Wellington/Pōneke-based musician and multi-instrumentalist Grayson Gilmour releases his latest single ‘Day Moon’ alongside the announcement of a nationwide album release tour in December. Last month, he shared the news about Holding Patterns, his first full-length release in over six years, due out November 3rd via Flying Nun Records.
Following lead single 'Maat Mons', ‘Day Moon’ explores the idea of checking in and out in a world of constant change and shifting moods. With a driving beat, the atmospheric synth track features gorgeous vocals from Oakland-based Neo-Soul artist Sandu Ndu (aka Sandra Lawson-Ndu from the band Bells Atlas) and backing vocals from Eddie Johnston (aka Lontalius, Race Banyon). Grayson shares his inspiration for the track, saying, “I love the duality of seeing the moon during the day – natural, yet strangely out of context – beautiful, but gloomy at the same time. In a way it gives me some reassurance that two worlds coexist – we all have our ups and downs, but just like day and night, they’re simply phasing in and out.”
About the collaboration, Grayson adds, “I met Sandu Ndu years ago in Wellington, and have kept in touch ever since. She’s a great vocalist and lyricist, and I’m a big fan of her band Bells Atlas, so I knew she'd work wonders on ‘Day Moon’. We collaborated exclusively online – a process mirrored in the backing vocal contributions from Eddie."
Sandu Ndu is a singer-songwriter, producer and music director that has built her music base in Oakland CA while performing and touring with her band Bells Atlas. While her solo sound is experimental at its essence and often sits between genres, her current work embraces Cinematic RnB with hints of Afrobeat. Recently that work considers how exclusion from social storytelling contributes to the myth of monsters. Her debut solo EP will be out late 2023.
Always aspiring for music video weirdness, Grayson combined motion capture, digital animation, and AI video prompting for the ‘Day Moon’ visuals. Directed by Jesse Taylor Smith and Jacob Perkins, performances were captured and blended with 3D textures before being processed by an AI model that was prompted to ‘dream of a galactic coral reef’. The result? A surreal underwater scene, like a hallucinogenic sea anemone serenading an otherworldly cosmic entity.
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Grayson Gilmour - Holding Patterns Album Release Tour
Dec. 1st - Ōtautahi | Christchurch - Loons
Dec. 2nd - Ōtepoti | Dunedin - Dive
Dec. 8th - Te Whanga-nui-a-Tara | Wellington - Meow*
Dec. 9th - Tāmaki-makau-rau | Auckland - Wine Cellar
Tickets from Undertheradar.co.nz & *Moshtix.co.nz
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Grayson Gilmour is a multi-talented artist, known for his songwriting, film score compositions, and performances. He has toured globally both as a solo artist and as part of the post-punk group So So Modern, with releases on various labels worldwide. Holding Patterns follows his previous albums No Constellation (2010), Infinite Life! (2014) (nominated for both NZ Music Award and the 2015 Taite Prize), and Otherness (2017). This upcoming release marks Grayson's fourth full-length album with New Zealand indie label Flying Nun Records.
Curiosity is the driving force behind Grayson’s musical journey. Having released his previous multifaceted album Otherness (complete with its 360° music videos and web sampler) to critical acclaim, he is currently lecturing at Massey University’s College of Creative Arts, between film scoring projects and live performances. In the time since the release of Otherness in 2017, Grayson has become a parent of two. A typical response to becoming a parent might be that you slow down and make gentle music – while an element of that might be true within Holding Patterns, for the most part Grayson wanted to create rhythmically driven music that would allow him to dance through all the turbulence of parenthood. “Music has always been a form of escapism for me – a remedy of sorts – it always fulfills something that my life or surroundings can’t. I guess while I was tip-toeing around a sleeping baby during the pandemic lockdowns, what I really wanted to do was be loud! Luckily, I could channel this energy into my music."
On the name of the project, Grayson says, “I was drawn to ‘Holding Patterns’ as a title for the album because it spoke to the sensation of putting my life on hold while I figured out who I was, and wanted to be, as a parent. The meaning is multifaceted – it’s inherently intimate, but it’s also bittersweet – temporary, fleeting.”
Curious to work with different instrumentation, Gilmour ensured that there is practically no guitar on Holding Patterns. Any conventional piano or key parts were eventually rearranged into winds, strings or weird synth textures. Consequently, Holding Patterns is the artist’s most collaborative album to date featuring accomplished musicians such as Cory Champion (Clear Path Ensemble) on drums, Olivia Campion (Yumi Zouma) on percussion, and Eddie Johnston (aka Lontalius) on backing vocals. Improvisation was encouraged in most of the recording sessions with collaborators – the instrumental ‘Holding Patterns’ was actually completely improvised and re-assembled in the studio.
Furthermore, the more people he invited to the album; the more enjoyable it became – which perhaps explains why there are so many contributors. Grayson came across Bryce Wymer’s art via a feature in Juxtapoz Magazine years ago and felt an immediate connection with it. He commissioned Bryce to design the Holding Patterns album artwork, and the relationship between the visual and aural have proven to be a perfect pairing.
“I guess one of the side-effects of the pandemic / working from home was that I became comfortable with contacting people out-of-the-blue. Bryce was immediately keen and we worked really well together – sharing a lot of music interests and embarrassing sympathies for cliché hardcore bands!”
Holding Patterns is out on November 3rd via Flying Nun Records and will be available digitally, and on a range of limited edition coloured vinyl; red, blue, yellow or black.