In march 1997 at the age of 15, Allan McKinlay was given an old beat up guitar by his dad. Allan had never even held a guitar before and wasn’t particularly musical either. However something in him decided to learn. Allan got a chord sheet from school and started to teach himself. In the same month Allan decided to give his heart to Jesus and become a Christian.

Allan had joined a local Baptist church and within 3 months was asked to play for the worship as there was no musicians available in the church. After loads of help and mentoring from various people he became the church’s worship leader a couple of years later.

Allan started to lead worship at many events all over south west Scotland mainly due to his involvement in a youth movement called Firestarters. This is where he met his wife Naomi whom he married in 2002. After living in Dumfries and Galloway for a year, they moved south to the west midlands at the end of 2003.

While living in Stratford-upon-Avon, Allan attended the Nexus academy of music ministry in Coventry in 2004/2005. Towards the end of that year Allan decided to record some songs on home recording equipment and in Jan 2006 released a demo EP called Left or Right. The EP received great reviews including a 9/10 from Cross Rhythms.