KAV TEMPERLEY SHARES NEW SINGLE AND VIDEO ‘MACHINES OF LOVE AND GRACE’
Eskimo Joe frontman Kav Temperley today furthers his sublime solo endeavours, releasing a deeply poetic, ethereal-yet-pounding new single Machines Of Love And Grace. Tackling the themes of connectivity in the digital age, Kav has also today shared an affecting music video for Machines Of Love And Grace, simultaneously capturing the track’s existential narrative and driving instrumentals alongside Kav’s dynamic stylings.
Machines Of Love And Grace was not inspired by the Richard Brautigan poem (although Temperley does admire his work), but by the notion theorists have put forward that humans are outliers on the planet – a virus upon it – because we put so much emphasis on love and empathy, ideals which don’t really exist in the animal kingdom. We are, in effect, machines of love and grace.
Machines Of Love And Grace firmly harnesses a sharp spotlight on Kav’s passion and penchant for songwriting that first endeared him so heavily in the Aussie music scene and beyond, boasting driving alt rock flavours with moments of acoustic calm and lush, stripped-back beauty. With its glistening piano and Kav’s familiar, soothing vocals, Machines Of Love And Grace steadily oscillates between fuzzy riffage and more introspective calm, much like its own brooding and ruminating subject matter, as Kav explains, “The song is about the complex and intimate relationships we have through our phones, seen through the lens of the last two-and-a-half years of the pandemic. Having devices in our hands has allowed us to have dinner with loved ones all over the world, all locked in our houses, and follow every moment of each other’s life; whether we want to or not, it’s often the first thing we see in the morning and the last thing we see before we go to sleep. With the touch of a button, anything and everything is available to us, good and bad.”
Filmed and directed by Eskimo Joe visual collaborator Cooper Gordon, the video for Machines Of Love And Grace perfectly complements the bittersweet themes explored in the song, with Kav intimately playing up the voyeuristic elements of social media and digital connection underpinning proceedings, elaborating, “Voyeurs to each other’s lives, I’m asking the question: do any of us feel like we exist unless we’re posting? And who are we when the camera lights turn off? We now live through these machines in the most intimate way, and we take them anywhere and everywhere we go! For the video, it was an idea of FaceTime without having Facetime,” Kav says.“Themost amazing thing is that the actor and the actress reacting to each other, they never met each other, yet on camera, it’s like they’re having an intimate relationship. It’s absolutely fascinating and plays into the whole theme about the machines of love and grace.”
Founding the ARIA award-winning, four-times platinum band Eskimo Joe at just 19, Kav turned winning a band competition back in the day into a career just shy of 25 years as the frontman, bass player and songwriter for what would go on to become one of Australia’s most beloved bands. The group’s breakout single Black Fingernails, Red Wine spent 62 weeks in the Top 50, with Kav going on to write and record seven studio albums with Eskimo Joe.
Alongside Kav’s extensive career fronting Eskimo Joe, he’s also a seasoned performer both onstage and onscreen, having toured nationally and internationally in Asia, America and Europe, and snagging guest TV appearances on Spicks and Specks, Rockwiz, Good Morning Australia, The Project, Sunrise, The Sound and Rage. With performance highlights including the 2021 AFL grand final in Perth, Sound Relief, Live Earth, the ARIA Awards, Big Day Out, Homebake, Splendour In The Grass and Sundance Film Festival in Utah to name a few, Kav’s also simultaneously embraced and emboldened his role in the industry as an expert and mentor in creativity and songwriting, developing the Create, Explore, Produce songwriting model while also creating various productions for causes and events, and judging numerous songwriting competitions.
Set to hit the road on tour with Eskimo Joe later in the year, the APRA, WAM and OceanFloor Music ambassador is currently in his seventh year of running creative workshops, 2022 finds Kav at his most potent and prolific yet as he gears up to release even more new music under his solo moniker.
Machines Of Love And Grace is out now.
ESKIMO JOE TOUR DATES
WED 28 SEP| THE TIVOLI | BRISBANE
FRI 30 SEP| ODEON THEATRE | HOBART
SAT 1 OCT| FORUM | MELBOURNE
TUES 4 OCT | THEBARTON THEATRE | ADELAIDE
WED 5 OCT | ENMORE THEATRE | SYDNEY
SAT 15 OCT | FREMANTLE ARTS CENTRE | PERTH
JACK PANTHER ANNOUNCES NEW SINGLE SKI LIFT 001 + NEW EP WHY DON’T YOU COME OVER? OUT MAY 20
A glistening fusion of silken noir and fresh candor, Auckland based queer pop artist Jack Panther returns today with a lush new single SKI LIFT 001. Flowing with alt pop flavours and sharp vulnerability, SKI LIFT 001 is also accompanied by a bold visualiser, contrasting the heart-rending lyrics and melodics as Jack appears laying on the floor slowly bleeding out. SKI LIFT 001 also marks a peek into Jack’s impending new EP why don’t you come over? which will release on May 20.
SKI LIFT 001 welds candid lyricism with a fresh-yet-moody sonic aesthetic, with alt pop whimsy coaxing you deeper and deeper into Jack’s intimate world via this schematic ballad. Inspired by alt-pop royalty like Joji, Troye Sivan, FKA Twigs and King Princess, SKI LIFT 001 also hints at the intimate wooze of James Blake amid sparse guitars and softly burgeoning soundscapes. Conjured in a mere six hours and produced and mixed by Harry Charles, the track effortlessly captures the sudden and searing hit of nostalgia that can strike in the blink of an eye. Of the significant personal themes underpinning SKI LIFT 001, Jack says, “Last winter I went skiing for the first time since going with my ex-boyfriend, and so many bittersweet memories came flooding back to me. I remember having an epiphany while skiing that I took so many moments with him forgranted. It’s a feeling that I think resonates with a lot of people – nostalgia can hit you so hard and so quickly. Writing this song was so cathartic for me, I had a lot of feelings towards my ex and I think in a way I wrote it to acknowledge these feelings and try to move on.”
The visualiser for SKI LIFT 001 starkly contrasts the raw elegance of the track, with Jack slowly revealed to be bleeding out on the floor from an injury caused by a ski pole. With Jack’s performance emphasising the single’s stirring themes in bold and innovative fashion, the concept for the visualiser came to Jack in a dream, causing a sudden late night text to the clip’s director Devan Narsai. Of the video’s origins, Jack says, “Devan and I were brainstorming concepts for a while. One night I fell asleep and awoke again at 11:30pm. In my delirious, dream-like state I came up with this crazy, daring concept of bleeding out on a floor. Immediately I texted Devan who happened to still be awake at the time and texted back that he loved it. When filming it I was just so in awe that Devan and I made this unique, wild concept come to life.”
Joining previously released singles If I Was and Feels Right that dropped late last year, SKI LIFT 001 is yet another enticing peek into Jack’s forthcoming new EP why don’t you come over?, due out May 20. A culmination of harnessing the ups and downs of being in your early 20s alongside Jack’s ongoing creative evolutuion, this sophomore EP celebrates healthy lashings of personal narratives, edgy pop and staggering empowerment as Jack sanguinely steps forward into a new and emboldened chapter. Speaking on the origins of his new EP, Jack says, “It showcases such a different side to me, one that feels kind of badass. Throughout the process of writing the project I was listening to such confident, self-assured music and it rubbed shoulders with me, I guess. For the first time I feel empowered by my own music and I think that’s why I feel so connected to it. I was in the process of moving cities at the time. With so many changes, everything felt like both the world was opening up, yet crashing down on me. In that time I was so forced to look inward, discover more about myself, my identity and the queer history of people that fought for my right to have a voice. That’s where this project stemmed from, I had so much to say to the people around me and the people before me.”
Following on from his debut EP this dream i had released back in 2020, 2022 promises to be the most explosive year for Jack so far, not just via his stunning new EP on the horizon, but also with plans to focus on his live band amid some upcoming writing sessions in Australia and the UK.
SKI LIFT 001 is out today.
why don’t you come over? is out May 20.
LOREN KATE SHARES NEW SINGLE AND VIDEO ‘ONE OF THESE DAYS’
Spellbinding indie folk artist Loren Kate has returned with a brand new single One Of These Days, a raw and rousing track straddling intimate thematics and warm sonic simplicity. Recorded a year ago, this captivating new song releases today alongside an accompanying music video, poetically reflecting the stark and moving subject matter woven by Loren’s own personal journey. Working alongside filmmaker Brad Halstead and producer Shane Nicholson, One Of These Days also marks an emotive taste of things to come ahead of the release of Loren’s upcoming new album Nobody Knows, due out on May 20.
One Of These Days continues Loren’s knack for weaving personal stories and challenging life experiences into glowing concoctions, specifically detailing the heartache of watching her brother struggle with drug addiction while also instilling a sense of hope against all the odds. Softly flowing with elegant and dominantly acoustic instrumentation, driving percussion and Loren’s silky rasp, One Of These Days is equally heart-rending and bewitching, offering a moving slice of fresh indie folk that reaches delicately into your soul. Speaking about the extremely personal nature of the track, Loren says, “I stood in my brother’s shoes to write ‘One Of These Days’. He has struggled for almost as long as I can remember with a drug addiction. We were really close growing up and I spent so much of my earlier years thinking I was responsible for making his life better. That I had to somehow fix things. I have had to distance myself from that idea now, but still spend plenty of time trying to understand him, putting myself in his shoes and trying to work out where it all started. So I wrote this song. It’s a song about finding yourself at rock bottom, starting with nothing, and finding the tools to build a way out of heartbreak and shattered circumstances.”
The video for One Of These Days embraces these stirring overtones, with Loren and filmmaker Brad Halstead tapping in to an untouched, neglected property to bring to life the trauma and visceral pain laying within the song’s lyrical content. Opening on a static-filled TV, the clip powerfully brings anguish and permeating hope to life in a decaying home, interspersed with shots of happier days, as Loren explains, “My friends recently bought a property and with the property came an old house that no one had set foot in since 1995. The place was trashed, filthy and animals had literally taken over, eaten everything they could and all the life that remains there now are some desperate rats living in the Tupperware cupboard. As soon as I saw it I thought ‘someone has to film something in here’. The house is almost a representation of my brother’s head. That push and pull of wanting things to be different, but finding it so bloody hard to take that first step. To step outside.”
This talented South Australian singer-songwriter, already increasingly revered for her sharp storytelling, country and folk flavours and endearing Australian charm, has continually traversed the odds personally and professionally to conjure her honest and exquisite creations – including multiple delays and setbacks that meant One Of These Days sat lying in wait for twelve months before its final release. The equivalent of a warm hug in the midst of a battering storm, this latest track saw Loren team up with ARIA and Golden Guitar-winning songwriter and producer Shane Nicholson, with Shane also recording her impending new album Nobody Knows, releasing on May 20. A stunning and sensitive scene-setter for the undeniable beauty that will continue to emerge in 2022, Loren is entirely armed to unleash her latest creation into the world, as she explains, “There have been so many delays and set backs that it actually feels like such a relief to finally let this song sail into the world. I haven’t released anything for a few years so feel very excited to bring something new into the world.”
One Of These Days is out today, March 31.
Listen: ONE OF THESE DAYS
Watch: ONE OF THESE DAYS