VIDEO ‘RUN TO THE RIVER’
+ DEBUT EP NAMOI OUT FRI 7 FEB
+ PLAYING MARRICKVILLE BOWLO ON THU 21 NOV & FAIRGROUNDS FESTIVAL IN DEC
I first met Andy around 4 years ago when I was living in Sydney – Mason and Tooky from DMA’S had told me about this guy who has the craziest voice in Sydney and just constantly plays shows up and down King St in Newtown. Their love of his music had also led them to occasionally play in his band whenever they could and on this particular Sunday arvo, Mase was playing slide guitar for Andy at the Black Sheep. I went down to check it out and was blown away, everything they had described was spot on…from his voice, to the story telling, the overall charisma….it was crazy! I very quickly became a huge fan and am so happy to finally welcome him to the I OH YOU label family.
Along with the news of Andy signing to I OH YOU, today I’m excited to present you with the lead track from his forthcoming Namoi EP (which will be releasing on the 7th of February). It’s a song called ‘Run To The River’ and it still blows me away every time I listen to it. Bill Bleakley also directed an amazing video to accompany the song as well. I’m not really great at describing music but Andy sent me the below description of the track a while ago, so I thought I’d include that here:
The song ‘Run to the River’ is one I wrote for my twin brother. He was having pretty severe seizures for about 2 years, which doctors put down to an anxiety disorder. He was fired from his job due to old bigots not accepting that anxiety is a real issue and isolated himself from friends, family and social gatherings.
My brother and I love to fish when we’re together. When I go back home to Tamworth where my brother lives and where we grew up, we spend most of our time by a river – usually the Namoi or Peel, which I mention in the first verse of the song.
When I wrote the song I’d just come back to Sydney from Tamworth. We’d gone fishing, but I could tell my brother wasn’t himself. He was really anxious, he’d almost had a few seizures while we were fishing, and he didn’t let me out of his sight for fear of having one. I was heartbroken to see someone I’d thought was so strong my whole life be so afraid.
We both suffer from mental health issues and have done for most of our lives. It’s taken me quite a while to acquire the right management skills to get better. I wrote the song for Nick to encourage him to take the leap and to help him see he’s not alone when he does. To reach out and talk to friends, family, loved ones. To get out of the house and go fishing – whatever he can do to help himself get better and take charge of his life.
Turned out he had a massive brain tumour the size of a tennis ball, discovered late last year after my father filmed him having a seizure. Sure changed the doctors’ tune. They managed to remove most of it in surgery and it’s looking like he’ll live a long and healthy life. He still has a ways to go as far as recovering physically and mentally, but I’m sure he’ll get there. Run to the River was written before we found all this out, but the message still rings true.
To celebrate the release of ‘Run To The River’, Andy will be performing a free show at the Marrickville Bowlo (where he works behind the bar) on Thursday 21st of November as well as an appearance at Fairgrounds Festival in Berry in December.
I hope you enjoy this song as much as I do. There’s plenty more to come from Andy in the near future.
– Johann Ponniah, I OH YOU
Live dates:
Thursday 21 Nov
Marrickville Bowlo | Sydney, NSW 18+
Friday 6 – Saturday 7 Dec
Fairgrounds Festival | Berry, NSW All ages
Tracklisting:
- Blue
- Dreamin’ Of America
- 1170
- When Your Mind’s Away
- Everytime I See Your Picture On My Telephone
- Run To The River
‘RUN TO THE RIVER’ IS OUT NOW THROUGH I OH YOU
AVAILABLE FOR STREAMING AND PURCHASE HERE
NAMOI IS AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER AND PRE-SAVE NOW HERE
andygolledgemusic.com |facebook.com/AndyGolledge
