'He's Tigger and I'm Eeyore' - Poet Len Pennie on an unlikely team-up

Had Len Pennie known what she was letting herself in for when she opened an email from Hollywood composer Paul Leonard-Morgan, her reaction might have been very different.

"If I thought it would lead to all this I wouldn't have shown up," she laughs, after a madcap journey that will culminate at the Celtic Connections music festival later.

Pennie - one of Scotland's most popular modern poets - and Leonard-Morgan, composer on films like Dredd and Limitless, have collaborated on a new album called Delusions setting 10 of her poems to compositions by Leonard-Morgan.

Getting to that point involved tears, a near 24 hour recording session and an unexpected offer to perform live.

The first obstacle, though, was for Pennie to believe her would-be collaborator was interested in working with her.

"Paul got in touch through mutual friends and said 'hey, we should do something' and that he liked the rhythm of my voice, and the passion in it.

"To be honest, I thought it was a lovely compliment, but I was sure I'd never hear from him again."

For Leonard-Morgan, who has scored film, TV and video games in a prolific career, the idea for the partnership came from two things - a liking for Pennie's work, and a desire to work on something rooted in Scotland.

"Glasgow's home, and it's always home," says the composer, who now lives in Los Angeles.

"I wanted to do something Scottish in Scotland. Sometimes I'll get mates from LA over to play with the RSNO, and I'll tell them to go to Mother India for food or go up to Kelvingrove Art Gallery – but I wanted to do something purely Scottish.

"The album is mixed here, mastered here, it's out on a Scottish label – it's made me feel close to home."

While Leonard-Morgan has more than two decades of work behind him, Pennie is a much more recent arrival on Scotland's cultural scene.

She first came to fame during the covid pandemic, through a series of social media videos showing the Scottish pronunciation of words and then later with her own poetry, with two collections of her work having shot onto best-seller lists.

That has brought negatives too, including social media controversies and added media attention.

The duo themselves are quite different, says Pennie.

"He's Tigger and I'm Eeyore – I'm all anxious and he is this uncontainable ball of energy," she chuckles.

"But he's a balm for the soul to work with, and I really needed that."

Despite their various differences, Pennie and Leonard-Morgan were equally stepping into the unknown with Delusions. It led to uncertain steps along the way.

"The first thing I sent Len, she hated it," recalls Leonard-Morgan wryly.

"When I do a big film, you're terrified at the beginning because it's a blank sheet of paper and it can go anywhere you want, but there are visuals with it, so you know the sort of emotion you want to portray.

"With this, there was nothing to start with - it can take a while to overcome fear of offending a collaborator. Len said what I sent her was more like a club vibe, and she wanted the emotional, more cinematic side of things."

Pennie, from Airdrie, describes seeking such emotions in a more succinct manner.

"Making people cry is a vocation for me, so I wanted more of that. When I perform it's exhausting and emotionally draining, but I love that sense of catharsis, and wanted the music to combine with that."

The actual recording came with such emotion wrapped around it - partly because the album was worked on during one very long day at Maryhill's Clockwork Sessions.

"The vision was always kind of Len at the front, me at the grand piano and us surrounded by strings," recalls Leonard-Morgan.

"It's strings surrounded by synths surrounded by weird and wonderful electric guitars and there was a realisation that this could actually work. It was a special day.

"I flew in from LA, but had to fly out to Toronto the next day. I was in one room with the strings and Len was recording vocals in the other room.

"It wasn't until my first break that I actually went through and heard her recording Honey. I burst into tears hearing it, and one of the players on the record said 'we've been like that all morning - we are emotional wrecks here'. We ended working until into the next morning."

Pennie herself has never hidden her emotions, using past experiences - including of domestic abuse she has suffered - in her work.

She told BBC Scotland News that "every part of this has been terrifying", but that was not necessarily a bad thing.

Pennie added: "When I talk about being anxious about the Celtic Connections show, it's the same as when I have to order drinks in a restaurant or compliment someone on their nails.

"I always have a low level anxiety going on, and it peaks when I'm performing – but as soon as I get onstage it is overcome by this sense of euphoria and connection with an audience."

The Celtic Connections offer came about after Leonard-Morgan mentioned the project to the festival's director, Donald Shaw.

A simple offer then followed - why not perform at the city's St Luke's venue.

"He [Shaw] hasn't heard it yet," muses Pennie.

"We could be high on our own supply when we say it's great, and it's so untested.

"But the arts is in a place where people don't feel they have relative safety to take risks. You rely on things you know work, or artists that can draw a crowd.

"Where does that leave new artists? Celtic Connections lets artists take risks, and you get fresh and raw ideas from it."