Heather Findlay to leave York band Mostly Autumn

12:42pm Friday 29th January 2010

By Charles Hutchinson

“Dear friends of Mostly Autumn, “Although it breaks my heart, I am here to tell you that I have decided to step out of the Mostly Autumn fold.”

With these words – the first of long, emotional open letter – singer Heather Findlay announces she is to leave York’s long-running Celtic prog-rock band to concentrate on motherhood and a solo music career.

Heather, who now takes the married name of Findlay-Loftus, has a 15-month-old son, Harlan, and has handled “the toughest trials of bringing a healthy little baby boy into the world of toddling and early boyhood, while still presenting myself to you as a performer of the stage and record”.

Simultaneously, she felt a growing desire to pursue solo musical goals but it never compromised her.

“For not even one moment… did I feel that Harlan had slipped rank from my number one spot,” she writes. “Nor do I feel that my performance within Mostly Autumn faltered.

“On the contrary, in fact, I believe the fire within me, the one which ignites zeal, fuels creativity and makes dreams prosper, burned even brighter.

“So... maybe it’s time? Maybe the next challenge is to branch out?’’ Heather had left her solo dreams “unattended on the back burner”.

“It was never something I had even imagined to be an all encompassing venture,” Heather reveals. “It’ll be fine. I’ll just fit it in around everything else, I thought.”

Everything else, however was all-encompassing: dabbling in illustration; forming the folk duo Odin Dragonfly with Angela Gordon; guesting with numerous other bands and artists; living in another country; travelling; and becoming a mother.

Another year passed by, and then another, but the thought of a solo venture niggled away at her. “Never has the pull been stronger towards this very day,” she says.

“So, for now at least, I just cannot imagine having the time and energy it would take to tame and tailor the passion I have to pour into my own musical ventures alongside co-nurturing Mostly Autumn and giving to it all the love, care and attention that it so richly deserves.

“The timing I feel is right. I have not yet become involved in the new Mostly Autumn record and there are no shows imminently pending. It is a new year and a new decade to boot.”

Amid her flutters of excitement, it is not without wistfulness, sorrow and trepidation that Heather steps out alone to follow her dreams.

“Mostly Autumn has been my life for over 13 years now,” she says. “It is a warm blanket of security. It is unlike any other band I have worked with. It is a family. It emanates a certain magic that pulls you in. For life, I imagine...

“I can only hope to succeed in capturing some of that magic to take with me. Even a fraction of which, I know, will go a very long way. Mostly Autumn – Bryan Josh’s dream – will always remain a very special part of me and I wish for every success to befall it in times to come.”

Heather is already creating her debut solo album for release this year. “It will be a ‘full band’ project – the exact line-up of musicians is still to be decided,” she says.

One or two other projects are bubbling away too, and further information on the album’s progress and news updates will be collated on Heather’s website, heatherfindlay.net

The site is in its embryonic stage but she plans to include videos, audio samples and a photo diary.

“For now I bid you a very fond farewell,” the letter concludes. “Into the unknown I go...”