Ewen Vernal

Ewen Vernal (born 1964) is a Scottish musician.

Born in Glasgow to a musical family, Ewen began taking piano lessons at 8 years old – inspired by a Beatles-singing mother and a choir-leading, saxophone-playing father. Singing competitions and local talent contests followed, but it was not until his teenage years that the bass guitar soon became the focus of Ewen's musical aspirations. Discovering an old guitar in the family loft with only a single low E-string left, he started to pick out bass-lines from favourite records, finally graduating to the “real thing” at 16 years old.

From the early 1980s, Ewen began playing in a variety of Glasgow-based bands and some jazz residencies throughout Scotland until, after some gentle persuasion from their drummer, joined newly-signed Deacon Blue in the autumn of 1986 – until 1994, the band enjoyed huge world-wide success with over 4m album sales, 12 UK Top 40 singles, 2 Number 1 albums, TV, radio, and tours all over the world – 1997 saw Ewen join the ground-breaking folk/crossover band Capercaillie, of whom he is still an influential member.

He has appeared with Scottish progressive-rock singer Fish, English folk star Kate Rusby, Hue & Cry's pop-jazz, appearances with Lou Reed, Michael Brecker, Chris Rea, and many more.

Nowadays he's living in the Netherlands with his Dutch girlfriend and plays in a band called Dearhunter.

External link: [http://www.ewenvernal.com/ home page]