ANGUS Gill shows a more serious side of his songwriting with his latest single, Hands Are Clean.
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Written with award-winning artist Drew McAlister, the song reminds listeners never to judge people on appearance alone, as you never really know what a person has been through in their life.
“I wrote this with Drew the first time I met him, so it was great we came out with a decent song on the first go,” he said.
“I was inspired by Karise Eden’s appearance on Australian Story where she spoke about getting tattoos to cover up the scars of self-harm. It just showed to me that you don’t know where people come from or their story and the song has a message that resonates universally.”
The track covers an array of characters from a single mother to an alcoholic and a homeless person.
“You don’t know what they’ve been through on face value and this is a song that reaches out to everyone and resonates with listeners when I play it live,” Angus said.
“We’ve tried to bring everyone in to the song because everyone’s been judged at some stage in their life.”
Michael Carpenter shot the video clip in one day around Newtown and the ruins of Gladesville Mental Hospital.
“Working with Michael is just a dream because he’s such a great creative person,” Angus said.
The video features characters that Angus and Michael approached on the street.
“We just saw these interesting people on King Street in Newtown and we approached them,” Angus said.
“The other part we shot at the Gladesville Mental Hospital, which is very haunted and all the graffiti parts that we shot are inside the remains of the building.” Angus wants this single and clip to take his sound to a different level that people may not have heard from him before.
“It is a gritty film clip and song for me, and I think it’s a curveball for listeners - just when people think they’ve got me nailed, I put out this song to keep people on their toes,” he said.
“I want to expose a different side of me to people that they haven’t really seen before.”
The previous single was Roadworks, which is a humorous look at the speed humps and delays that life brings with it.
Released on March 2, Hands Are Clean is the second single to come from Angus’ debut album, Nomad, which he produced himself.