Broken Chanter

Glaswegian musician David MacGregor records literate, passionate, and sonically wide-ranging indie rock under the Broken Chanter name. Following the 2017 breakup of his longtime band Kid Canaveral, he began issuing material as a solo artist and delivered the self-titled Broken Chanter debut in 2019. Subsequent sessions with Delgados drummer Paul Savage yielded the well-received 2021 album Catastrophe Hits, which reached number seven on the Scottish Albums chart and secured MacGregor a deal with Chemikal Underground; the label issued Broken Chanter’s third full-length, Chorus of Doubt, in 2024.

For more than ten years MacGregor served as frontman and primary songwriter of the Edinburgh alt-pop group Kid Canaveral, whose three albums appeared while the band was affiliated with the Fence Collective. Shortly after the group disbanded he accumulated solo demos and chose the project name Broken Chanter in tribute to his grandfather’s bagpipe practice chanter. Joined in the studio by drummer Audrey Tait, he tracked the debut at a facility in County Donegal, Ireland, before finishing the recordings in Glasgow. Olive Grove Records released Broken Chanter in September 2019; the dynamic, shapeshifting songs earned strong reviews, yet touring plans collapsed when the pandemic arrived in 2020. MacGregor continued writing, occasionally sharing more experimental ambient pieces online, then entered Chem19 Recording Studio with producer Paul Savage—known for his work with the Twilight Sad and Mogwai—to cut the follow-up. Issued in 2021, Catastrophe Hits balanced anthemic rock, hook-driven alt-pop, and densely layered tracks that sometimes featured Gaelic vocals, bringing both critical acclaim and the Scottish chart placing that led to the Chemikal Underground contract. Returning to the same studio and producer, MacGregor completed Chorus of Doubt, whose confident, energetic performances unified his stylistic range when the album appeared in 2024.