Sydney-based-multidisciplinary-artist Annie Hamilton today announces her long-awaited debut album, the future is here but it feels kinda like the past, out May 20 on PIAS, also sharing latest single “Night Off.” You can pre-order it here. 

For an album comprised of intense moments of feeling distilled into song, “Night Off” arrives as one of its most effervescent and light-hearted: a sweeping, lovelorn ode to the all-consuming crush, whose shimmering synths and tremolo’d guitars combine with a dynamic, slightly grainy rhythm section to lift you up and carry you away on the waves of its infatuated tempest.

“Nothing is the way that it’s meant to be, the world is ending, but it doesn’t matter because it’s your night off and you’re texting your crush. I wanted this song to capture the energy of sparks flying, the giddiness, the butterflies – full of imperfections but more alive than ever,” Hamilton shares. “This song arrived thick and fast one night last year in between lockdowns – I wrote and recorded the whole thing in the space of a few hours. Usually I edit lyrics, rearrange and re-record parts over and over again, but this song had a sense of urgency to it that I didn’t want to touch, so I left it exactly as it was, apart from the later addition of drums by Luke Davison (The Preatures) recorded remotely from his home studio during lockdown.”

“Night Off” is accompanied by a hallucinatory, kaleidoscopic video directed and edited by Jordan Kirk (XingerXanger) with cinematography by Robert Agostino.

“I had the concept for the video floating around in my head for a long time but hadn’t quite figured out how to execute it. I wanted to construct a swirling frenzied fantasy world within the confines of a one-shot video set on the staircase of my house, to convey the feeling of hovering somewhere in the space between reality, memory and fantasy,” says Hamilton, “I pitched the idea to Jordan and luckily he was into it – I knew his style would bring the perfect dark, surreal element into the mix to balance out the DIY craftiness of the props. I made hundreds of cardboard cutouts of bats, raindrops, lightning bolts, moths, stars and moons and enlisted a bunch of friends to be puppeteers – the shoot was chaotic and hilarious and perfectly matches the woozy rawness, imperfection and spontaneity of the song.”

Video director Jordan Kirk adds: “I love music videos with a strong and simple theme, and I was drawn to Annie’s initial concept due to this. I believe that working within limits helps creativity, and knew that we would be able to stick to her idea, while heightening it with the right lighting, shooting techniques and editing to achieve the crackling darkness and urgency that is present in the track.”

Alongside the announcement, she also releases a limited-edition capsule collection of gender-neutral clothing through her eponymous fashion label, available now through her website.

Photo Courtesy: Jordan Kirk (XingerXanger)