Check out the video premiere of William Poyer’s new single ‘Round the Bend’. It’s the fourth video created alongside director Jose Grageda and is a suitably moody accompaniment to an absorbing song. As well as an emotional singing performance from Poyer, the song plays with the traditional song structure, substituting a typical vocal chorus for an instrumental hook delivered on banjo and harmonica. Poyer told AUK how the song came to be written: “It’s been a challenging time for all musicians but I feel fortunate that I’ve managed to stay busy for most of the last year. ‘Round the Bend’ is the last single from a couple of songs recorded with the band early 2020. Written long before Covid I could never have imagined the title to be so apt! The song itself was written in September 2019 when my wife and I took our 3 month old son (at the time) on holiday to Spain. Unfortunately or fortunately there was a terrible storm whilst we were there and we spent the majority of the holiday hiding from the rain. Luckily I had a guitar and some harmonicas and used the time to work on an idea which eventually became ‘Round the Bend’. I had had the chord sequence for a while and came up with the vocal melody pretty quickly, but I was struggling to find a vocal melody for the chorus. After getting nowhere for some time I started playing around with the harmonica and came up with an instrumental chorus played on the harmonica.
‘Round the Bend’ is a song about having to go ’there’ to come back. About how your biggest failures can become a catalyst for change, and if you embrace them, provide an understanding that wouldn’t have existed had you not travelled to those depths.”
Having previously supported the likes of Great Lake Swimmers, Ethan Johns and Ferris & Sylvester, 2020 was, inevitably, a quieter year for Poyer. So, he used the time to write new material and we can expect ‘Forgiven’, a new EP, soon. Poyer shared with us his plans for the year ahead: “2021 is already shaping up to be pretty exciting as I’ve just finished recording a 5 track EP with the very talented Ferris & Sylvester. Archie Sylvester produced the record and both Issy and Archie lend their playing too. That all came about from the lockdown really. They were due to be on tour pretty much all of 2020 / 2021 but when the pandemic hit were resigned to making music from their studio. We’ve been good friends for quite a few years, so once they knew they would be home we started throwing some ideas around. We recorded one single first and the result was so exciting we ended up doing a whole EP. I’m really excited by how it’s sounding and hoping to release the first single around April.”
The EP promises more emotive, rootsy Americana from the Welsh songwriter. Look out for it and , in the meantime, enjoy ‘Round the Bend’.
