David Gray drops the new video to ‘A Tight Ship’ – a track taken from his forthcoming new album Gold In A Brass Age, due for release on March 8, 2019 via IHT Records / AWAL Recordings. The video uses green-screen to allow both David and director Rex Russell to explore more abstract imagery and ideas in post production, in one section capturing David walking through clouds down a floating cylindrical corridor made of multiple singing David heads. Produced by Ben de Vries, son of producer and soundtrack composer Marius de Vries, Gold In A Brass Age – Gray’s first album of new material in four years – will arrive just ahead of a run of seventeen headline shows across the UK and Ireland and an Australian tour in April, culminating with a performance at Bluesfest.
Speaking about the video to ‘A Tight Ship’, Gray says: “The central idea came directly from the beat of the song. It’s an uplifting beat with a sense of positivity and forward momentum about it, and it felt to me like that needed to be translated into forward movement. The first part of the song is in a 6/4 time signature and when I was moving it seemed like a really natural thing to have a little mark on every 6th beat to help accentuate each change. Green screen afforded us more freedom in post-production to really get this concept working. The end of the song goes into half time and I imagined that this part would feature people dancing in slow-motion while I stood still. This ties in with the hook line of the song ’To dance like no one sees’. On the day it was actually really good fun although walking on the walkolator whilst focussing on the camera wasn’t without it’s challenges. I came off several times!’
You’ll still recognise Gray’s gravelly rasp on new single ‘A Tight Ship’, but the singing is softer, sweeter, more intimate and occasionally falsetto. It’s part of a song-writing shake-up that defines a more intuitive approach from Gray across Gold In A Brass Age. Using a cut and paste approach to the arrangement of songs, lyrics have been transformed, with couplets closer to poetry, and whilst his guitar and piano playing remain, it’s the ushering in of electronica and the exploring of alternative sound textures alongside new production techniques that take to the fore.
Gold In A Brass Age will be David Gray’s eleventh album in a career that spans over 25 years, several Brit and Grammy nominations, and three No.1 UK albums, including for the breakout multi-platinum White Ladder. The new album’s title is drawn from Raymond Carver’s short story Blackbird Pie, and informed by the regenerative cut and thrust of Gray’s adopted home of London and a fascination with the natural world. The album’s striking artwork – for which Gray approached Peckham-based Londonboy Tattooer – depicts an Emperor moth with the City of London captured between its wingspan.
DAVID GRAY – AUSTRALIAN TOUR DATES:
Sun, 14 April – Perth, Riverside Theatre,
Tues,16 April – Sydney, Enmore Theatre
Wed, 17 April – Sydney, Enmore Theatre – new date
Fri, 19 April – Melbourne, Palais Theatre – new date
Sat, 20 April – Melbourne, Palais Theatre
Mon, 22 April – Byron Bay, Bluesfest
Pre-order Gold In A Brass Age HERE or via davidgray.com
