THE cupboard in a school in Inverurie might not have led to Narnia but it did lead to a world of musical adventure for James Lindsay, composer and double bass player with one of my Scotland's finest trad bands, Breabach, a five-piece who are doing a short tour of the north of Ireland this month.
Now, the double bass isn't an instrument like a fiddle or a flute that your granny would hand you down on her death-bed so I asked James this week, how the bass become his instrument of choice.
"Well, I started out playing bass guitar in punk bands at school," he says, somewhat surprisingly, "and I kind of fell in love with that instrument.
"And then a few years later, I found a double bass in the school cupboard, had a go at that and it kind of opened up the world to me.
"All of a sudden, I could bring this instrument into trad music or jazz music or orchestral music or anything else and what's always excited me is playing an instrument that can a kind of chameleon between all the different styles."
(He laughs and agrees when I suggest that it would be hard to play Anarchy in the UK on it...).
James is from Inverurie in Aberdeenshire and it was a great town for a musician go grow up in with all kinds of music being played and listened to. Annie Lennox is from there.
"There was a really strong scene when I was growing up and a diverse scene too," explains James.
"Obviously, there's a strong trad scene, lots of Scots songs and bothy ballads and stuff that comes from the local area but as well as that, there was jazz and rock and all kinds of other genres and fusions so yeah, I know quite a lot of musicians that come from the Inverurie area."
Little wonder then that James studied music after leaving school and graduated with Honours in 2011 from Strathclyde University in Glasgow with a BA Applied Music degree.
During the course, he studied composition and writes a lot of music but he prefers the sociality of being onstage with fellow musicians in front of an audience.
"I've always kind of enjoyed being a bass player, you know, you're kind of in the background and looking at the bigger picture, maybe," he explains.
"And I've always enjoyed how harmonies can change the mood of tunes, exploring that and kind of getting really deep into it.
"But I've been lucky playing with Breabach. It's the perfect vehicle for each of us exploring our own writing and because we all come from different backgrounds, it's really exciting to see how all these different ideas can successfully come together."
I remember being in the audience in the Cultúrlann many moons ago to see Breabach and I remember vividly a tune called Forvie Sands which celebrates the beautiful Sands of Forvie, the fifth largest sand dune system in Britain, and the least disturbed by human activity - until Donald Trump came along... but that's another story.
In the hands of five superlative musicians, James's composition almost created a hologram, it was just like being there in this wilderness, you could almost touch the grass and feel the wind in your face, so evocative was the music.
"Thank you, Robert," says James.
"That's a big part of what inspires me when I write. It's the landscape and the feeling of being somewhere is a big part of what I do.
"I write instrumentals, I don't write lyrics, I'm no use at that, so I try to capture feelings within instrumental music, so it's brilliant to hear that that come across."
But Breabach bring magic to anything they do. With a current line-up of James, Megan Henderson on fiddle and step dance, Calum MacCrimmon on bagpipes, whistle and bouzouki, Conal McDonagh who plays bagpipes and whistle and Ewan Robertson on guitar and cajon - and they all sing - the band can go from the most delicate of tunes to rabble-rousers.
I'm also particular fond of piping duets - are you listening John McSherry and Francis McIlduff? - and Breabach can raise the roof when they hit top form.
The band has been together in various forms for the past 17 years so I ask James the secret of their longevity.
"Well, I joined a band about 12 years ago and there had been a few line-up changes over the years but at the core of it, we're all pals, you know," he says.
"We enjoy being on the road together, and we enjoy playing music together. I think that's the main thing is like, we enjoy getting together in a social setting and it's kind of always remained that way.
"On the other hand, we've all – I think – got our heads screwed on and we work hard as well, We're not afraid to sit in the van for hours and all that. It's an easy going line-up so I think that's a big part of it."
Also, because Breabach isn't big enough to hold all the talent and creativity that exists in the band, each of the other members are free to do their own things - James is a member of two other groups, Torus and Taran.
To be honest, I haven't heard Taran yet but I was blown away when I heard Torus, a mix of, well, basically everything in the known musical world, but it works wonderfully well. Check them out.
Meanwhile, Breabach are gearing up for busy 2022. They've provided the soundtrack to a new animated film called Dùsgadh/Awakening, an exciting new collaboration with the Scottish Bafta-winning animator Cat Bruce.
Based on The Sea Maiden, the unique and innovative project takes the form of an animated film and is available to view in Gaelic and English. All the music was written, recorded and produced by each of Breabach's five members, working from home, while the great news is that they are working on a new album which hopefully will be ready for the summer.
Some of the new tracks are ready to be tested in front of a live audience so the band's upcoming gigs are not to be missed.
Breabach are playing at the Market Place Theatre in Armagh on April 7; the Alley Theatre in Strabane on April 8; An Coire in Maghera on April 9: and The Duncairn in Belfast on April 10.
