He blagged his way into meeting the Kaiser Chiefs and invaded a set by REM – now Callum Beattie hopes he’ll be the one headlining huge stages in the future.

The Edinburgh singer released the heartfelt pop of We Are Stars earlier this year and is already tipped as one to watch.

Dreams of stardom started from a young age though, and Callum attempted anything he could think of to get ahead.

“I’d try and sneak into festivals, and hand over demos to anyone,” he laughs, ahead of playing King Tut’s on Sunday.

“That didn’t really work, but I met Nick Hodgson from the Kaiser Chiefs when they played at Meadowbank. I was sneaking backstage with a high vis jacket on, and he said ‘oh, come backstage and play a couple of tunes’. I said to him that one day I’d playing a stage like that, that’s my ambition, and they were all laughing away.

“They asked me to sign my autograph so they’d have it in years to come. I played all these gigs in Edinburgh but was going round in circles, so thought I’d move to London to try and get noticed. Last year my manager asked me if there was anyone I was keen to write with and I said Nick from the Kaiser Chiefs. I got a text later from him, and it was a picture of that autograph. We’ve now written a couple of tunes together.”

The London move seems to have got Callum on the right path, with work underway on a debut album due later this year. He’s also been teaming up with the likes of former Verve guitarist Nick McCabe and producer Ken Nelson, who’s worked with the likes of Coldplay.

Callum is also blessed with the gift of the gab, with plenty of stories to hand. There’s the time he played a pop showcase alongside Pixie Lott for a radio station, and told her he was off to do a sold out Glasgow gig the next day when he was actually playing in a pub.

Then there’s the appearance at T In The Park several years ago, when he was supposed to be working and got carried away.

“REM were headlining and I didn’t want to interrupt the set, so I waited until it was an instrumental bit, and I just went onstage and went for it,” he adds.

“I just wanted to know what it was like onstage in front of that many people. It was a fun weekend…”

However there is a more serious side to Callum. He was brought up by his dad, who shared a love of music with the young Callum, playing records by the likes of Rod Stewart and Led Zeppelin. One of the singer’s tracks, Some Heroes, is dedicated to his father and brought out a host of emotions in the troubadour when he first performed it.

“It opened a can of worms for me,” he says.

“I was playing an acoustic session in London, and I was fine, just playing the song, and when it hit the second verse I started crying. I never expected that to happen, but at least it was evidence to myself that I am writing songs from the heart and they have real meaning to me.”

Although the singer was Edinburgh born, playing at King Tut’s this weekend will be a special one. He gives Glasgow the edge over the capital when it comes to music, too.

“Edinburgh does have a great music scene, but in terms of opportunities and venues, there’s not enough there and Glasgow wins hands down,” he says.

“The amount of places in Edinburgh closing is shocking, the council don’t seem to be doing enough to support live music and that’s really sad. I think in terms of Glasgow, there’s something in the roots there. It’s in all these industrial cities like Manchester, they have the same feel about them – when the weekend arrives they want to let loose and have fun.”

After Tut’s attention will turn to the festival season and then the debut album. Unsurprisingly, Callum is aiming high.

“The album is all about me and the bumps I’ve had in my life,” he says.

“They have that in common, but there might be some that are rock songs, some are even a bit more like Hall & Oates, and they’re all anthemic. Somewhere in the subconscious I’m always thinking about headlining Hampden Park.”

Callum Beattie, Sunday, King Tut’s, £8, 8.30pm

JONATHAN GEDDES