Ahead of his biggest headline show to date at An Seòmar, the Inverness singer-songwriter talks rebranding, honest songwriting and why MØSS. is the sound of what comes next.
For years, Inverness audiences have seen Calum Jones in different musical settings, from pubs and festival stages to Upstairs and Belladrum. Now, with MØSS., he is drawing a clearer line around the music he is making next. The rebrand has been quietly taking shape for years, but the direction has become increasingly defined through recent singles “Adulting”, “Homesick” and “Lighthouse”. With upcoming single “Frostbite” and his biggest headline show to date at An Seòmar, MØSS. is less a departure from the past than a more direct, reflective step forward.
MØSS. has run alongside your own-name work for a while. What tells you that a new song belongs under MØSS., rather than Calum Jones?
It’s not so much about a song belonging to the Calum Jones or MØSS. name. In fact all the songs we are working on & will be working on have the MØSS. brand in mind.
We launched the rebrand “MØSS.” at the beginning of this year (2026) but had been working on the idea for almost 2 years prior. When I met my manger Marty I was still very much leaning towards more of a heavy classic rock sound (which don’t get me wrong, still holds a very clear place in my heart) but we had messed around with the idea of rebranding for a while & also had thought moving the sonic identity over to more of a raw acoustic singer songwriter vibe, so with that decision MØSS. was born.
I have a lot of people in my hometown & surrounding areas that still listen to my older music on a regular basis so I wasn’t willing to remove that music from the atmosphere to make way for the new music. So whilst ‘Calum Jones’ will always exist as a time stamp of beginnings of my journey through the music industry MØSS. will be the next step in that journey and will be the interface for all new music moving forward.
You wrote in Nashville, then came home with “Homesick”. What did being away bring out in that song?
“Homesick” is a very special song & was fundamental to the new direction that I’ve taken. It was the first song I had written that really fit into the sound we were aiming to achieve. It was my first time in Nashville, it was beautiful autumn weather & I sat outside on the grass under a huge tree one morning with Marty’s old dog Diana at my feet.
“Homesick’ poured out pretty easily, it was my first time being away from my wife and for that long in a while & was for sure the most distance that had been between us prior. With that in mind one of my main focuses with the new music was to be as honest as possible and really try to write about things in a much more internal & reflective manner.
The message of the song is fairly simple.. I was in a new place, a foreign environment. I had fallen in love with Nashville & the work I was doing again but I missed my family, my quiet little house in the highlands & all things home. It pretty much says although I’m on the other side of the planet & missing home, I’d found a second one, I was there with a purpose & I knew that’d I would be heading back having made steps in the right direction to attaining the ‘almost’ unattainable.
“Adulting”, “Homesick” and “Lighthouse” are all out now. Do you see a connection between them, or did each one come from a different place?
Each held their own & definitely had different mindsets & inspirations going into them at the time but all of them had really ended up coming back to where I was at mentally at the time, which I find quite beautiful in itself.
My previous releases & songwriting endeavours had all been astoundingly depressing & sad with a nice little overtone of anger (to put it lightly) & that’s where my mind was at the time so that’s what I wrote about. But having grown up a bit, having found the person I knew I was going to spend the rest of my life with & having been introduced to the incredible gift that is fatherhood the music turned to a much more positive & honest outlet.
You recently called a new song “the most me” you have written, and said it was for chronic overthinkers. Are you finding it easier to be more direct in the writing?
I will be the first person to tell you that I very much have a habit of overthinking everything, especially within my work & I believe that’s something that most folks go through. Having battled pretty severe social anxiety & addiction throughout the years, I found it very hard to share the deeper and darker parts of myself with people on a personal level so my music was forever the outlet for such things.
A lot of the new music touches on some of these harder topics & I think that’s just because I’ve reached a point in my life where I’m much more comfortable within myself, I have good people around me who believe in what I’m doing and in me as I am. So the music I’m writing now does feel more real, honest & “Me”
You have learnt to build electric guitars as well as play them. Has that changed the way you write, or the sounds you reach for?
During the ol CoCo era (COVID) all my shows & festivals were cancelled for over a year, I had just finished my record ‘MirrorGlass’ and was ready to put it out when everything locked down. I was a little lost without being able to play music live & my writing took a pretty big dive as creativity dwindled, so I decided I needed to do something else with life and fell down the YouTube rabbit hole of luthiery.
I taught myself the basics of the theory & how to use the tools required & then found CRIMSON guitars. They have an extensive YouTube channel which I lost weeks of my life consuming and I eventually decided to enrol in their school, moved to Dorset for a few months and they helped me bring my visions to life. In total I spent 6 months over 2 years in their workshop building both electric & acoustic guitars. I find the whole process of bringing raw materials together and turning them into an instrument that feels & sounds great & fits me as both a person & an artist.
I wouldn’t say it’s changed the way I write or sound but I will admit that each and every instrument has a song that was meant to be written with it. The first song on a brand new instrument almost falls out of it like it’s been grown through the wood & built into the instrument itself. It’s a truly beautiful thing to be able to make and play music on a guitar I’ve built from nothing.
You had radio play and festival slots early on, then a very public moment on The Voice UK. Did that make you more ambitious, or more careful about what success looks like?
It’s been a wild ride & it’s actually quite hard to remember that far back as so much has happened through the years. I’ve been playing music since I was 8 (started as a drummer) & I’ve made a living writing and performing music since I was 13. I’ve literally never done anything else.
I find success a difficult one to define for myself as I’ve been able to make a living and support my family doing the thing I love, so as far as success goes I think I’ve found it already & will be eternally grateful for the life I’ve built.
I had had folks from the Voice for about five years asking if I’d audition for the show to which I had said no for a very long time but for some reason after I spoke to this guy Johnny I realized that there was no reason not to. For me it wasn’t about the competition or the TV screen, it was more about getting myself out there & proving to myself that I could do something that made me uncomfortable. I met some incredible people & made some great friends through the experience & I’m glad I did it.
As my artistry develops & my team grows, so does the vision of what we could accomplish. So we’re just going to push as hard as we can and see where it takes us.
Inverness audiences may have seen you in pubs, at Belladrum and at Upstairs in different musical settings. What are you doing differently for the MØSS. show at An Seòmar?
The show in An Seomar is going to be my biggest headline show to date & is going to be the release party for my upcoming single ‘Frostbite’. I will be playing all the new & unreleased music I’ve written over the past few months and it will be the first show where the MØSS. brand solidifies itself in this new direction.
I guess the difference is that folks seeing me in the bars see me at work, that’s my job. With the MØSS. shows im playing original music, songs im passionate about and that mean something to me. It really is the next step of my life, my career & these are the shows that I hope become the new normal. No more drunken bar shows that sat in the background of drinking culture but shows where the music lives to bring us together for real moments of connection.
You are three singles into this run. Is there a bigger release in mind, or are you happier putting songs out as and when they are ready?
With the world we live in right now it’s really hard to put out a record as an independent artist. It’s expensive, time consuming and most of all insane risk, I’ve invested tens of thousands into my music over the last 15 years of my life, every spare penny has gone back into the dream I am chasing & only now am I starting to see real results.
And honestly almost all of that is due to the support of my family, my parents & the incredible people I’m working with these days. My manager Marty & his wife Riley came into Gellion’s bar on the last night of their vacation a few years ago. They believe in what I’m doing & took a massive risk on me so now we work everyday to build this thing from the ground up.
We have the next 6 songs lined up for you all & they’ll be coming out over the next 6 – 8 months, they are by far the best songs we have written and produced & I can’t wait to get them out into the world. So for now we are just going to be putting out singles & focus on writing the best songs we can whilst dealing in the sound, with that said I do have concepts for a couple of records that we will chase when the time is right. So keep your eyes peeled.
There is a steady confidence to this next phase. MØSS. is rooted in the work Calum has already put in, but it is also making room for a more open and personal voice, with a run of new songs and an An Seòmar show designed to put the music firmly at the centre.
