Scott Hirsch has shared a video for ‘Spirit True‘, a song from his upcoming album ‘Windless Day‘.
Hirsch already has an established reputation as an in-demand producer, but here he’s working both sides of the mixing desk with an intriguing collection of songs.
A founding member of Hiss Golden Messenger, Hirsch was integral to the band’s formative years in the studio and on the road. His sonic imprint remains on their productions; most recently mixing the new critically acclaimed HGM album ‘Quietly Blowing It’. He also has recorded and mixed Follow The Music, the Grammy-nominated record by the legendary folk-singer Alice Gerrard and has produced and played on records by William Tyler, Mikael Jorgensen, Orpheo McCord, and Daniel Rossen.
Hirsch explains how he approached ‘Spirit True’. “I’d been obsessed with this rhythm section turnaround on a Willie Nelson song, ‘Pretend I Never Happened’ on his brilliant ‘Phases and Stages’ record. I started working on how to get something like that into a song. From there, I found the sideways groove that hits once the songs gets rolling through the pumping bassline. The horns, played by Karl Hunter, were inspired by Jamaican music, particularly some of Burning Spear’s grand horn intros. And finally, Greg Loiacono provided the effervescent vocal “oohs” for punctuation. Once I sparkled in some Velvet’s inspired electric guitars, and Daniel Wright got the marching beat going, the musical melting pot was really cooking.”
With so much good stuff going on in the music, it doesn’t need anything over-fancy in the video. The minimalist visuals utilise some time-lapse style stop-motion animation against some lovely background artwork, with a loop of gently spinning dried flowers suiting the laid back mood.
It’s all about the music, and when you’re in the hands of such an excellent producer and talented musician, you know it’s going to hit the spot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T9LHcfOCNA
