WITH THRUMMING NEW SINGLE ‘FINE’ AND HYPNOTIC VIDEO
Director: Arty Papageorgiou Producer: Gloria Griffen Director of Photography: Jake Munro
Sheep, Dog & Wolf’s new single ‘Fine’ – the fourth to be lifted from Daniel McBride’s upcoming second album – is another musical twist from the pop polymath. Soft, intimate vocal harmonies meld with shifting saxophones, underlined by off-kilter beats and an undulating, synth-like growl. Despite its electronic feel the track is in fact recorded using live instruments by McBride himself, singing in a distorted, pitch-shifted baritone to achieve a deep bass rumble and using mouth-percussion for an ever-morphing kick pulse. No stranger to bold, visual statements, the video stars a strung-out and helpless McBride hanging upside down, juxtaposing inner turmoil with a surreal sense of calm.
The video was directed by Wellington filmmaking duo, Arty Papageorgiou & Gloria Griffen(Church & AP, Lontalius, Avantdale Bowling Club).
The song is about the extreme denial he found himself in during some of his worst periods of illness. “I could be in the depths of it, barely leaving the house, completely devoid of feeling and utterly dissociated, and yet I would still somehow convince myself that everything was normal, that I was fine,” he explains. Believing it was a personal failure and not wanting to admit he was unwell or in need of help, he ignored it and hoped it would go away. “I wish I’d known then what I know now: that mental illness is just that, an illness. It’s nothing be ashamed of. And once you work past that shame and denial, once you acknowledge it and ask for help, it gets a lot easier.”
‘Two Minds’ is out on April 9th via Aphrodite. The road to his long-awaited and triumphant return may have been littered with obstructions, but ‘Two-Minds’ mutant R&B, post-classical minimalism and electronica showcase McBride’s elevated perspective. Written, performed and recorded entirely alone, it documents a young life in disarray, striking a perfect balance between darkness and humour.
‘Two-Minds’ is McBride’s first full release since his debut ‘Egospect’ dropped in 2013 to critical acclaim. It followed the multi-instrumentalist’s ‘Ablutophobia’ EP which garnered praise from The Guardian and Vogue and propelled the then 17-year-old into the spotlight. Instead of capitalising on the reviews by rushing overseas to tour, he studied composition in Wellington where he realised the equal importance of having an emotional connection to songwriting over just an intellectual concept. When he did accept an offer to tour Europe, it inspired him to make an album to take on the road, and ‘Egospect’ was born. It saw him win the Critics’ Choice Prize at the New Zealand Music Awards and make the shortlist at 2014’s Taite Prize (NZ’s Mercury equivalent, won that year by Lorde). “I’m still really proud of that record,” McBride notes. “But I’ve moved on since.”
‘Two-Minds’ is a quantum leap: more refined, dextrous and ambitious than its predecessor, full of joy, colour and energy. Yet there’s no escaping its dark and painful origins: “the album was written during a period of chronic physical and mental illness; it’s a document of that time” says McBride. “But I still see Two-Minds as a positive statement – it’s about recovery as much as it is about illness, and about the shafts of light that could shine through even in the depths of it.”
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