In support of the release of his new single 'Fernando' as well as his sophomore album 'Holiday' due on the 14th, enigmatic genius singer-songwriter and pianist, Hue Blanes, will play a series of intimate shows this April. The PBS Young Elder of Jazz 2017 and 2017 Green Room multiple nominee will be performing in Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra.
Hue's sound is a beautiful mix of genres: jazz, classical, artsong and pop. The album is simple yet musically sophisticated – just Hue, sitting at his piano singing his stripped back melancholy. It is like Father John Misty, Jeff Buckley, Bach and David Foster Wallace all having an existential crisis in a room somewhere.
Speaking on the single, Fernando, Hue says, “It's about a troubled world famous soccer player and what I may have in common with him. I was wondering if hugely successful sports players suffered loneliness and anxiety and when I read a story about one of my favourite players – Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima from Brazil – having a setback before a crucial game in the World Cup, I decided to write about the story from my perspective.”
The song is accompanied by a simple and poignant video clip. Disarmingly voyeuristic, the clip features Hue Blanes as he walks apparently aimlessly around the dark and desolate streets of Brunswick. Filmed by Ben Stace 'Cowboy', the video was an immediate reaction to a botched attempt at another clip. “We had wanted to superimpose painting on top of a video shot in the studio of the finished take of Fernando,” Hue explains. “It looked a little bit like The 'Mulligrubs' or something out of the 80s and we weren't feeling too good about it, so we got a camera and shot the clip in an hour, edited it the next day.”
Holiday is a stunning, bleakly comic song cycle written over a two year period and heavily influenced by Hue’s troubled and anxious state of mind at the time. It's about a story of loneliness, despair and the difficult search for meaning amongst the everyday tedium of being human chronicled through Hue's virtuoso singing and piano. With this work, Hue takes his place as the troubadour of the troubled, the singer of solitude.
Available on vinyl, the LP will be accompanied by a booklet of original drawings by illustrator, Bernard Caleo who has interpreted the songs with scribbled drawings, with one drawing that perfectly summarises this desolate record – a man with an umbrella over his head with rain pouring out from inside the umbrella.
Hue Blanes has a legion of fans near and far, with collaborator and artist, Bernard Caleo saying, “In this song cycle, Hue Blanes immerses you in a world of troubled dreamers, estranged lovers and ex soccer stars. The tunes ache with a sweet loneliness and the search for another, more bearable world.” Deborah Conway is also a supporter, saying, “Hue Blanes has a transcendent voice, perfect timing and an angelic touch on the piano, he’s a star.”
Grab your tickets and let one of Australia's most startlingly original performers pull a string in your heart this April!
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