’s a levity to it.”
Arborist’s fourth album Looking For Love is due out this summer.
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Arborist – Spring 2026 Tour Dates
- Thursday 30th April – The Harrison Hotel, Belfast
- Sunday 3rd May – The Trades Club, Hebden Bridge
- Monday 4th May – Ilkley Moor Vaults, Ilkley
- Tuesday 5th May – Angels Cut, Darlington
- Wednesday 6th May – The Engine Rooms, North Shields
- Friday 8th May – Futtle Brewery, East Neuk of Fife
- Saturday 9th May – Futtle Bar, Dundee
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Words: Stephen Desmond
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