July Morning are releasing a video for the brand new single – ‘For Once in Your Life’
Eliana Thompson Photography
Sydney-based folk-rock band, July Morning, released their track ‘For Once in Your Life’ during August 2014. July Morning’s principal members, Jesse Delauney and Owain Roberts, discovered their mutual love for British guitar-based rock as they were growing up; musical icons ranging from the likes of The Beatles and Led Zeppelin through to Radiohead and Arctic Monkeys sparked the pair into creating music themselves. July Morning began with the ideal of synthesizing this wide array of influences into an inspired, introspective and original blend of music that the band could entirely call their own.
The release of ‘For Once in Your Life’ follows on the heels of July Morning’s previous release earlier in 2014 of their song ‘Tooth and Nail’. The song, a guitar rock song about staying true in the face of adversity, was also accompanied by a music video.
Of ‘For Once in Your Life’ , Jesse, who wrote the song said: “The song is not a typical song of lover’s lament, but is instead about the oscillating thoughts and feelings people tend to experience in the midst of an uncertain relationship crawling towards its probable end. I wrote the musical parts with the idea of heightening the tension in a build to an emotional, cathartic ending to accompany the theme of the lyrics.”
I can’t quite describe my feelings upon hearing the dreamy, soaring ballad ‘For Once in Your Life’ for the first time. It was like an old friend had returned after an absence of many years. In an age of artistic ambiguity, there are some works which are refreshingly satisfying to those with a specific taste. This is one of those works.
Eliana Thompson Photography
This track has production such as is not often heard anymore. Regardless of your perceived image of this band, one must look far to find any recent release which is as well written, performed, and purely mixed as this one. It is that specific sound mix, which gives the song a powerful retro-futuristic ambience.
Primarily driven by acoustic guitars, there is a constant electronic aura subtly hovering around the music somehow. I’m not sure which instrument, sound or effect, spawns this ‘electro’ vibe but it’s perceptible to my ear, adding a very modern edge to a classic folk-rock style.
July Morning have crafted a song that relates in concept, lyrics and style, to what Jesse describes as “the oscillating thoughts and feelings people tend to experience in the midst of an uncertain relationship…”, fitting into a fantastic tapestry of sound that once belonged to the legendary folk-rock bands of the 60’s and 70’s, and which has allowed those same bands to endure into eternity.
Whether or not, July Morning will endure an eternity remains to be seen. In the meantime however, they have put their best foot forward from the outset, with ‘For Once in Your Life’.
There’s almost nothing on it that I don’t like, and I think it’s because to me the track has a much richer and more mature sound than most of the over-produced, gimmicky fodder they churn out on MTV. Or maybe it’s just because I come from an era where musicians actually played instruments instead of software!
‘For Once in Your Life’ is now available on iTunes, Spotify, SoundCloud, Bandcamp, Triple J Unearthed and YouTube. For updates and news from the band, please visit July Morning’s Facebook or Twitter pages.
