Today Brightr (Laurie Cottingham) releases his debut full-length ‘Year One’. It sees Cottingham over twelve tracks share a range of deep and honest thoughts. Throughout his delivery is humble and reflective with the end result being a satisfying set of acoustic-driven songs that demand your attention.
To mark its release, we’ve teamed up with Brightr to premiere the video for ‘Year One’’s closing track – ‘Incredible Pens.’ It showcases Cottingham’s occasional upbeat style with his warm, heartfelt vocals. Here’s what Laurie had to say about the track and video:
“When I wrote ‘Incredible Pens’ the vast majority of ‘Year One’ was complete, and as such I knew the direction the album was taking, but in some weird sick way I wanted to change the pace for a singular moment with this song and throw out the ’emo’ rulebook. In the studio things just got a bit silly (but intentionally so) and we found ourselves adding ‘ba bas’, shakers, trumpets, claps and a synth solo…from which it grew in to one of my favourite songs from the album.
Thematically the song is about my frustration at “social media politics” and the purveyors of strong opinions online who fail to do anything actively. Instead choosing to flit between argumentative and attention seekingly depressive/hyper happy, whilst believing that their views on the world and others is genuinely the most important.
The story behind the video is much simpler. I recently returned home from a European tour with my good friend Elliot (Left Out) where we attempted to film lots of weird and wonderful things to make a tour video. I thought I’d use some footage to cut a video together, but upon viewing said footage back I realised there wasn’t a great amount that I could use. Sooooo, in classic Brightr fashion I had a brainwave, at that moment I was also thinking about what to cook for dinner… vegetarian enchiladas. I thought, brilliant…at that wondrous moment the two things collided in my head; music video, dinner, music video cooking my dinner! Yes! Throw in a few Ainsley Harriot dance moves and there you go!“
‘Year One’ by Brightr is out now on Flix Records and No Reason Records.
Brightr links: Website|Facebook|Twitter
Already Heard Presents: Brightr and Anna’s Anchor UK & Ireland Tour:
April
6th Bru Bar, Cork
7th Upstairs @ Roisin Dubh, Dublin
8th The Stormy Teacup, Limerick
9th The Scene, Swansea
10th Mothers Ruin, Bristol
11th The Quadrant, Brighton
13th Hinds House, Leeds
14th Little Buildings, Newcastle
15th Banshee Labyrinth, Edinburgh
16th The 13th Note, Glasgow
17th Downstairs @ Fibber Magees, Dublin
18th S & G, Manchester*
*Brightr only
Have a new video or song you’d like to premier on Already Heard? If so contact Sêan Reid to find out more.
