A static shot of a rock outcropping that resembles a plein air painting inhabits a small rectangle in the center of an otherwise white screen. Are those sheep in the distance? As gorgeous acoustic guitars jangle and insistent but dry drums push forward, Myles Newman steps into the frame wearing his 70’s influences in the literal form of a flowing poncho. The slide guitar and Newman’s laid-back vocals create a slightly dreamlike vibe that is captured in the way director Darci Davies has composed each shot on screen. As the video for ‘Sophie’, the new single from his ‘You & Me’ E.P., unfolds we see him playing each of the instruments on the track in various other idyllic settings. The track is soaked in echoes of ‘All Things Must Pass’ and ‘Nilsson Schmilsson’ but current nonetheless. It would be at home on a playlist next to JJ Cale or Mac Demarco.
Myles also makes his 70’s influences known in his ancient recording equipment and production methods, and his creative process is another unique trait of Newman’s music – writing every song himself, playing every instrument himself, and recording all his music using reel-to-reel tape machines and analog equipment, engineering, producing and mixing everything entirely on his own in a small bedroom in East London, all at the age of 19.
Myles shares some of the equipment used on the latest recordings: “I ran everything through the Fostex M80 8 track reel to reel, Behringer Xenyx 8 track mixer and my Adam Audio monitors…So if you take all that, run through a tape machine and use the pitch control to push the speed and sharpen everything slightly, you should have my sound haha!”
‘You & Me’ will be released worldwide on June 22, 2022.
