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Patrick Stefan Shares Video for ‘Drinking Alone in the Moonlight’

July 14, 2022

Patrick Stefan is an Irish-Dutch singer and wayfarer; born in Co. Clare now based in Dublin, he’s travelled & lived in different corners of the world from Scandinavia, Brazil to Africa. Inspiration for his songs come from a colourful background of experience: learning tribal songs in Mali, jazz guitar in Boston, folk singing in Helsinki and drumming in north Brazil. His songs have been compared in sound to Paul Simon, Jose Gonzalez, Sufjan Stevens, Nick Drake, James Blake, Milton Nascimento and Peter Broderick.  After much wayfare, Patrick Stefan is releasing his debut album 23rd September 2022.

Today, Patrick shares the official video for Drinking alone in the moonlight, the second single from his upcoming album.

Patrick says, “The video was made by west Cork based artist Becky Hatchett, whose work I saw online and absolutely loved. I couldn’t come up with a concept for this song, it’s based on a poem and quite ethereal – nothing visual was quite doing it justice – so I contacted Becky to see if she had any ideas.

 In Becky’s words; ‘It’s all monoprint with block ink and paper cut artwork which is then digitised, animated and layered with simple silhouettes … so although it looks very simple it is quite a process compared to producing purely digital artwork’.

 I love that she used her hands and physical materials to make the video, and how it takes you on a journey by looking into the cup – it reminds me of that wide-eyed feeling of seeing something magical on television when you are really young and your brain is putting together the story through symbols in real time.”

 ‘Drinking alone in the moonlight’ takes its name from an 8th Century poem by Li Bai, known for his poems about wandering, nature, mindfulness & solitude. The poem longs for friends, but settles with the company of his own shadow and the moon –

“When I sing the moon dances, when I dance my shadow dances too”

Speaking of the song, Patrick says “A fellow wanderer of the world and of the self, the simplicity of the words resonated with the solo experiences that shaped my upcoming album Wayfare. I wrote the song first on a Finnish Kantele – a child’s harp, then brought it to life with a guitar accompaniment & strings that reminded me of Nick Drake in a classic 50’s movie. To a Taoist, Li Bai’s drunkenness would not be seen as a vice: I like to connect the idea of drink & dancing alone with your shadow to Carl Jung’s idea of the ‘shadow self’ – the dance with the part of you that you keep hidden.”

Drinking alone in the moonlight was recorded at Black Mountain studios & mixed by Alex Borwick. String arrangements by Patrick stefan, cello & viola by Gabriele Dikciute & Philip Keegan. It was produced by Alex Borwick (Sam Fender, Niamh Regan, Moxie) & Patrick stefan. Mastered by Darragh Nolan.

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