Anna's Anchor - Takes Us Behind the Scenes of The "Hampton" Video
"A nautical mile is a little bit longer than a mile. I find that with everything I do, be it academically, work or music related, I always have to work a little harder to get where I want to,” explains Marty Ryan, the man, heart and soul behind the Limerick based indie-emo-punk act, of the title’s origin. ‘Nautical Miles’ certainly is befitting of a debut album title, for an artist who won’t let simple geography stand in the way of “writing and releasing as much music as possible.” Laying down Nautical Miles saw Marty spend all of January 2016 criss-crossing the Irish Sea for studio sessions with producer Bob Cooper. Marty enlisted his pal Brian Scally to lay down drums, before handling all other instrumentation and vocals himself. The fruit of his labour is a soulful amalgam of emo, indie and pop, reminiscent of Jimmy Eat World and Into It. Over It. In support of the album’s release on 23rd September, Marty recently released a poignant video for track Hampton, no he is pleased to talk more in depth about it…
Why did you decide to release the track?
It was the first song that was written for the album and I felt it was probably the most emotionally charged/saddest song on the record. It's something I’ve definitely struggled talking about, but the song is about coming to terms with my mother's alcoholism and all the initial feelings that came with that. The more I've spoken out/to people about it, it's really shocking how common it is and I wanted to put that at the fore, as I had always wanted the songs to be honest as possible and it doesn't get closer to home than this one. I think that kind of openness is something people appreciate.
What the video is about and how did the final concept came about?
In a much looser sense, the song is about longing for something that isn't there. Sometimes I feel videos that are too story intensive come across as a badly shot sitcom, so I took that more general idea and thought what could fit that concept. In the meantime my Dad, who happens to be into ballroom dancing (sounds weird but there's a genuine sub culture for it which is sick) showed me these photos of this really old ballroom that hadn't been touched since the 60s. As a result, I had the idea of a guy coming across this ballroom and the room gives him all these lovely memories, closes his eyes and he’s dancing with another character whose not actually there, with a band behind them, which was me and my mates. That's it in a nutshell but it’s the directors amazing cinematography skills that makes the video.
We shot it in the ballroom in Fethard, Co.Tipperary which is very much rural Ireland. The committee for the ballroom didn't have an e-mail address so I had to post a letter to them to try and book it which was a funny quirk, but they were so kind to let us use their lovely space. Everyone's got a bit of DIY punk in them I guess!
You mentioned your director’s amazing cinematography skills – tell us more about him and why you used him?
Shane Serrano from Limerick directed it. He's an amazing videographer and I never felt I had a song worthy enough of his work until we did this album, so I always knew I was going to get Shane to do one of the singles, regardless of what it was. I've always felt that Shane's best work has been on less storyline intensive videos and the shots do the talking and he really nailed it! Shane also plays in a band called FoxJaw who are amazing and you should definitely check them out.
Well probably the funniest thing that happened, which you can see from the photo, is that we all went for a walk down by the river outside the ballroom and the characters who played the couple posed for a quick photo, and you can clearly see what happened next! Falling into the river set us back a few hours because we had to drive to the next town over to get the lads more clothes! Another funny thing was my dad sorted the two dancers, I got mate mates that were in the band for the video and one of them happened to be the nephew of the main character. Small world, smaller country!
Finally, what are your thoughts on the outcome?
I am so stoked with it. Shane did an amazing job and was so easy to work with. Both Geraldine and Fionn who were acting and dancing killed it. Fionn looks like an experienced actor in it despite this being his first time doing something like this. I think visually and sonically, this is a big step up from anything else I've released previously."
No comments: