Ainslie Thomas Henderson (born 28 January 1979) is a Scottish animator and singer-songwriter. He gained fame via his participation in the
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
's television programme, ''
Fame Academy
''Fame Academy'' was a British television talent competition to search for and educate new musical talents. The winner would receive a chance to become a successful music artist and part of the international franchise ''Star Academy'' known un ...
'', in 2002''.'' He signed a recording contract with
Mercury Records
Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. Mercury Records released ...
after leaving the show, having been placed fourth. His subsequent single, "
Keep Me a Secret", written alongside fellow contestants in Fame Academy, reached the fifth position on the
UK Singles Chart.
In 2006, Henderson independently released his debut album, ''
Growing Flowers by Candlelight'', which consisted of indie rock and acoustic songs. In promotion of the album, he embarked on a series of live music shows in the UK throughout 2007 and 2008. In the same year, Henderson starred in the short film ''Mono'', directed by British screenwriter
Richard Smith.
In 2009, Henderson took a break from music
and attended the
Edinburgh College of Art
Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) is one of eleven schools in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. Tracing its history back to 1760, it provides higher education in art and design, architecture, histor ...
,
where he met future collaborator
Will Anderson. In 2011,
the two collaborated on documentary animated film ''
The Making of Longbird,'' for which Henderson co-wrote and animated. The film went on to win a BAFTA for Short Animation in 2013.
Since then, Henderson has worked on both solo and collaborative projects. His graduation film, ''I Am Tom Moody'' (2012),
received a
BAFTA Award
The British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTAs or BAFTA Awards, is an annual film award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to honour the best British and international contributions to f ...
nomination in 2014. In 2014, Henderson collaborated with Anderson on animation short film ''Monkey Love Experiments'', which went on to win a
BAFTA Scotland Award in 2014 and receive a BAFTA Award nomination in 2015. Henderson also animated a music video for the single "Moving On" by the band
James.
In 2015, Henderson collaborated with Anderson on short film ''Stems'' as a director, together with British composer
Poppy Ackroyd, which earned a BAFTA Scotland Award.
In 2019, Henderson directed stop motion short film ''Archie''.
In 2022, Henderson co-wrote and directed the documentary film ''A Cat Called Dom'' with Anderson. Henderson's 2023 film, again in collaboration with Anderson and Ackroyd, was nominated for a BAFTA Scotland Award.
Henderson mostly works with the stop-motion medium, with materials such as plasticine.
Career
1998-2001: Career beginnings
In 1998, Henderson started Scottish rock band Suburbia with bass player Alasdair Crooks. Henderson acted as Suburbia's main vocalist, with guitarist Peter Deane (then replaced by Chris Plews in early 1999), and drum player Simon Usher. Suburbia caught the attention of major American
recording labels such as
Capitol Records
Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007), and simply known as Capitol, is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-base ...
,
Interscope Records
Interscope Records is an American record label based in Santa Monica, California, owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M imprint. Founded in late 1990 by Jimmy Iovine and Ted Field as a $20 million joint venture ...
and
RCA Records
RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic R ...
before eventually securing a
recording contract
A recording contract (commonly called a record contract or record deal) is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording act (artist or group), where the act makes an audio recording (or series of recordings) for the label to sell and ...
with
record label
"Big Three" music labels
A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of Sound recording and reproduction, music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a Music publisher, ...
City of Angels based in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
.
This introduced Suburbia to collaborators such as
Tony Visconnti and
Scott Litt.
During the course of Suburbia's activity, Henderson lauded as a "storm-voiced
troubadour
A troubadour (, ; ) was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages (1100–1350). Since the word ''troubadour'' is etymologically masculine, a female equivalent is usually called a ''trobairitz''.
The tr ...
" by
The List's Sarah Dempster, who "command
dtotal attention" by
Southern Reporter
The ''Southern Reporter'', the ''Southern Reporter Second'', and the ''Southern Reporter Third'' are United States regional case law reporters. It is part of the National Reporter System created by John B. West for the West Publishing Company.
...
's Sarah Williamson.
When City of Angels went bankrupt, Suburbia split in March 2002 on amicable terms.
One of their songs, "Always", appeared on the soundtrack of football simulation video game, ''
FIFA Football 2004'', after the band's split two years ago''.'' Suburbia did not yield a full studio
album despite having announced a work-in-progress album titled "Anyone can be anyone" which consisted of six songs.
The album was described to be surrounded by themes of coming-of-age and teenage angst.
Suburbia saw their sole official release in the form of a 4-track self-titled
extended play
An extended play (EP) is a Sound recording and reproduction, musical recording that contains more tracks than a Single (music), single but fewer than an album. Contemporary EPs generally contain up to eight tracks and have a playing time of 1 ...
that included
demo versions of songs meant for their album. After his Fame Academy stint, Henderson considered having Suburbia members act as his touring band.
2002-2003: Fame Academy and Keep Me A Secret
After the split of Suburbia, Henderson lived in London as an unemployed songwriter and had deferred his entry into Edinburgh University for six years.
He then auditioned for and appeared in the first series of the
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
talent/
reality show
Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...
''
Fame Academy
''Fame Academy'' was a British television talent competition to search for and educate new musical talents. The winner would receive a chance to become a successful music artist and part of the international franchise ''Star Academy'' known un ...
'', which incorporated an elimination system that allowed both viewers and participants to vote for a contestant to be eliminated. During his time participating in the show, Henderson wrote "Keep Me a Secret" with fellow contestants
Malachi Cush and
Sinéad Quinn and "Take Out Time" with Mark Hunter and Saul Davies of
James, as well as co-writing "Lullaby" with contestant
Lemar Obika. All three tracks would later reach the top 5 in the
UK Singles Chart,
the latter two as
B-sides
The A-side and B-side are the two sides of vinyl records and cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a single usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or ...
. Henderson was voted off the show in the penultimate week, coming fourth.
After his departure from the show, he was signed to
Mercury and, in March 2003, released a solo single of "Keep Me a Secret" with "Take Out Time" as the B-side, which entered the
UK Singles Chart at No. 5.
Henderson became unhappy with the direction his musical career was taking with Mercury. In late 2003, before releasing the album or a second single, Henderson was dropped. Although he was allowed to retain the rights of the songs he had already written and recorded, they have never been released. He revealed one track, "Coming Up for Air", on his MySpace profile in 2006. This has since been released officially on Amazon music.
2004-2005: The Last September
In 2004, Henderson visited the US to collaborate with the American singer-songwriter
Jason Mraz
Jason Thomas Mraz ( ; born June 23, 1977) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He rose to prominence with the release of his debut studio album, ''Waiting for My Rocket to Come'' (2002), which spawned the single "The Remedy (I Won't Wo ...
, co-writing the song "Clockwatching" which appears on Mraz's album, ''
Mr. A-Z
''Mister'', usually written in its contracted form ''Mr.'' (American English) or ''Mr'' (British English), is a commonly used English honorific for men without a higher honorific, or professional title, or any of various designations of office. ...
''.
Later that year, Henderson returned to his home city, joining the rock band The Last September as guitarist and backing vocalist, along with his friend Pete Deane from Suburbia. They performed in London and at several venues in Scotland. He left The Last September in 2005.
2006-2010: Growing Flowers by Candlelight and collaborations
After a three-year break from his solo career, Henderson revealed new material to the public for the first time with the creation of a Myspace profile in early 2006, featuring new tracks "Day Trip" and "While They Wait". He performed a number of new songs whilst supporting
Unkle Bob on several gigs around central Scotland in the following months. Henderson released his debut album, ''
Growing Flowers by Candlelight'', on 15 July 2006 via his own label, Amphibian Husbandry.
In 2007, Henderson starred as Jay opposite actor Samantha Young in the short film ''Mono'', directed by British screenwriter
Richard Smith.
In May 2007, Henderson supported
Marillion
Marillion are a British neo-prog band, formed in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, in 1979. They emerged from the post-punk music scene in Britain and existed as a bridge between the styles of punk rock and classic progressive rock, becoming the mo ...
on two dates during their UK tour.
In 2013, he worked with
Shane Filan
Shane Steven Filan (born 5 July 1979) is an Irish singer best known as a member of the pop vocal group Westlife, which was formed in 1998, disbanded in 2012, and regrouped in 2018. Westlife has released thirteen albums, embarked on twelve wor ...
in Ireland.
2011-present: Filmmaking
While taking pottery lessons to create mugs out of clay in promotion of ''Growing Flowers by Candlelight'', Henderson was inspired to pursue sculpture and figure-making. In 2009, Henderson took a break from releasing music
and attended the
Edinburgh College of Art
Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) is one of eleven schools in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. Tracing its history back to 1760, it provides higher education in art and design, architecture, histor ...
to pursue a Bachelor of Arts degree in animation, graduating in 2012. As a student, Henderson met his frequent creative collaborator, Will Anderson, who was taking the same course albeit graduating a year earlier. Anderson was described to have a larger focus in digital animation, while Henderson was more familiar with stop-motion animation.
In 2011, Henderson made a short animation feature titled ''It's About Spending Time Together'' as a student, which recounted a childhood experience and acted as an apology to his younger brother.
It went on to win a
British Academy Scotland New Talent Awards. Henderson co-wrote ''The Making of Longbird'' with Anderson, which was a documentary-style film that blended elements of live action and animation. The film was awarded
BAFTA Award for Best Short Animation in 2013.
In 2012, Henderson created animated short film ''I Am Tom Moody'' as his graduation film about a musician's struggle in overcoming his childhood fear of singing. The film employed surrealist elements, with actor
Mackenzie Crook
Mackenzie Crook (born Paul James Crook, 29 September 1971) is an English actor, director, comedian and writer best known for his roles in television and film. He gained widespread recognition for portraying Gareth Keenan in the British sitcom '' ...
and his son Jude Crook voicing the eponymous character's adult and young selves respectively. ''I Am Tom Moody'' was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Short Animation in 2014.
Henderson worked with Anderson on a series of short comedy animations involving pigeons and other poultry animals published on YouTube throughout 2011 to 2014.
The pair contributed to the voice acting of the series. Most notably, the short ''Scroogin on a Greg'' has amassed more than a hundred thousand views.
In 2014, Henderson created the animated music video of
James' single "Moving On", having previously worked on his song "Take Out Time" with James members a decade ago.
The music video of "Moving On" was made in stop-motion with yellow yarn as the main material, addressing themes of grief and acceptance as a loved one is lost, metaphorically represented by the unwinding of yarn. The video won the award for Best Animation in a Video at the
2014 UK Music Video Awards.
In 2015, Henderson co-wrote and directed ''Monkey Love Experiments'' with Anderson. The short film is inspired by
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...
's experiments involving monkeys and American psychologist
Harry Harlow
Harry Frederick Harlow (October 31, 1905 – December 6, 1981) was an American psychologist best known for his maternal-separation, dependency needs, and social isolation experiments on rhesus monkeys, which manifested the importance of caregivi ...
's experiments with primates. It saw a mix between Henderson's stop-motion and Anderson's digital animation skills, with stylistic choices such as a
4:3 aspect ratio and
monochromatic
A monochrome or monochromatic image, object or palette is composed of one color (or values of one color). Images using only shades of grey are called grayscale (typically digital) or black-and-white (typically analog). In physics, mon ...
colors. ''Monkey Love Experiments'' received a BAFTA nomination for Best Short Animation in 2015. Henderson directed ''Stems'', a 2-minute short film on the puppet-making and the nature of puppets in stop-motion animation, featuring music by
Poppy Ackroyd. ''Strems'' earned a BAFTA Scotland Award.
Henderson had an acting role in Scotland-based director Rory Alexander Stewart's 2017 short film ''Wild Horses'' as Bruno, a writing tutor of the main character Joan, starring alongside actors Emma Curtis and Emma Cater. ''Wild Horses'' covers the main character's
myalgic encephalopathy and her quest for independence, drawing from Stewart's own friend's experience with the illness. It was selected for
Cannes film festival
The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world.
Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...
's
Cinéfondation emerging talent category along 15 other films out of 2600 entries.
In 2019, Henderson directed short film ''Archie'', in which the eponymous character travels to Outer Hebrides of Scotland with his pet dog upon learning about his aunt's death. ''Archie'' won the Best of the Fest award at
Chicago International Children's Film Festival.
In 2022, Henderson and Anderson released ''A Cat Called Dom'', for which Henderson acted as a co-director and co-writer. ''A Cat Called Dom'' is a documentary that stars Henderson and Anderson in live-action sequences, combined with animated shots of the eponymous character Dom. Dom, a personification of cancer, is used as a narrative device to document Anderson's experience coping with his mother's cancer diagnosis. The documentary had been in the works for several years and is dedicated to Anderson's mother. Initially conceived as a solely animated film, it face trouble being complete in the process before the duo eventually decided to turn it into a documentary about filmmaking and their failure along the process.
In 2023, Henderson created short film ''Shackle'' centered around the journey of three woodland spirits, which Henderson worked on for three years. It includes music contributions by Ackroyd and is produced by Anderson. ''Shackle'' was included in
Edinburgh International Film Festival
The Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF), established in 1947, is the world's oldest continually running film festival.
EIFF presents both UK and international films (all titles are World, international, European or UK Premieres), in al ...
's official 2023 selection. It was nominated for a BAFTA Scotland Short Film & Animation award in 2023.
Filmography
Films
Television
Web
Music videos
Discography
Albums
*''
Growing Flowers by Candlelight'' (July 2006), Amphibian Husbandry
Singles
*"
Keep Me a Secret" (March 2003), Mercury: reached no. 5 in the
UK
*"Coming Up for Air" (June 2007), Amphibian Husbandry
References
External links
Official websiteGrowing Flowers by Candlelight on Last.fm*
Mono the MovieFeltusFeltusInterview in the ''Edinburgh Evening News'', 23 March 2007*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Henderson, Ainslie
1979 births
Living people
21st-century Scottish singers
Alumni of the Edinburgh College of Art
Musicians from Edinburgh
Scottish animators
Scottish film directors
Scottish male singer-songwriters
Scottish pop singers
Scottish singer-songwriters