HUE BLANES RELEASES NEW VIDEO ‘FERNANDO’ AND ANNOUNCES NEW ALBUM ‘
Piano fiend and enigmatic genius singer-songwriter, Hue Blanes, PBS Young Elder of Jazz 2017 and 2017 Green Room multiple nominee, has today released his new single, Fernando and announced his sophomore record, Holiday – a darkly wonderful song cycle full of modern poetry – set for release on April 14. To support this stunningly beautiful work, Hue will play a strictly limited run of intimate shows across Ballarat, Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra and Mullumbimby in April.
Hue’s sound sits somewhere outside of the usual genre boxes, yet somewhere in all of them; jazz, classical, artsong, pop, the album is a rare and musically sophisticated work, ahead of its time, yet deceptively simple – just Hue, sitting at his piano singing his stripped back melancholy. It is like Father John Misty, Jeff Buckley, Bach and David Foster Wallace all having an existential crisis in a room somewhere.
Speaking on the single, Fernando, Hue explains, “It’s about a troubled world famous soccer player and what I may have in common with him. I was wondering if hugely successful sports players suffered loneliness and anxiety and when I read a story about one of my favourite players – Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima from Brazil – having a setback before a crucial game in the World Cup, I decided to write about the story from my perspective.”
The song has been paired with a simple, poignant video clip. Disarmingly voyeuristic, we follow Hue as he walks apparently aimlessly around the lonely, dark and quiet streets of Brunswick. Filmed by Ben Stace ‘Cowboy’, the video was an immediate reaction to a botched attempt at another clip. “We had wanted to superimpose painting on top of a video shot in the studio of the finished take of Fernando,” Hue says, “It looked a little bit like The’ Mulligrubs’ or something out of the 80s and we weren’t feeling too good about it, so we got a camera and shot the clip in an hour, edited it the next day.”
Holiday is a stunning, bleakly comic song cycle featuring Hue’s virtuoso singing and piano, a story of loneliness, despair and the difficult search for meaning amongst the everyday tedium of being human, told in Hue’s trademark wryly moving style. With this work, Hue takes his place as the troubadour of the troubled, the singer of solitude.
Written over a two year period and heavily influenced by Hue’s troubled and anxious state of mind at the time, he explains, “The album was written while I was living with a schizophrenic golfing marijuana shaman who spent 8 hours a day shaking maracas on his knees whilst massaging himself and giving complex advice on posture and world politics to the other housemates and myself… Things needed to change. I wrote songs and got some new housemates. Meanwhile the shaman is living in a volcano in Nicaragua and having a great time and I’m releasing the album 3 years later and still in the same house.”
Available on vinyl, the LP will be accompanied by a booklet of original drawings by illustrator, Bernard Caleo who has interpreted the songs with scribbled drawings, with one drawing that perfectly sums up this desolate record – a man with an umbrella over his head with rain pouring out from inside the umbrella.
Hue has a host of fans near and far, with collaborator and artist, Bernard Caleo saying, “In this song cycle, Hue Blanes immerses you in a world of troubled dreamers, estranged lovers and ex soccer stars. The tunes ache with a sweet loneliness and the search for another, more bearable world.” Deborah Conway is also a supporter, saying, “Hue Blanes has a transcendent voice, perfect timing and an angelic touch on the piano, he’s a star.”
The intimate shows set for April are on sale now, offering an opportunity for those lucky enough to encounter one of Australia’s most startlingly original performers.
Fernando is out now. Holiday is set for a vinyl release on Melbourne’s Pound Records on April 14
HOLIDAY TOUR DATES
FRI 14 APR | MINERVA’S BOOKS & POT OF GOLD COLLECTABLES | BALLARAT
SAT 15 APR | THE JAZZLAB with special guest JOE O’CONNOR | BRUNSWICK
THUR 20 APR | VENUE 505 with special guest BRIAN CAMPEAU | SURRY HILLS, SYDNEY
FRI 21 APR | SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE with special guest ALICE COTTEE | CANBERRA
SAT 29 APR | DRILL HALL | MULLUMBIMBY NSW
MAYA ANNOUNCES NEW SINGLE + VIDEO WHAT AFTER NOW
Compelling future-soul vocalist, MAYA has today announced her thought-provoking new single, What After Now (out March 24), an earnest pledge to live in each passing moment. Accompanying the track is an empowering, triumphant video that commands attention with its effortless cool, thanks to director Dayne Edward. To celebrate the chic release, MAYA will be performing a string of shows across Melbourne at Paris Cat on March 24, The Rising Sun on April 1 and The Toff In Town on April 25.
What After Now is the result of an already-accomplished artist willing to test, track and expand their own creative process, and explore the complex array of motives that stir and propel society in every which way. MAYA comments on her generation’s obsession with what is to follow the now from a position of youth, yet with a maturity and reason well beyond her years. The track itself is a powerful, driving, irresistible jam, overflowing with attitude and evoking influences such as Hiatus Kaiyote, Solange and Alicia Keys. “What After Now is about living in the moment, loving who you are and being who you love,” MAYA warmly enthuses, “It was inspired by all the times I have been challenged by my future, but have just tried to enjoy the present. I wanted people to remember that our future may be unknown and daunting, but if you can just get through each second in the now you don’t have to worry about what’s to come. It is inspired by everyone around me and the way the new generations are always trying to be somewhere else.”
The clip for What After Now can only be described as celebratory; rejoicing in the undeniable strength that women possess. It is simple and compelling, boasting an international feel with its glamorous chic, yet balanced perfectly with MAYA’s radiance, inner beauty and charm. The video sees MAYA and her sisters lounge luxuriously, projecting infinite wisdom and owning the message the song portrays with courage and pride. “The video clip was inspired by my childhood love of dressing up. When I was a kid I was never happy in my own skin, so I would dress up to make myself feel like a different person,” explains Maya. “ I asked my beautiful sisters to join me as I want to create imagery that entrances people. I want people to hear the lyrics and understand the meaning while also having fun with it. Dayne found a way to capture us all looking so alike yet so different at the same time, which I thought was a beautiful metaphor for humanity.”
In light of the release, MAYA is thrilled to be able to spread the message of What After Now live to audiences across Melbourne, saying “Performing is my favourite aspect of all. I love to use projections, dancers and art to bring each show to an original light. I will always try and speak to my audience in a new way each time, sharing not just my story but my soul.”
MAYA fortifies her sound with elements of 90s hip-hop, jazz, soul and something else you haven’t heard before. What After Now takes you on an emotional journey into the self, but keeps you grooving the whole way down.
What After Now is set for release on March 24.
MAYA ‘WHAT AFTER NOW’ LAUNCH SHOW
FRI, 24 MARCH | PARIS CAT | 18+
SAT, 1 APRIL | THE RISING SUN HOTEL | 18+
TUE, 25 APRIL | THE TOFF IN TOWN, MELBOURNE VIC | 18+
Tickets available from thetoffintown.com | 03 9639 8770 | AT THE DOOR
GINGER AND THE GHOST ANNOUNCE NEW SINGLE + VIDEO ‘GLOW’ AND TOUR
Avant-garde duo Ginger And The Ghost have today announced their impressive new single Glow, a progressive, futuristic pop anthem characterised by a spontaneous chorus, out March 24. An accompanying video for the track has also been released, featuring the pair adorned in exquisite body painting and enveloped in stunning, celestial special effects. To celebrate Glow, Ginger And The Ghost will be playing an exclusive run of shows kicking off at the Museum of New and Old Art (MONA) in Tasmania on the 18th of March, and wrapping up in Sydney at The Nest Creative Space on April 21.
With mountainous praise from taste-makers around the world, not to mention from the platinum hit-maker Diplo himself, Ginger And The Ghost’s new single Glow certainly lives up to the hype. Intricate, with cutthroat production by Ian Barter (Paloma Faith, Amy Winehouse) and idiosyncratic vocal phrases that recoil and expand with ease and skill, everything propels towards the chorus; sweeping electronics ascend and blissfully explode into the ether where the voice is chant-like; “Glow! Glow! Glow!” Vocalist and one half of the enigmatic duo, Missy Gilbert, reflects on the meaning of releasing such an empowering track in today’s global environment, “The feeling is indescribable because we know it’s just the start of our new sound and vision. We have been making this body of work for over two years and right now what we have to say is aligning with the global consciousness as a call to action. This is a pivotal time as an artist to be bold, to connect and to voice your passions, concerns and align yourself with what you believe in.”
The clip for Glow is as unique as the song it accompanies. The title motif is construed quite literally as both the costumes and effects are ethereal and lustrous. The duo are impassioned and it is left to the audience to interpret whether they are in combat with the ‘glow’, or allied with it. Co-directed by the band themselves and noted director Polly Snowden (Mamakin, Tinpan Orange), the clip is powerful and ominous. Multi-instrumentalist Daniel Bourne explains, “The story depicts us floating in space, masked and stagnate. We find enough energy to remove our masks and so begins the transference of energy between one another until it becomes so big it overwhelms us. Only after succumbing to it do we realise that this energy is an extension of ourselves and we can in fact harness its power.”
A Ginger And The Ghost live performance encompasses their own art installations and costumes as well as the music itself, so there is no more appropriate venue for the duo than MONA in the beautiful surrounds of Hobart, Tasmania. The pair will end the tour with a hometown show in Sydney, and are thrilled to bring their music to life on the road, as Missy enthuses, “Ginger And The Ghost performances are a hyper real, immersive and interactive experience with an Australiana aesthetic. We have many top secret collaborations coming together and we are so excited about the people who are involved artistically and musically.”
Ginger And The Ghost are Missy Gilbert and Daniel Bourne.
Glow is set for release on March 24.
GLOW SINGLE TOUR
SAT 18 MARCH | MONA, TASMANIA | AFTERNOON
FREE | www.momahobart.net.au
SAT 18 MARCH | THE GRAND POOBAH, TASMANIA | EVENING
https://www.thegrandpoobahbar.com.au/
SUN 19 MARCH | MONA, TASMANIA | AFTERNOON
FREE
FRI 21 APRIL | THE NEST CREATIVE SPACE, SYDNEY
www.gingerandtheghost.com.au / www.thenestcreativespace.com