Ahead of her highly anticipated debut album, ‘Idle Mind’, due out April 26th, Irish songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Anna Mieke, has shared this beautiful single and video, ‘Creature’.
Anna Mieke says: “Lyrically, ‘Creature’ was inspired by a performance I saw a few years ago in a tent in a field in Tipperary – of a dancer creating shadows behind a hanging sheet in response to music. That dancer was Marion Cronin, who in fact is the dancer in the accompanying video to this song. So inspiration for words came from a combination of that, and from Oscar Wilde’s story of The Happy Prince. People can take meaning from the words however which way they want – for me, at least for now it’s a reminder of, despite the facade of adulthood, the vulnerability of people and the value of acknowledging the child-like side of us.
I’d only really felt the song was partly ‘ready’ the night before this recording, and so the actual recorded performance of this song ended up being quite improvised at times. I sent Matthew Jacobson (percussion) the initial version of this track as he was driving to the studio in Kildare, asking if he’d be up for having a jam over it, which he did, and Conor Cunningham added flute – there’s a beautiful interplay between the screeching of cymbals and bird-like flute that I love. I’m very much into humming, and had always felt the song needed a collective voice, so Brían Mac Gloinn and I added a few layers of hums for good measure. It was absolutely the most satisfying song to record for the album – most likely because of the spontaneity of recording it.”
The video for ‘Creature’ sees a body, dancer Marion Cronin, freely move in response to the music, not a set-in-stone, choreographed dance – but more a natural interaction and response to the melodies by way of movement, using the themes and the lyrics for inspiration.
The single features as track 5 on the upcoming album, ‘Idle Mind’, set for independent release on 26th April 2019 on 12” vinyl, CD and digital. Pre-order the album now at www.annamieke.com or from Bandcamp.
Join Anna Mieke and her band on the album launch tour at The Spirit Store, Dundalk (April 24th), Plugd, Cork (April 25th), the Unitarian Church, Dublin (April 26th), and the Róisín Dubh, Galway (April 27th).
‘Creature’ is now available on Spotify.
Photo: James Corcoran Hodgins
