Channelling lockdown boredom into creativity on several fronts
Groove Tube with Cian O’Connell
It is over a year since the release of Galway-based singer-songwriter Thomas McPartland’s last single. Lonely as Me arrived in May of 2020 and the album it promised to precede remains on the horizon but its successor, a folk-pop track by equal means emotive and anthemic, is a significant step towards the realisation of the LP.
After the Movie is out on August 4 and it is accompanied by a stop motion video designed and directed by Partland himself. It was a format somewhat born out of lockdown boredom, but it ultimately prompted a corresponding series of music videos that will be released alongside the album.
Having recorded much of his recent work with Canadian producer Robert Kelly, Partland – as he goes by, in the music world – chose to go more local with his latest single.
“It’s out on August 4, which is actually my birthday,” he explains.
“I like to do something on my birthday along the lines of a gig or putting something out so that’s what I’m doing this time. Because [the pandemic] went on so long, I rerecorded it. I went back and recorded a couple of the songs that didn’t make the cut initially or songs that I’d written in the meantime so it did change a little bit.
“This song is a completely new version recorded by Dave Skelton who did Colohan’s song and does the Rofi James stuff. It was out in his studio in Monivea. He records singer-songwriters or guitar players and he puts everything else on it instrumentation-wise. He very much produces it and he’s really good at what he does.”
Thom put roughly eighty hours into making the stop motion piece. He had initially debated honing his keyboard skills but once he started on the music video project, it gained momentum. The film for Lonely as Me last year had a similar style.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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