After his main stage appearance at the ‘Beyond the Pale’ festival in June, Sussex-born poet and songwriter Christian Wethered has announced the release of a summery music video for his feel-good single ‘Way Back’. It’s his first song and video since the release of his debut album, ‘Mon Petit Jardin’.
In the film, two women fall in love amid lingering sun, wildflowers and feverish kisses. A gull cuts through the sky, perhaps hinting at Dublin, while a pagan woman dressed in gold spreads her arms (à la Midsommar). Under this, the song’s refrain repeats like a mantra, ‘And there was something in the air, that time we had/ We’ll trade our sorrows for the sky’.
“I was hoping to capture the ecstasy of falling in love. We’ve all been having a tough time of late, and now summer’s here there’s a lovely collective spirit in the air. With all that’s going on in the world we need to remind ourselves of who we are,” Christian says.
Choice rhythms from Soda Blonde’s Dyl Lynch recall early Prince, or Serge Gainsbourg in his heyday; while a sultry, lo-fi vocal evokes early Bob Dylan, The La’s, or Sufjan Stevens.
“With the band it sounds almost jazzy; on the album it’s more pared-down and serious, a lonely indie folk tune. I like both: It’s great having these options playing live as it helps define my sound more clearly,” Christian Wethered says of the track.
The release is timely for a folky songwriter already starting to turn heads, and rumoured to play further support slots with Selective Memory in the coming months. More songs, gigs, and even a poetry book to come from this emerging artist.
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Photo: Graeme Coughlan
