BBC Radio 2 ‘Musician of the Year’ Mohsen Amini from Glasgow, Scotland is an incredibly fast growing name in the traditional world. Boasted by the Herald as a “Virtuoso” and the BBC Scotland as a “Force of Nature” he’s a leading voice on the music scene today.
In 2014 he co-founded multi-award winning trio, Talisk, who after only a few months of formation won a BBC Radio 2 Folk Award. Their debut album Abyss was shortlisted at the 2016 MG Alba Trad Awards as Album of the Year, the same awards where they were crowned Folk Band Of The Year in 2017. Their second studio album “Beyond” was released in 2018 and picked up multiple 5* reviews. Shortly after the band won the Belhaven Bursary Award with a cash prize of £25,000 matched only by the Mercury Award.
Mohsen also founded acclaimed supergroup Ímar at the start of 2016. They, in the space of two years managed to go viral with videos excessing 1 million views. This provided a great platform to launch their award nominated album Afterlight and even managed to have them nominated as “Live Act of the Year” which was shortly followed by them being awarded the 2018 Horizon Award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. 2018 saw Avalanche go straight to Number 1 on the iTunes world music chart and gained nationwide media praise.
Alongside launching Ímar in 2016, Mohsen was crowned the BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year. With this in hand he’s performed all around the world and appeared regularly on a variety of BBC shows such as, Radio Scotland, Radio 2, Music day with Bryan Burnett and BBC Alba. Mohsen has toured with some of the top names in the scene, been named in the Daily Record ‘Young Scot of the Year’, named in The List’s Hot 100, became the first ever musician to be nominated as ‘Instrumentalist of the Year’ at the 2016 MG Alba Trad Awards, ‘Musician of the Year’ at the 2017 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards and win the 2016 ‘Young Traditional Musician of the Year’ . He’s joined ranks with some of the biggest names today and been the youngest ever person to be crowned ‘Musician of the Year’ at the 2018 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.
….. so we were thrilled when we managed to pin him down for our Spiral Firsts. (We had to train daily just to keep up with him. He doesn’t stay still for long!)
Are you sitting comfortably ? … here are Mohsen Amini’s Questions of Firsts.
FIRST GIG YOU EVER SAW
First gig I ever saw was Live Aid in Glasgow, couldn’t believe what I was watching. Actually forgot about that until now but it was so inspiring. Pure class.
“It’s twelve noon in London, seven AM in Philadelphia, and around the world it’s time for Live Aid” Richard Skinner opening announcer and TV anchor at the Live Aid concert in 1985.
FIRST PERSON YOU FELL IN LOVE WITH
Benedict Morris. Straight up, bene Morris!
Benedict Morris
(Not hard to see why to be fair)
FIRST THING YOU THINK ABOUT IN THE MORNING
Let’s get a few gigs and make a night to never forget!!!!
(Think our readers would agree that’s more than been achieved, many times over!)
*Warning flashing images (and intense energy) from the start!
(Truly wish I had been there for this performance WOW!)
FIRST PERSON YOU’D INVITE TO A PARTY
Ryan Murphy. Piper with Mànran. The man just knows how to make the world turn round. Self proclaimed St Patrick and my god does he deliver.
Ryan Murphy
FIRST THING YOU’LL BUY WHEN YOU MAKE YOUR FIRST MILLION
Let’s not work with pipe dreams! If I ever got the million mark I’d call it a day and just give up then haha!!!
(Ummm, think you have just too much energy for that really? But when it happens let us know… we’ll do a ‘Question of what do do when you’ve made your first million revisit’ ?!)
FIRST THING YOU’LL ABOLISH WHEN YOU RULE THE WORLD
I mean that easy, racism is a hard one to compete with. Plain and simple. It’s getting pretty deep, but my god, as if it has ever been a thing.
(Good answer)
FIRST ALBUM YOU’D SAVE IF YOUR HOUSE WENT UP IN FLAMES
Definitely not Talisk. Probably grab my concertina after my family was out safe!!
(Can someone please make sure there are fire extinguishers wherever he is staying please!)
FIRST PERSON YOU’D SEND ON A ONE-WAY TICKET TO THE HEART OF THE SUN
See my answer about what I would abolish. There’s a hefty list following that!!
FIRST THING YOU EVER PERFORMED IN PUBLIC
I can’t remember which means it’s definitely not something special!! First thing I performed in public that I was proud of was Echo by Talisk!!
(Here is Talisk live at BBC Scotland playing that same tune)
FIRST SONG YOU’D HAVE PLAYED AT YOUR FUNERAL
Be Thou, by Tom Callister.
(Take a big breath and maybe grab some tissues … )
FIRST INSTRUMENT YOU EVER OWNED
I owned a penny whistle, £2 from the local music shop. It’s not in a very good state now!!
(We all have to start somewhere, but maybe still grab that concertina first)
FIRST PERSON YOU’D RAISE FROM THE DEAD
So many to choose from but imagine seeing the original Queen play again live, would love to see that!!!
FIRST PLACE YOU’D VISIT IN A TIME MACHINE
Just the beginning. Find out the chicken egg craic. It’s doing everyone’s head in. Let’s finally put that to rest haha.
FIRST TRACK ON YOUR APPLE MUSIC OR SPOTIFY MOST PLAYED LIST
Depends on the year but I’m thinking currently Attention by Charlie Puth!
FIRST TRACK ON YOUR IMAGINARY ALBUM OF YOUR OWN GREATEST HITS
Track 1. Never start on track 2!! Real talk, it’s definitely Echo. We definitely need to make some new music!!
(Old ones are always the good ones )
FIRST PERSON YOU’D ASK TO JOIN YOUR ALL-STAR BAND
I already did, but if I was venturing out I’d probably get Matty Healy, that said I’d probably be intimidated at him upstaging me as a front man so I think I’d keep things as they are!!
Matty Healy performing on day three of the Glastonbury Festival 2025. (Photo by Samir Hussein/WireImage)
FIRST THING YOU’D LIKE TO CHANGE ABOUT YOURSELF
Absolutely nothing. Live every day as if you’re going to live forever and you’ll never have any regrets. We have the best life, would be worried by changing anything that would change what happens nowadays.
FIRST ARTIST YOU’D BOOK TO APPEAR AT YOUR OWN UNLIMITED BUDGET FESTIVAL
Hahaha. unlimited budget id book my band and make that million!!! I joke, but there aren’t many people I’d want more than who play at the festivals we do. After Glastonbury I’d probably get Charli XCX but only if we could jump up for a set!!
Charli XCX performs at Glastonbury Credit : Joseph Okpako/WireImage
ANY OTHER FIRSTS YOU WANT TO OFFLOAD TO UNBURDON YOUR CONCIENCE ?
Absolutely nothing, I’m an open book. I just want to do as much as possible, help people where you can and spread the love!! I’d offload that I want to do more for others as we all should. Very PC but it’s the way I feel! Thanks for the interview, very fun and hopefully see y’all at a gig sometime!!!
Try and keep us away!
We would like to take this opportunity to thank Mohsen for sparing the time from his hectic schedule to complete our firsts for us. He has a busy time coming up with the Talisk Tour www.talisk.co.uk , so if you haven’t seen them live, now is your chance!
For further information please visit https://www.mohsenamini.com/
